Aliens, asteroid mining … and Mars births? Royal Society envisions next 50 years in space | Science

Humanity must prepare for a comprehensive revolution as nations and companies are preparing to build the rules of the moon, space plants and orbits factories, and to reveal the evidence – if the evidence exists – that we are not alone in the universe.

Horizon survey report from Royal community It imagines a new era of space activities that will reshape the world, including clean energy on Earth, robots that display asteroids or dead satellite recycling, and manufacturing factories that revolve around the planet that comes out of the products called “made in space”.

Prediction is difficult, Especially about the futureBut the report expects the radical developments that will generate some of the most important technological and economic opportunities in the century. While some countries are in a good position to benefit, Britain lacks a clear plan and is at risk of losing it, the authors warn.

“We are not trying to predict the future, but these are the types of things that can happen,” said Sir Martin Soying, co -chair of space engineering at Sari University. “And if we think sooner and not later, we will be better.”

the Space: 2075 report It aims to start discussions on the capabilities and results of space science and technology over the next fifty years, so that governments, organizers, companies and the public can prepare. The authors wrote that the effects of this are retreating from the industry of today, society and culture, as the industrial revolution was in the eighteenth century.

The report says that future developments in reusable and space missiles may pave the way for factories that make products only possible in small gravity and great facilities for the creation of spacecraft that cannot be launched from the ground. Space stations can be built between planets in orbit and spread through the solar system as desired.

The current industries may move to orbit. For example, energy -thirsty data farms will benefit from abundant solar energy and free cooling in space. Meanwhile, radical new technologies, such as satellites that pick up solar energy, may appear efficiently through the atmosphere to the ground -based reception stations by converting them into microwaves or laser symptoms.

The increasing volume of space debris is constantly from consumed missiles, collapsed satellites and shrapnel resulting from collision and explosions leads the aspirations of garbage recycling. This would reduce the risk of collision and prevent materials from polluting the atmosphere when they burn when re -entering.

When the space becomes more congestion, the conflict becomes more likely, the authors warn, as countries and companies collide with major sites on planetary bodies, valuable orbits, and critical radioactive frequency ranges.

While the UK is strong in a few technologies such as surveillance of Earth, communications and small satellites, it needs a “clear national ambition” to keep pace with the pace of change, as the report found. “The government of the United Kingdom, the international community, and society in general needs to understand, expect and be prepared.”

Ethical challenges are also expected. Extremophile insects that carry harsh environments can be designed to make “live tools” Mars Which turns natural resources into useful compounds.

But what if these mistakes colonized the planet and gathered from the original microbes that have not yet been discovered? Terraforming experiments, in which spots of planets are designed to be more hidden for humans, raises similar concerns. And if humans move to the red planet? “What happens if we end up with the people who were born on Mars?” He asks candy.

In many public workshops held for the report, questions arose about strange life and how they should be dealt with. One of the participants in a Wrexham workshop was surprised by the number of galaxies in the universe. “In all these galaxies, there should be one planet to get something similar to Caterpillar,” they emphasized.

If foreigners are like Catpeberler or otherwise, they live nearly, then we will likely know in the next fifty years, as the authors write. Helwa said: “I hope that the countries will bring together together and say: Let’s forget our small arguments and think about the greatest issues, but this may be a thinking of wish.”