Space tech

In the future, people might not wear clothes. And if they do, garments won’t have pockets, said LeVar Burton, of Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame.

Burton along with astronaut Mae Jemison and scientist Jill Tarter chatted generally about humankind’s next step. The topic of space at a tech conference does have some relevance: the key is discovery.

But currently mankind’s focus is on the digital because that realm allows people to be more imaginative, said Jemison of the 100 Year Starship initiative. Plus the idea of space, while romantic, is seen as inaccessible and costly, she added.

At a previous session video game developer and the 483 human to go into space Richard Garriott spoke about the issue of accessibility. Currently, it costs about $100 million for a person to fly into space. And efforts such as Space X aim to  eventually get the price tag down to about $1 million per person, he said. To do that, there must be greater collaboration between the public and private sectors and business development in space must be encouraged.

“Humans are a multiplanet species,” he said, adding that people need to go to other planets to “ensure our own survival.”

Garriott also pieced together a three-decade plan for space exploration. In the first decade, he imagines increased micro-gravity research and sub-orbital tourism. Next, he envisions going to moons in search of life. And finally, 30 years from now, a homestead on a new world, such as a base on Mars.

But ideas such as the 100 Starship wants to go farther. Tartar, who co-founded the SETI Institute, said there needs to be a search for Earth 2.0.

“Is there anyone out there?” she asked. And if humans to find other living beings, is their planet somewhere humans can live? “If we make a connection we know we have a long future.”

Jemison said that Earth’s nearest neighbor is 4 light years away.

But several issues tend to pop up with the discussion of deep space travel. For example, what is taken on the trip to sustain people for the decades needed to reach the destination? What do we eat? What will the government structure be? And what do humans wear since it wouldn’t be sustainable to make and wash clothes in a closed, isolated environment such as a starship? (The panelists suggested projected clothing in the form of holograms or engineered skin.)

Although the ideas seem far fetched, Jemison asked why shouldn’t humanity try for something better?

“We need radical improvements where everyone benefits,” she said.

– Valentino Lucio

Valentino Lucio