Problems that can be solved with the help of space. Cosmonautics its present and future

It would be wrong to think that simply pouring money into the development of medicine, into the creation of new high-yielding GM plants and fast-growing GM animals, will lead to significant progress in these industries. And it would be wrong to think that the cessation of funding for the space industry will not lead to negative consequences in the future.

The problem of hunger needs to be addressed in many ways, but first of all, changes in laws are needed. For example, developed countries are buying up cheap land in the developing countries of Africa, thereby oppressing the local population. It is necessary to prevent the export of food from poor countries. And, for example, it is necessary to somehow fight the myths about the dangers of GMOs, to prevent the emergence of laws restricting the use of genetic technologies. (By the way, genetic technologies also help with diseases.)

As for medicine, the development of most of the necessary technologies is paid for from the wallets of the patients themselves: they usually spend on health in the first place. And if everyone is treated for free, then the money that is now going to space (not so "colossal" they are) is not even close to enough.

The development of technologies related to space is necessary for many reasons. For example, it is necessary to somehow solve the problem with the increase in the amount of space debris, and at the current stage this is a practically unsolvable task. You need to have a good asteroid threat warning system. It is necessary to search for planets suitable for colonization, since over the next billion years, due to the evolution of our star, the Goldilocks zone will be displaced and life on Earth will die, or learn to control the climate and remove excess solar energy. And it is also necessary to engage in the extraction of resources in space. In addition, many technologies and new knowledge gained in contact with this vast empty space can help create new technologies and knowledge in other industries, including vital ones.

Space can not only benefit science, but also culture, contributing to the daydreaming of people and helping to forget about the primordial earthly strife.

In 1970, a Zambian nun, Sister Maria Jukunda, wrote a letter to Ernst Stuhlinger, then Associate Director for Science at the NASA Space Flight Center, in response to his ongoing research into manned missions to Mars. In particular, she asked how he could offer to spend billions of dollars on such a project at a time when so many children on Earth are starving.

Stulinger soon sent the following letter of explanation to Sister Yukunda, along with a copy of the iconic Earthrise photograph taken in 1968 by astronaut William Anders from the Moon. His thoughtful response was subsequently published by NASA under the title "Why Explore Space?"

Dear Sister Maria Yukunda,

Your letter was among the many that come to me every day, but it touched me much more deeply than others, as it came from a man of thought and compassion. I will try to answer your question as best as I can.

However, first, I would like to express my deepest admiration for you and those many brave sisters for dedicating your lives to the noblest cause: helping those in need.

In your letter, you asked how I could offer to spend billions of dollars on a trip to Mars at a time when many children on Earth are starving to death. I know you don't expect an answer like "Oh, I didn't know there were children dying of hunger, but now I will refrain from any space exploration until humanity solves this problem!" In fact, I knew about starving children long before I knew it was technically possible to travel to the planet Mars. However, I believe, like many of my friends, that traveling to the Moon and eventually to Mars and other planets is a risky undertaking that we must undertake, and I even believe that this project will ultimately , will contribute to solving more serious problems that we face here on Earth than many other potential assistance projects that have been discussed and discussed year after year, and which are very slowly bringing tangible results.

Before attempting to describe in more detail how our space program contributes to solving our earthly problems, I would like to briefly recount a supposedly true story that may help support my argument. About 400 years ago, a count lived in a small town in Germany. He was one of the generous earls and gave most of his income to the poor of his city. This was highly valued because poverty flourished in the Middle Ages, and frequent plagues periodically devastated the country. One day the count met a strange man. He had a workshop and a small laboratory in his house, and he worked tirelessly during the daytime to afford a few hours of work in the laboratory each evening. He ground small lenses from pieces of glass, mounted lenses in pipes, and used these devices to look at very small objects. The Count was especially fascinated by the tiny creatures that could be observed with high magnification, and which he had never seen. He invited this man to move with his laboratory to the castle and from now on devote all his time to the development and improvement of his optical devices.

However, the townspeople became angry when they realized that they thought the Count was wasting his money. “We are suffering from this plague,” they said, “while he pays this man for a useless hobby!” But the Count stood firm. “I give you as much as I can afford,” he said, “but I will also support this man and his work, because I know something will come of it someday!”

Indeed, something very good came out of this work, as well as similar work done by other scientists elsewhere: the microscope. It is known that the microscope, more than any other invention, has contributed to the progress of medicine, and that the eradication of plague and other infectious diseases in most regions of the world is largely the result of research made possible by the microscope. The Earl, by giving some of his money to research and discovery, has done much more to alleviate human suffering than he could have spent all of it on a plague-ridden society.

The situation we face today is very similar in many ways. The President of the United States spends about $200 billion in his annual budget. This money goes to health care, education, welfare, urban reconstruction, roads, transportation, foreign aid, defence, science, agriculture and many installations inside and outside the country. About 1.6 percent of this national budget has been allocated to space exploration this year. The space program includes the Apollo Project and many other smaller projects in space physics, space astronomy, space biology, planetary projects, Earth resources projects, and space technology. To make this spending on the space program affordable, the average American taxpayer with an annual income of $10,000 pays about $30 in space tax. The rest of his income, $9970, remains for his needs, vacations, savings, taxes and all other expenses.

You're probably asking now, "Why don't you take $5 or $3 or $1 of the $30 space dollars that the average American taxpayer pays and send those dollars to hungry kids?" To answer this question, I must briefly explain how the economy of this country works. The situation is very similar to other countries. The government consists of several departments (internal affairs, justice, health, education and welfare, transportation, defense, etc.) and bureaus (National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, etc.). They all prepare their annual budgets in accordance with the tasks set, and each of them must protect their budget from extremely serious screening by Congressional committees and strong pressure from the Budget Office and the President. When these funds are finally approved by Congress, they can only be spent on certain cost items that are identified and approved in the budget.

The budget of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, of course, can contain only those cost items that are directly related to aeronautics and space. If the budget has not been approved by Congress, then the funds proposed for it will not be available for something else, they are simply not charged to the taxpayer if none of the other budgets have received approval for a specific increase, which then absorbs funds not spent on space. As you can see from this brief discourse, support for starving children, or rather support in addition to the fact that the United States is already contributing to this very worthy cause in the form of foreign economic assistance, can only be received upon request from the relevant department to include a line in the budget specifically for this purpose and if this item is then approved by Congress.

You may ask if I would personally support such a move by our government. My answer is a resounding yes. In fact, I wouldn't mind at all if my annual taxes were increased by a few dollars to go to food for starving children wherever they lived.

I know all my friends feel the same way. However, we could not make such a program a reality just by refraining from plans to travel to Mars. On the contrary, I even believe that by working for the space program, I can make a certain contribution to the alleviation and, ultimately, the solution of such a serious problem as poverty and hunger on Earth. There are two main points in the problem of hunger: food production and food distribution. Food processing, agriculture, cattle ranching, ocean fishing and other large-scale operations are efficient in some parts of the world but lag behind in efficiency in many others. For example, large tracts of land can be used much more productively with effective watershed management, fertilizer use, weather forecasting, fertility assessment, plantation programming, field selection, crop timing, plant research, and crop planning.

The best tool for improving all these functions is undoubtedly an artificial satellite of the Earth. By circumnavigating the globe at high altitude, it can scan wide areas of the earth in a short time, it can observe and measure a wide variety of factors indicating the status and condition of crops, soil, drought, rain, snow, etc., and it can transmit this information to ground stations for proper use. It has been calculated that even a modest system of earth satellites equipped with earth resource data sensors, working as part of the worldwide agricultural improvement program, will increase annual yields equivalent to many billions of dollars.

Distributing food to those in need is another matter altogether. The question is not so much in the volume of deliveries, but in international cooperation. The ruler of a small nation may feel very uncomfortable at the prospect of a large nation delivering large amounts of aid to his country, simply because he fears that the influence and strength of foreign powers may be imported along with the food supply. I fear that effective famine relief will not come until the borders between countries are less contentious than they are now. I do not believe that space flight will accomplish this miracle overnight. However, the space program is certainly one of the most promising and powerful sources working in this direction.

Let me just remind you of the last near tragedy of Apollo 13. When the time came for the astronauts to make their final re-entry into the atmosphere, the Soviet Union stopped all Russian radio transmissions on the frequency bands used by the Apollo project in order to avoid possible interference, and the Russian ships were stationed in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans in case of need for emergency rescue operations. If the capsule with the astronauts had landed next to the Russian ships, then the Russians would undoubtedly have paid as much attention and made efforts to save them, as if the Russian cosmonauts had returned from a space trip. If the Russian astronauts were ever in such an emergency, the Americans would do the same without any doubt.

Increasing food production through research and evaluation from orbit, and better food distribution through improved international relations, are just two examples of how the space program will profoundly impact life on earth. I would like to give two other examples: the stimulation of technological development and the formation of scientific knowledge.

The requirements for high precision and reliability that must be placed on the components of a spacecraft traveling to the Moon are unprecedented in the history of technology. The development of systems that meet these high demands has given us a unique opportunity to discover new materials and methods, invent better engineering systems, fabrication procedures, increase tool life and even discover new laws of nature.

All of this newly acquired technical knowledge is also available for application to terrestrial technologies. Every year, about a thousand technical innovations are generated in the space program, and they are used in our terrestrial technology, thanks to which household appliances and agricultural equipment, sewing machines and radios, ships and aircraft, weather forecasting, communications, medical instruments, utensils and tools for everyday life are improved. life. You may be asking why we must first develop life support systems for our lunar astronauts before we can build a remote sensor system for heart patients. The answer is simple: significant progress in solving technical problems is often not made with a direct approach, but first a high goal is set, which implies a strong motivation for innovative work, which in turn excites the imagination and motivates people to make the most effort, and which acts as a catalyst, including for a chain of other reactions.

Flights into space, without any doubt, play this role. A trip to Mars, of course, is not a direct source of food for the starving. However, it will lead to the discovery of so many new technologies and opportunities that the side effects of this project alone will be many times greater than the cost of its implementation.

In addition to the need for new technologies, there is a constant need for new basic knowledge in the field of exact sciences if we want to improve the human condition on Earth. We need more knowledge in physics and chemistry, biology and physiology, and especially in medicine, to cope with all these problems that threaten human life: hunger, disease, food and water pollution, environmental pollution.

We need more young men and women pursuing careers in science, and we need to support talented scientists who want to do good research work. Complex research tasks should be accessible and sufficient support should be provided for research projects. Again, the space program, with its excellent opportunities to participate in really great scientific research on satellites and planets, physics and astronomy, biology and medicine, is an almost perfect catalyst that causes a reaction between the motivation for scientific work and the opportunity to observe spectacular natural phenomena, and material support necessary to carry out research work.

Of all the activities that are directed, controlled and funded by the US government, the space program is by far the most visible and perhaps the most talked about, although it consumes only 1.6 percent of the total government budget, and 3 thousandths (less than one-third 1 percent) of the gross national product. As a stimulator and catalyst for the development of new technologies, as well as for research in the basic sciences, it is unparalleled. In this regard, we can even say that the space program is taking on a function that for three or four thousand years has been the sad prerogative of wars.

Speaking about the exploration of the Greater Space and about the implementation of flights to other planets, and not only our solar system, but also beyond it, a person forgets that he, in fact, is an integral part of the Earth. And how our body will lead outside the native blue planet, and what problems will generally arise in space exploration - is still unknown. (website)

Although you can even guess how. It is no coincidence that Russian cosmonauts once joked that in orbit a pencil is much more useful than memory, since they noticed that the latter there begins to falter in its work. And this is still in the orbit of the Earth, and what can we say about flights to other planets ...

Problems of space exploration by man

NASA is currently running a long-term experiment involving astronauts who are single-celled twin brothers. The first spent a whole year on the ISS, while the second lived quietly on Earth at that time. Please note that NASA staff, despite the return of Scott from the International Space Station, are in no hurry to draw conclusions, saying that the final results can only be expected in 2017.

However, researchers in many countries have been studying this problem for a long time, since the development of astronautics on Earth will largely depend on its solution. And science still cannot give an answer even to such a question as how long a person can be away from the Earth, not to mention many others.

Firstly, a person cannot exist for a long time without what is familiar to him, and so far this problem has not been solved in space exploration. Secondly, modern technologies cannot protect an astronaut from the effects of radiation and other cosmic radiations, which literally permeate everything and everyone. Astronauts on the ISS, for example, even with their eyes closed "see bright flashes" when these beams hit their optic nerves. But such radiation permeates the entire body of a person in space, can affect the immune system and even DNA. In this case, any protection of the astronaut automatically becomes a source of secondary radiation.

The impact of space on human health

Researchers at the University of Colorado recently examined mice that spent two weeks in orbit (aboard the shuttle Atlantis). Only two weeks! And during this short time, unpleasant changes occurred in the body of rodents, they all returned to Earth with signs of liver damage. Before that, notes Professor Karen Yonscher, space explorers did not even imagine that it was so destructive for the internal organs of everything living on Earth, including humans. It is no coincidence that astronauts often return from orbit with symptoms similar to diabetes. Of course, they are immediately treated on Earth, but what will happen to a person during a long stay in space, and even far from their home planet? Will the problem of the influence of space on man be fully resolved?

By the way, scientists are constantly interested in such a question - conception and reproduction in space, if people have long-term, or even life-long flights to other planets in their plans. It turns out that in conditions of weightlessness, eggs, for example, are divided in a completely different way, that is, not into two, four, eight, and so on, but into two, three, five ... For a person, this is tantamount to a lack of conception or termination of pregnancy at the earliest stages.

True, the other day, Chinese scientists made a "sensational statement" that they managed to achieve the development of a mammalian embryo in microgravity. And although the article by journalist Cheng Yingqi sounds ambitious - "A giant leap in science - embryos grow in space", many researchers were very skeptical about this information.

Disappointing results regarding human exploration of the Great Space

So, if we sum up, without even waiting for the results of the NASA experiment with twin astronauts, we can draw a disappointing conclusion: humanity is not yet ready for deep space flights, and it remains to be seen when this will happen. Some researchers even argue that we are not even ready to fly to the Moon (from this we can conclude that the Americans have never flown there), not to mention Mars and other grandiose space plans.

Ufologists, in turn, insist on the equally authoritative opinion of other scientists that overcoming outer space, as we are going to do now, is a dead end. According to their firm conviction, the developed ones travel in the Universe in a completely different way, for example, using wormholes - temporal-spatial holes that allow you to instantly move to any point of the Divine universe. Perhaps there are better ways that are not available to our understanding. So far, terrestrial space rockets claim only the development of near-Earth orbit, and exclusively in all respects, from the snail's (by the standards of the Greater Space) movement speed to the complete insecurity of astronauts in these primitive vehicles ...

Somehow we have already got used to the fact that wherever a person's foot goes, along with the benefits of civilization, its disadvantages also come there. Even Thor Heyerdahl, during his first trip on the Kon Tiki raft (and this was the 50s of the last century), met islands of anthropogenic debris in the vast ocean. In other words, all sorts of rubbish that was thrown overboard by sea travelers. Once we talked about the boundless expanses of the Universe, about the boundless ocean of space.

Years passed. The number of man-made spacecraft in near-Earth orbits has been constantly increasing. No one doubted that artificial satellites of the Earth could be used for communications, navigation, observation of the earth's surface, and for solving other problems, including military ones.

The Soviet Union and the United States diligently and successfully began to develop the virgin space, and after them other countries rushed there. The trick is that wherever a person's foot goes, along with the benefits of civilization, its disadvantages also come there. Even Thor Heyerdahl, during his first trip on the Kon Tiki raft (and this was the 50s of the last century), met islands of anthropogenic debris in the vast ocean.

In other words, all sorts of rubbish that was thrown overboard by sea travelers. Once we talked about the boundless expanses of the Universe, about the boundless ocean of space. Years passed. The number of man-made spacecraft in near-Earth orbits has been constantly increasing. No one doubted that artificial satellites of the Earth could be used for communications, navigation, observation of the earth's surface, and for solving other problems, including military ones.

The Soviet Union and the United States diligently and successfully began to develop the virgin space, and after them other countries rushed there. Artificial satellites, having exhausted their resources, continue to circle in near-Earth orbits. Not obeying any commands, i.e. becoming practically uncontrollable objects, they complicate the life of other, actively working spacecraft.

And every year this problem is only getting worse. Space is now overloaded with various objects, it is littered, - says the chief ballistician of the Mission Control Center, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Nikolai Ivanov - Space debris is a serious problem of modern cosmonautics. There are about 12 thousand cataloged unmanaged objects larger than 20 centimeters in near-Earth orbits.

Smaller particles (fragments, fragments) up to one centimeter in size - about 100 thousand more. And even smaller ones - generally tens of millions. If you take some kind of wick weighing several tens of grams, then at such a speed it has energy, like a loaded KamAZ, which rushes at a speed of more than 100 kilometers per hour.

Road traffic accidents (RTA) have become commonplace on Earth. Surely everyone has seen wrecked cars, not to mention the more serious consequences. But we are exploring outer space and, as a result, we are bringing our earthly problems there as well. More than once, spacecraft have collided with fragments of space debris.

But on February 10, 2009, a real accident occurred in near-Earth orbit. At an altitude of about 800 kilometers, two satellites collided: an American satellite weighing more than 600 kilograms, which was part of the orbital grouping of the Iridium global mobile communications system, and the Russian 900-kilogram Cosmos-2251.

After their collision, the means of monitoring the near-Earth space registered the appearance in space of 500-600 fragments larger than 5 centimeters. But the International Space Station flies in near-Earth space, on board of which the constancy of the crew is the main task of any manned flight. Every month, our ballisticians receive several warnings about dangerous approaches to the ISS of space debris.

At first glance, it may seem strange that when it comes to cosmic velocities, experts are not in a hurry to make decisions. It may be too big

error cost. Therefore, everything is carefully analyzed, weighed, possible consequences are checked, and only then the necessary commands are put on board. It would seem that the most

a simple way out is to turn on the engines and transfer the station to another orbit. Such maneuvers have long been worked out, and their technical implementation does not present any additional difficulties. But here, too, one should not rush. Before giving the command to conduct a maneuver, one must carefully look at whether there will be an even worse situation with some other object in that new orbit.

These rules are strictly observed in any case. Since the end of May, a crew of not three, but six people has been working on the ISS. These are Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka (crew commander) and Roman Romanenko, Americans Michael Barratt and Timothy Kopra, Michael Barratt and Timothy Kopra, Canadian Robert Thirsk and Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency.

Five crew members arrived at the station on the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-14 and Soyuz TMA-15. And Timati Kopra flew in on the Endeavor shuttle and replaced the Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata who worked at the station. And by the way, about this shuttle. Its launch was promised on June 13th. But then everything was shifted and shifted, so much so that, starting on July 16, it “ran into” the flight of our Progress M-67 cargo ship.

Our truck was launched on schedule - July 24, and its docking with the ISS was planned on July 27. But he could not arrive at the station at the scheduled time, since Endeavor was still docked there at that time. And in this situation, for others

docking was prohibited. This is how the "plug" in space orbit turned out. And our truck had to fly an extra two days waiting for permission to park at the ISS berth. But if on Earth you can just stand in a “traffic jam”, then in space it was necessary to solve additional problems. According to ballistic conditions, the truck should have given the last corrective impulse even before the shuttle undocked from the station, says Vladimir Solovyov, flight director of the Russian segment of the ISS.

That is, it was necessary to take into account in advance those perturbations of the station's orbit that would arise during the undocking of the shuttle. Our specialists have successfully coped with this task. But the main problem now, the flight director believes, is the uncertainty with the timing of the shuttle launches.

"Endeavor" started only on the sixth attempt. And every time I had to redraw the crew's work program, change the previously agreed plans. So, for example, the re-docking of the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft scheduled for July 20 was postponed to July 3. Otherwise, if they had waited for “weather by the sea”, they would not have been able to free the berth in time for the docking of the Progress M-67.

And then the flight schedule of our ships would break. Indeed, with the help of this truck, its engines, the working orbit of the station will be built for the arrival of the next long-term expedition, to ensure the return of the crew of the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft to a given area. As you know, the operation of shuttles should stop in September next year. And in order to fulfill their obligations to partners, the Americans need to make seven more flights to the ISS. Will they be able to do it in the remaining time?

The flight of the next shuttle, scheduled for August 8, first "left" on the 18th, now we are talking about the last days of the month. In early September, the Japanese are preparing to launch their first cargo ship to the ISS.

And September 30 is the launch date of the Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft. As you can see, the flight schedule is quite tight. And what threatens the dense movement of vehicles on the earth's roads? Wouldn't this be tantamount to saying that if we wanted to let the flow of cars from the Yaroslavl Highway pass through Pionerskaya Street without hindrance? ..
V. Lyndin

At the time of the landing on the moon in 1969, many sincerely believed that by the beginning of the 21st century, space travel would become commonplace, and earthlings would begin to quietly fly to other planets. Unfortunately, this future has not yet arrived, and people began to doubt whether we even need these space travel. Maybe the moon is enough? However, space exploration continues to provide us with invaluable information in the fields of medicine, mining and security. And, of course, progress in the study of outer space has an inspiring effect on humanity!

1. Protection against a possible collision with an asteroid

If we don't want to end up like dinosaurs, we need to protect ourselves from the threat of a large asteroid impact. As a rule, about once every 10 thousand years, some celestial body the size of a football field threatens to crash into the Earth, which can lead to irreversible consequences for the planet. We really should be wary of such "guests" with a diameter of at least 100 meters. The collision will raise a dust storm, destroy forests and fields, doom those who remain alive to starvation. Special space programs are aimed at identifying a dangerous object long before it approaches the Earth and knocking it off its trajectory.

2. The possibility of new great discoveries

A considerable number of all kinds of gadgets, materials and technologies were originally developed for space programs, but later they found their application on Earth. We all know about freeze-dried products and have been using them for a long time. In the 1960s, scientists developed a special plastic coated with a reflective metal coating. When used in the production of conventional blankets, it retains up to 80% of a person's body heat. Another valuable innovation is nitinol, a flexible yet resilient alloy designed for the manufacture of satellites. Now dental braces are made from this material.

3. Contribution to medicine and healthcare

Space exploration has led to many medical innovations for terrestrial use: for example, the method of injecting anti-cancer drugs directly into a tumor, equipment with which a nurse can perform ultrasound and instantly transmit data to a doctor thousands of kilometers away, and a mechanical manipulator arm that performs complex activities inside the MRI machine. Pharmaceutical developments in the field of protecting astronauts from loss of bone and muscle mass in microgravity have led to the creation of drugs for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Moreover, these drugs were easier to test in space, since astronauts lose about 1.5% of bone mass per month, and an elderly woman on Earth loses 1.5% per year.

4. Space exploration inspires humanity to new achievements

If we want to create a world in which our children aspire to be scientists and engineers rather than reality show hosts, movie stars or financial magnates, then space exploration is a very inspiring process. It's time to ask the rising generation the question: "Who wants to be an aerospace engineer and design a flying machine that can get into the rarefied atmosphere of Mars?"

5. We need raw materials from space

Outer space contains gold, silver, platinum and other valuable metals. Some international companies are already thinking about mining on asteroids, so it is possible that a profession of a space miner will appear in the near future. The moon, for example, is a possible "supplier" of helium-3 (used for MRI and considered as a possible fuel for nuclear power plants). On Earth, this substance costs up to 5 thousand dollars per liter. The moon is also considered a potential source of rare earth elements such as europium and tantalum, which are in high demand for use in electronics, solar cells and other advanced devices.

6. Space exploration can help answer a very important question

We all believe that life exists somewhere in space. In addition, many believe that aliens have already visited our planet. However, we still have not received any signals from distant civilizations. This is why extraterrestrial scientists are ready to deploy orbital observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope. This satellite is scheduled for launch in 2018, and with its help it will be possible to search for life in the atmospheres of distant planets outside our solar system by chemical signs. And this is just the beginning.

7. Humans have a natural desire for research.

Our primitive ancestors from East Africa settled all over the planet, and since then humanity has never stopped the process of its movement. We always want to explore and master something new and unknown, whether it's a short trip to the moon as a tourist, or a long interstellar journey spanning several generations. A few years ago, a NASA executive made the distinction between "understandable reasons" and "real reasons" for space exploration. Understandable reasons are about obtaining economic and technological advantages, while real reasons include concepts such as curiosity and the desire to leave a mark.

8. To survive, humanity will probably have to colonize outer space

We have learned how to send satellites into space, and this helps us control and fight against pressing earthly problems, including forest fires, oil spills and the depletion of aquifers. However, a significant increase in the population, banal greed and unjustified frivolity regarding environmental consequences have already caused serious damage to our planet. Scientists believe that the Earth has a "carrying capacity" of 8 to 16 billion, and we are already more than 7 billion. Perhaps it is time for humanity to prepare for the development of other planets for life.