If you've checked out my previous "Imagining the future" posts, you would know that I like to talk about what the future could look like relating to the various aspects of human endeavour.

I have previously written about the future of transportation and communication and today I would like to talk about the larger picture of the human civilisation itself in terms of how we could evolve into an interplanetary civilisation and what that could look like.

The reason why I believe that one day we will spread out into the cosmos is that we have been doing this already for thousands of years and there is no reason to believe we will stop anytime in the future.

Starting out as isolated small groups, we have slowly spread all over the planet. We have even been to the moon and sent rovers on Mars and satellites deep into space. As technology advances, in a more distant future, I believe we will have permanent presence all over the solar system.

A Multi-Planetary Species

If you've paid attention to this space (pun intended), you would know that our efforts at making space travel safer and a lot cheaper is well underway led by private companies. Government space agencies are of course doing a lot too, but in my opinion, private companies will lead the charge from here on.

There are already discussions for a permanent human presence on the moon, as it is nearest to us and could serve as a pit stop for missions to deep space. It's lower gravity would make it much easier to launch rockets and it could also serve as a lookout for asteroids and other cosmic threats to Earth.

Then comes Mars. The red planet has been forever associated with alien life in fiction and even our discoveries so far suggest that it could have had oceans once and may have even supported life forms. Elon Musk, has his sight set on establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony within this century.

Beyond the Moon and Mars, other potential habitats for humans could include Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moons Titans and Enceladus though these would be really, really difficult to settle in even with futuristic technology.

There is another way where humanity could have a permanent presence in space and that could be through space hotels orbiting the Earth or our Moon or even Mars. Then there is also a possiblity that small portions of the population might want to live in space colonies, adrift in space near or further away from the Earth. Either way, I think the future is going to be one where we are a multi-planetary race.