The Hope
In the early years of the 21st century a visionary entrepreneur by the name of Elon Musk expressed an almost pathological fear. The longer we stay on this one single planet, the greater the odds that some event, whether by our own hands or some cosmic event, will be the end of humanity. The need to become multi planetary is the only way to ensure our continued survival. To this end he created Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX.
The goal was to create a civilization on Mars. His efforts sparked off a second “Space Race” that enabled Humanity to create the first footholds on both Luna and Mars. Our continued presence on these two bodies has allowed us to learn much more about how the cosmos works. One of the big discoveries was that not only have these two bodies been slammed with rocks from our own solar system, but they have also been peppered by rocks from far outside our solar system.
Early studies of the moon suggested that if we were to attempt to extract resources from the surface, the results might not be equal to the cost. That is, until “on the ground” expeditions began to find “samples” of what were referred to as TCEs (technology-critical elements). Those “samples” eventually totaled several million tons. Other researchers later discovered pieces of never before seen elemental minerals with amazing properties. As these discoveries became known, the amount of funding available began to grow in leaps and bounds. Similar discoveries were also made on Mars. But due to the distances involved, it was just barely enough to justify the cost. But the moon is right in our own backyard. By the end of the 21st century, there were several hundred people living and working on the moon and an effort was underway to create Elon Musk’s dream.
Then the Rock fell..