I’m sure we’ll colonize the solar system. Interstellar colonization is a LOT harder.
Famous American astronaut returns to Earth after living 340 days in zero-g…skin hurts (no given reason), bone-loss (how much tbd), has to be carried to an armchair and swarmed by medical staff, and more to come eg. changes to the eyes, immune system, etc. So spaceflight looks a lot like getting the shit kicked out of you. Not the colonization we collectively bought into with golden age sci-fi …that persists to this day…with the caveat that there exists a trope within the genre that accepts when you leave earth you will change and may not be able to return. How do you colonize the solar system with millions of health-compromised?
I’m all for Homo Sapiens Martianis, or Homo Sapiens Orbitalis… success meaning, what, a thousand generations to adapt and change? Two? Ten? 100? All I can hope for, in my lifetime or my great grandkids, is to fully cover the solarsystem with science platforms and maybe have some wok done on a small, multi-century interstellar probe.
I wish Musk all the best in his retirement lodge in Planum Argylis.
Check out Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes.
I read EWT when it came out and continue to use it as a mental reference, actually. Useful and insightful.
