Sooner or later, mankind will be forced to leave planet Earth - many scientists from different countries of the world share this idea. Reasons for that are plentiful: all kinds of disasters, world wars, etc. The colonization of space seems to be a way out of this situation. Will mankind be able to live on other planets?
People need to escape from the Earth
"Mankind will not be able to live a thousand years, if it doesn't find other planets as a new place of residence," famous British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes. The 71-year-old scientist urges mankind to actively explore space to survive.
"We must continue to go into space for humanity. We won't survive another 1,000 years without escaping our fragile planet,' he said. "Spreading out into space will have an even greater effect. It will completely change the future of the human race and maybe determine whether we have any future at all," he said in Los Angeles.
In 2006, Hawking spoke of the need to find a new home for man. According to him, our only chance of long term survival is to live on other planets. He is also a firm believer of the existence of biological life in many parts of the universe, but he warns against contact with extraterrestrial life. Most likely, aliens will represent a great danger to humans. They can conquer and plunder Earth, "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.
Stephen Hawking is a world-known scientist, who is considered to be one of ten greatest geniuses of our times. His fate strikes imagination. At 21, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - a terrible disease of the central nervous system. Usually, people with such a disease can hardly live a decade, but Hawking has been successfully fighting the disease for half a century already. The physicist communicates with people through a machine that transforms his thoughts in a monotone voice. The scientist remains in sober mind. In April 1988, he published the book "A Brief History of Time", which became a bestseller. Afterwards, he wrote a number of books about the universe. His work has not gone unnoticed. In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama decorated the scientist with the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest U.S. government award for civilians.
Sergei Krichevsky, a cosmonaut, a professor of the Academy of National Economy, agrees with Stephen Hawking. "If humanity wants to survive and grow, we must go beyond the Earth, since we would have to leave our planet sometime," he said. Sergei Krichevsky was an initiator of the movement "Russia 2045," in which people are united by one idea - how to extend human life and how to settle in extraterrestrial space. The members of this movement try to find possible variants for the existence of man, when the Earth ends its existence.
Humanity will disappear in 300 years
The word 'apocalypse' appears in the media on a regular basis. Some scientists believe that the planet will be destroyed as a result of the Third World War, others believe that it will be a deluge. Some others predict an impact with an asteroid. The list is endless. Recently, however, the most popular idea is the idea of global warming. Thus, according to forecasts of Australian scientists, by 2300, due to global warming, humanity will not be able to exist normally on Earth. A change of the thermal regime will change the moisturizing regime. All this may undermine the natural water cycle. The speed of the increase of temperatures and the reaction of the entire climate system to this factor will play a decisive role in the process.
According to Australian experts, in 300 years, more than 40 percent of land will be flooded. The remaining part of the land will quickly use up all available resources and become unsuitable for human life. The scientists say that in 300 years, average annual temperatures will grow by 12 degrees, which will have a devastating impact on people. It is quite possible that we do not have 1,000 years to live on this planet, as Hawking said. Will mankind be able to live in space?
A human being is not adapted to life in space
U.S. President Barack Obama adopted a program of a manned flight to Mars in 2030. Stephen Hawking supports the program. However, many scientists believe that the dreams of long journeys into space and even space colonization will remain only dreams. According to Tenis Pirsma, a professor at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands), a long stay in a state of zero gravity is contrary to the biological entity of man. A human being is tightly connected with the ground.
Hawking and other proponents of space travel underestimate the biological constraints of long space flights. For example, flying to Mars will take a few years, but a human being simply can not leave their home planet for such a long time - human physiology and biology are closely connected with the Earth. Human body can function properly only under the conditions of gravity. The devastating effects of weightlessness can be seen by looking at astronauts returning to Earth after a long stay in space. These bodies are so weak and exhausted that they can not even move without assistance.
All this pales in comparison with negative changes that may occur after the flight of man to Mars. Astronauts suffer from heart diseases. After one week in weightlessness, the human heart becomes significantly smaller in size, which reduces the volume of the engine of our body and increases blood pressure.
After several months of life on the ISS, astronauts, when back on Earth, suffer from persistent dizziness and even temporary blindness. The blood circulation to the brain is not sufficient enough in space. Space explorers also have problems with the muscle tissue, especially with leg muscles. Negative changes occur in metabolism as well. The level of fat oxidation decreases, which may eventually result in the replacement of muscle tissue with fat tissue. Weightlessness is a great danger to bone tissue. In weightlessness, a human being loses up to two percent of bone tissue a month. Thus, during a three-year journey to Mars, astronauts may lose about half of their bones ...
Is Mars going to be the last stop for manned space flights?
A manned flight to Mars has became a fixed idea recently. According to scientists, in the next 3-4 decades, man will be able to land on Mars. But people can never get enough. When Mars is conquered, people will try to fly farther. No one says that it is impossible, but there are many obstacles. Thus, the director of the Institute of Space Research, Lev Zelyony, believes that humanity should not delude itself in vain illusions. He is convinced that Mars will be the end point of our space flights. Man will not fly farther.
According to him, space radiation will become the biggest obstacle. Even on Mars, human beings will not be able to stay for a long time - they will die from radiation sickness.
"We simply will not want to go deep into outer space, as it will be too great a risk to our life," says Green. The magnetic field of our planet protects ISS astronauts from harmful rays. Far away from the planet, humans will be exposed to catastrophic radiation. It will destroy the DNA, the central nervous system and lead to cell mutations," the scientist believes.
Might it be better if we save our planet, rather than seek refuge in unknown and dangerous places somewhere in the Universe?
Sergei Vasilenkov
Pravda.Ru