Before the Lights Go Out

The age of wonder began, arguably, with the dawn of humankind. Planets and stars hung like lanterns in the night sky, beckoning the generations to make sense of what they could see. With each successive generation, the fund of knowledge increased; and what had been regarded as mythical characters who followed storylines became glowing bodies of gas and spheres of rock that obeyed the laws of physics.

Today we know a universe populated with stars, nebulae, galaxies and planets. We wonder whether we are alone. And we are humbled by the fact that we can peer billions of years into the past with a simple telescope.

It won’t always be so. The expansion of the universe will eventually make the galaxies beyond our local group unreachable and unviewable. Future generations will be left literally in the dark as they attempt to make sense of the universe.

That’s why it is important to explore now, to pave the way for a Type 3 civilization by creating a multiplanetary civilization. We must build the infrastructure that will carry our descendants to the edge of the solar system and beyond.

That infrastructure will grow in cislunar space. The Moon and lunar orbit will become oases for research, hubs for manufacturing and launching points for missions to Mars and beyond.

We are at a unique point in history: a fulcrum balanced by expanding knowledge and an expanding universe. We must explore, savor and learn before the lights go out.

#dearMoon #dearMoonCrew @Janestarz @yousuckMZ #NASA #Space @NASA @ElonMusk @robert_zubrin @ShashiTharoor @TheMarsSociety @JeffBezos @NASAJPL