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William E. Burrows (1937—) is a professor of journalism at New York University.
The question to ask is whether the risk of traveling to space is worth the benefit. The answer is an unequivocal yes, but not only for the reasons that are usually touted by the space community: the need to explore, the scientific return, and the possibility of commercial profit. The most compelling reason, a very long-term one, is the necessity of using space to protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.
William E. Burrows, “Space and Civilization,” Wall Street Journal, February 3, 2003, A16. Also available online at http://www.arc-space.org/prod02.htm.
In “Encounter With Tiber,” a 1996 novel by astronaut Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes, the commander of a large interstellar space cruiser justifies its immense journey by warning its crew: “There’s not a place in the universe that’s safe forever; the universe is telling us, ‘Spread out, or wait around and die.’”
Ibid.
Indeed, this is an abidingly unsafe neighborhood. It is a cosmic shooting gallery in which one horrendous asteroid or comet impact roughly 251 million years ago virtually brought the dinosaurs into existence by killing off their competitors, and another, which struck about 186 million years later, is thought to have finished them off.
Ibid.
But it is to say that it is prudent to spread out. For the first time in history, we have the wherewithal to do so thanks to access to space.
Ibid.
To that end, some of us have started an Alliance to Rescue Civilization, or ARC, that would copy civilization’s essential elements—its cultural, scientific, historical, political and biological components—the way a computer’s hard-drive is backed up, and for the same reason: to protect against a crash. The idea is to have a continuously updated archive stored both on Earth and in a large settlement on the Moon that would be self-sustaining.
Ibid.
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