Re-Thinking Human Space Exploration

A call for an end to human space exploration by a prestigious publication (The Economist) is a wake-up call to advocates of human space flight that the program is mired in stagnation by lack of new technology and has no clear purpose. Popular support for human space flight was high during Apollo and surged again with Gerard O’Neill’s proposals for space colonization in the 1970s. It has waned greatly in the last couple of decades. Human space flight should be redirected towards “bringing the inner solar system into our economic sphere” [John Marburger’s words in quotes]. Great reductions in operating costs are required and can be achieved through development of reusable space transportation, steps toward settlement via longer and longer tours of duty, e.g. on the Moon, and vigorous development of in-space resources for consumables and construction, leading to near-self-sufficiency. In this way, analysis indicates that lunar products could become economically beneficial here on Earth as well as for space projects. What we learn about self-sufficiency on the Moon could be applied at Mars and elsewhere.