I have tried many times to be succinct regarding the Vision, but each time it comes out in reams... so I am going to try a short (HA!!) series of essays on what I believe the VISION should be... and in doing so, try to justify my answer...
Humankind is on the brink of becoming a Space Faring Species... it began centuries ago when the first human looked up at the night sky and wondered what it was... and in the past 200 years has accelerated like an avalanche... to the point that in the past 50 years since the end of WWII we have seen great strides… but at what cost to the Vision…
A Vision should be detailed and yet general enough to accommodate changes as they happen… there should be a progression of hoped for events, and outcomes, milestones that mark the journey; interim goals that are attainable, rewarding and exciting enough to draw the generations into fulfilling those goals…
Sadly the first steps into space were for Geopolitical reasons, and had nothing to do with Vision or sustainable development… we were given a task that went well beyond our true capabilities, and misdirected us from building the infrastructure that would facilitate the attaining the goal of Space Faring Species… in other words, ‘We Got Lucky’… but in the end, it was too expensive, and had no root… the project withered in the sun of financial and political reality…
So I call the VISION, ‘To Boldly Go!’ keeping it short, to the point and familiar… to build on the infrastructure that was developed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and on the ground in the past 50 years… the mile stones I call ‘Space Treks’, and detail the steps that are required to spread humanity through Sol’s System of inner rocky planets and their moons, comets, Near Earth Objects (NEO), asteroid belt, the Gas Giants, their moons, out to the quasi planets like Pluto, and to the Oort Cloud, and the space where Sol’s solar wind merges with the edges of inter stellar space… they start with Space Trek I, and go to Space Trek IX, when we progress to ‘Star Trek I’ and humanities first steps out of the cradle past the edge of inter stellar space…
In fiction it took more than 200 years to get outside our suns system… but I believe we will achieve it in less time, only because we are an impatient species, and have dreamed great dreams, and will push towards the edge of the envelope…
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