Space: Humanity’s Open Horizon
The exploration and eventual settlement of space is not a luxury — it is the natural extension of the human project. For most of our history, the limits of what was possible were the limits of one planet. Today, for the first time, those limits are beginning to lift. Within the next decades, humanity will likely establish permanent bases on the Moon, send the first crewed missions to Mars, mine asteroids for resources, and begin the long process of becoming a multi-planetary species. The transhumanist movement has long argued that this transition is one of the most consequential in our history, comparable in significance to the emergence of life on land or the development of agriculture.
The reasons to invest seriously in space are practical as well as visionary. Earth observation satellites make modern climate science, agriculture, navigation, telecommunications, and disaster response possible. Asteroid mining could provide resources currently constrained on Earth without ecological cost. Solar power satellites could deliver clean energy at scales surface-based renewables struggle to reach. Mars settlement offers a backup for the species against existential risks — and a frontier where new social, political, and scientific possibilities can be explored. Beyond all these, the search for extraterrestrial life — microbial or intelligent — would be the most profound discovery in the history of science.
Spain occupies an unusually important position in global space infrastructure. The Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, operated by INTA, is one of the three sites worldwide that form NASA’s Deep Space Network — the system that communicates with virtually all interplanetary missions, from Voyager to Perseverance. The Canary Islands host the INTA Space Centre in Maspalomas and several major astronomical observatories. In 2023, Spain established its own Spanish Space Agency (AEE) based in Seville, consolidating national space policy under a single organism for the first time. The reading list below covers foundational works on space exploration and settlement, the main international and Spanish institutions, and the contemporary debate on whether and how we should become a multi-planetary civilisation.
Online
- Wikipedia: Space Exploration
- Wikipedia: Space Colonization
- Wikipedia: Colonization of Mars
- Wikipedia: Asteroid Mining
- Wikipedia: Mars Direct — Robert Zubrin’s plan for a low-cost human mission to Mars using in-situ resource utilisation.
- Wikipedia: Deep Space Network — NASA’s network of three communications complexes (Goldstone, Madrid, Canberra) that maintain contact with interplanetary missions.
- NASA — The United States space agency, the world’s largest space agency by budget and scope.
- European Space Agency (ESA) — The intergovernmental space agency of 22 European member states, including Spain.
- JAXA — Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
- SpaceX — Founded by Elon Musk in 2002. The first private company to send humans to orbit (2020) and the world’s leading commercial launch provider, developer of the Starship vehicle aimed at Mars settlement.
- Blue Origin — Founded by Jeff Bezos in 2000. Developer of the New Shepard suborbital vehicle and the New Glenn orbital rocket, with the long-term vision of building large rotating space habitats.
- Rocket Lab — New Zealand and US-based small satellite launch provider, second only to SpaceX in commercial orbital launches.
- The Mars Society — International advocacy organisation founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998, dedicated to the human exploration and settlement of Mars.
- National Space Society — Educational non-profit promoting the human exploration and settlement of space.
- The Planetary Society — Founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman. The largest space-interest organisation in the world; current CEO is Bill Nye.
Books
- The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must, by Robert Zubrin with Richard Wagner — The foundational 1996 work (revised in 2011 and 2021) outlining the Mars Direct plan for human settlement of Mars using in-situ resource utilisation. The single most influential book on Mars colonisation.
- A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?, by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith — Winner of the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize and the Hugo Award for Best Related Work. A rigorous and humorous examination of the practical, legal, biological and political challenges of space settlement, arguing for caution rather than haste.
- The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space, by Gerard K. O’Neill — The 1976 work by the Princeton physicist that introduced the concept of large rotating space habitats (O’Neill cylinders). The foundational vision behind much of contemporary space settlement thinking, including Jeff Bezos’s stated long-term goals.
- Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, by Scott Kelly — Memoir by the NASA astronaut who spent 340 consecutive days aboard the International Space Station as part of the landmark Twin Study comparing him with his Earth-bound identical twin.
- How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight, by Julian Guthrie — Foreword by Stephen Hawking. The story of the Ansari XPRIZE and the birth of the commercial spaceflight industry, including the work of Peter Diamandis.