The Age of Man in Space: Article by Sascha Wenzel
The Age of Man in Space
Sascha Wenzel was invited by The SpaceInfo Club to write for its Magazine. Below is an excerpt of his article The Age of Man in Space, first published in Edition 19 (December 2023), on how humanity’s drive to explore is turning towards Mars and beyond.
Key Takeaways
- Wenzel argues that curiosity and the desire to expand are part of human DNA, and that this drive is now pointing beyond Earth.
- He writes that the physical journey to Mars is “now within reach” and that a first colony outside Earth’s gravity will soon stop being a utopia.
- He frames space expansion as a way of becoming independent of the whims of nature and of limited resources, while acknowledging the environmental cost of humanity’s growth on Earth.
At a Glance
- Contribution
- Guest author, SpaceInfo Magazine, Edition 19 (December 2023)
- Topic
- Human spaceflight and the future of human presence beyond Earth
- Article
- The Age of Man in Space
About the Article
In this article Sascha Wenzel looks at the long arc of human expansion, from Homo sapiens conquering the planet to the first steps towards other worlds, and asks what leaving a single planet could mean for us.
The Article (Excerpt)
We write the year 2023 according to the Christian calendar, the year 1444 according to the Islamic calendar, the year 5783 according to the Jewish calendar or the year 4720 according to the Chinese calendar. There are almost countless ages characterized by different levels of development of the many unique cultures and humanity as a whole. For this to happen, Homo sapiens had to conquer the planet piece by piece around 120,000 years ago, just out of its infancy on the largest continent on earth. Our species has managed to adapt to almost all climatic conditions and thus expand its habitat across the entire world.
Curiosity and the desire to expand are part of our DNA. We want to conquer every corner of the planet with new knowledge, be it the depths of the world’s oceans or the highest heights of the mountains. And with the advent of the technological age, we have since been given many more opportunities to measure and observe the entire planet and to develop new, improved technologies from it. It wasn’t just a matter of us subjugating the world. We have been feeling the consequences of our actions for several years. The enormous energy consumption and the resulting pollution of the air, earth and water are bringing biodiversity on earth to the brink of existence. But nevertheless, the many successes in the further development of high technologies show how eager we are to go beyond our limited living space and conquer completely new living spaces, even if they are certainly not suitable for humans.
What has been achieved in the short time of the technological age will be much clearer for humanity in the future. A few decades were enough to bring us to the first goal of space expansion today: the physical journey to Mars is now within reach. The dream of a few space pioneers to build our first colony outside of Earth’s gravity on Mars will no longer be a utopia in a few years, but a real starting point for further efforts to discover the Milky Way with its estimated 50 billion planets. What this means for us humans has probably only been discussed theoretically so far. But it also means breaking free from the chains of a single planet and creating opportunities to be independent of the whims of nature and limited resources.
This is an excerpt: the full article appeared in Edition 19 of the SpaceInfo Magazine.
Editorial note. This article was written by Sascha Wenzel for The SpaceInfo Club Magazine and reflects the author’s own views. Spotted an error or want to suggest a correction? Contact us.