Isaac Asimov: Science, Technology and Space

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I think that even if we didn't need space exploration to keep civilization alive for material reasons, we would need that expansion for—I almost hate to say the word—spiritual reasons!

PLOWBOY: So you consider expansion into nearby space to be essential.

ASIMOV: Yes. We've reached the stage where, if we don't transcend the Earth, we're going to destroy it. And I think that—over the next couple of centuries—it will be necessary for us to expand into the solar system generally. I don't see that goal as the end, either. Eventually we are going to make all of space our own!

PLOWBOY: How do you foresee the accomplishment of such a monumental goal?

ASIMOV: Well, the first steps have been easy . . . it took only three days to reach the moon. By comparison, Columbus had to travel—out of contact with "civilization"—for weeks to reach the New World.

But going to Mars, our next logical objective, will mean a round trip of months or even years. And that may be more of a psychological problem than it is a technological challenge. After all, we on Earth are used to a huge world and—if you view the planet as a spaceship—we're used to living on the outside of the hull. All our life support systems are on the surface and held in place by gravity.

The people who run any space settlements that we establish, however, will soon become accustomed to living in an inside world. Superficially, their environments may be very earthlike . . . because the settlements can be adjusted to have the appropriate gravitational effects, day and night lighting, and so on. Essentially, though, the space workers will be living "inside", be more aware of space, and be much more intimately concerned with the cycling of their resources—food, air, water, etc.—than we Earthlings are.

And the hundreds of thousands, or maybe even millions, of people manning such settlements will—over the years—become as used to space travel as we are to going about in a plane or an automobile. Such men and women will be psychologically comfortable in an exploratory spaceship . . . the vessel will be much more like the home they've lived in all their lives than Earth would be!

So I anticipate that our space settlers will be able to undertake long voyages which would be psychologically impossible for Earth dwellers. They will be able to establish settlements within asteroids. They'll be the footloose Vikings of the future. The rest of us will, indeed, be prisoners of Earth.

PLOWBOY: You envision settlements inside of asteroids?

ASIMOV: Yes, those pioneers could hollow out the mini-planets. The asteroids would-by the way-make for much better settlements than would the moon, because that satellite doesn't have certain lightweight elements . . . including carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Lunar residents would therefore have to depend on the Earth for such basic substances, but settlers of the asteroids could have their own supplies and be truly independent of Earth.

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