Space Colonization!

 Very Expensive?

It is all wonderful news that humans are returning to the Moon and we may have robotic humanoids on Mars in the next five years, but as for colonization apart from the scientific, that may still be a hundred years away yet, since it will be very expensive to maintain!

But with A.I. now moving fast and the conversion facilities for creating water and air, we may be able to sustain these drilling operations powered by low intensity nuclear power and other technology to do much more than we can now?

What holds us back now is mental health issues that were experienced on the International space station, being dealt with on long duration flights and how will we take to living on another world, with many moral questions too as to child birth and death!

48 to 8 Hours.

Getting up to the Space Station.

Twenty years ago it took just over two days to get up to the Russian MIR Space station, this week we saw the three way Russian, ESA, U.S. mission do it in less than eight hours even with a technical fault. What amazing achievements with the tried and tested second generation MM Soyuz-Progress vehicles over that of the flamboyant yet very dangerous U.S. Space shuttle.

Timings into space are speeding up, while duration flights of just over one year at the moment cuts a possible manned trip to Mars in the next 30 years. The joint Moon base, will perhaps prepare us for that giant return trip to Mars, in say 50 years from now. 

There remains so many dangers in space travel, after nearly 58 years from Sputnik, that the next 50 will give us enough time to develop better space ships perhaps between the ISS and the Moon base. Familiarity with living their will be the key to any future Mars mission and then further out?