Issues for the next generation

Abstract

Since humans returned to the Moon, we went from being an outpost on a barren rock orbiting Earth to being a nascent civilization on the Moon and Mars, with outposts on dozens of asteroids, outer planets and their moons. We went from a population of under a dozen to one approaching 300,000 extraterrestials. But our impact is larger than what one may expect of that many people. A city on Earth of that population is considered small, perhaps peripheral to the main avenues of power and influence. The 300,000 people who are today distributed throughout large sectors of the Solar System are all prime movers. Each of us has significant responsibilities. We oversee an infrastructure that is vast and very wealthy.