The Great Migration continues! The next stop: the Main Asteroid Belt! The idea that humans could someday settle among the many, many rocks and planetoids that sit between Mars and Jupiter has been explored extensively in science fiction and scientific literature. Beyond the larger bodies, Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea, pinwheel stations or cylinders could be established that could accommodate millions of people in environments that mimic Earth’s biospheres. There are also countless smaller rocks that could be hollowed out and spun up to simulate gravity.

The benefits of settling the Main Belt are also innumerable. Foremost among them, there’s the potential for becoming a post-scarcity species thanks to the incredible abundance of minerals, ores, precious metals, and rare Earth elements. There are also opportunities for scientific research since asteroids are essentially material left over from the formation of the Solar System. On top of that, there’s the opportunities for socio-political experiments. With so many habitats available, countless new cultures and societies could form.

Before long, a thriving economy and a new segment of humanity known as “Belters” could emerge. Check out the episode below:

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In this week’s episode, I returned to the well of the Fermi Paradox to address another of my favorite resolutions. While this one is not an official hypothesis, it encapsulates elements from several proposals and asks the big question – is intelligent life doomed? If humanity is any indication, intelligent creatures may eventually outgrow their resource base, ruin their natural environment, and build weapons of mass destruction that they may eventually use. This raises a key parameter of the Drake Equation, the thought experiment created by astronomer and SETI researcher Dr. Frank Drake:

N = R^* x f_p x n_e x f_l x f_i x f_c x L

For those who are unfamiliar, the equation basically states that the number of intelligent species (N) in our galaxy that humanity could communicate with comes down to a series of parameters (planets per star, habitable planets per system, those that have life, etc.,) multiplied by the length of time (L) a species is likely to transmit signals to space. If intelligent life is prone to destructive behavior or has a limited life expectancy, then L is the key parameter for finding evidence of it out there.

Basically, the transmission will begin when a species achieves an advanced state of development and will end when they succumb to their fate. If our antennas are not set to the right frequencies, and we don’t manage to detect their transmissions within this window, then we will never hear from them. There’s also the possibility that intelligent life undergoes a seismic shift at some point, which borrows from the Transcension Hypothesis and the concept of the “Technological Singularity.”

The idea here is that intelligent life will eventually transcend its physical biology and become something radically different. At this point, species may not be likely to communicate via radiowaves but with something radically advanced – like neutrinos or gravitational waves – or may not be interested in communicating at all. Once again, the window will have closed. But in this case, it will be due to a pattern in the evolutionary development of intelligent life. Check it out by following the links below:

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This week, I sat down with Julia Brodsky, astrophysicist, educator, former NASA astronaut trainer, founder and CEO of the Art of Inquiry, and researcher with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. She’s also a co-founder of Earthlings Hub, an education and outreach organization that conducts astronomy and STEM education programs for orphans, refugee children, and families in Ukraine.

The series continues with the latest stop in the Solar System: Mercury! Hold up, that can’t be right! And yet, it is. Contrary to popular opinion, humans could actually live on Mercury, the closest planet to our Sun. Granted, it won’t exactly be a cakewalk. In addition to being an airless body (i.e., no atmosphere to speak of), Mercury is exposed to almost seven times as much radiation as Earth.

And because of its slow rotation and rapid orbit, surface temperatures range from hot enough to melt lead to cryogenically freezing! But with the right know-how, technology, and strategies, we could build a thriving outpost of civilization and economy on Mrcury based on the export of mineral wealth and energy, as well as art and ideas!

The idea has been explored in science fiction and scientific literature alike. And assuming there are enough people adventurous enough to settle there, there’d be a new branch of humanity known as “Hermeans.” Follow the links below to learn more.

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This week’s topic is near and dear to my heart (I know, when aren’t they?). But this one is especially so since so much depends on it. Around the world today, space agencies and commercial space entities are developing nuclear propulsion systems. These systems come in the form of Nuclear-Thermal (NTP), Nuclear-Electric (NEP), and Bimodal Nuclear Propulsion (BNP) – where both methods are used by a spacecraft.

This week, I got into one of the more intriguing aspects of astrobiology – the search for life in the cosmos! Right now, all of our astrobiology efforts are focused on Mars, the most “habitable” planet (by our standards) beyond Earth. But what of the icy moons that orbit Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond? For decades, scientists have speculated that moons orbiting gas giants beyond the “Frost Line” could have warm-water oceans that could support life.

These oceans result from the gravitational pull of the gas giants they orbit, causing tidal flexing in their interiors. This, it was theorized, would lead to hydrothermal activity at the core-mantle boundary, where the icy outer shell meets the rocky and metallic core. The energy this released would maintain a liquid-water ocean rich in the chemical elements we associate with life.

The theory emerged by the 1970s after scientists got a good look at some of Jupiter’s largest moons – Europa and Ganymede – which showed evidence of resurfacing, plume activity, and their interactions with Jupiter”s magnetic field. In recent years, the list of “Ocean Worlds” has expanded to include moons like Titan, Enceladus, Dione, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Triton, Charon, and even Pluto!

In all cases, these bodies have geological activity or sufficient nuclear elements (which decay to produce heat) to maintain liquid water in their interiors. The plethora of “Ocean Worlds” in our Solar System also has implications for the search for life in extrasolar systems. After all, if icy satellites in our outer Solar System could support life, then similar bodies are sure to exist out there (in abundance). Check it out below!

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