Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA # 113: The Planets

We’ve plundered Earth, what’s next? Dear Cheap Astronomy – If we did colonize the Solar System, what would we do with the different planets? It remains to be seen if we will spread out across the solar system. While we starting to feel more confident about avoiding a mass extinction asteroid strike, a super-volcano eruption could just as easily end civilization as we know it. There’s also the more mundane scenario of where our population keeps growing, we run low on resources and then fight a bunch of wars over what’s left, pretty-much trashing what’s left of the ecosystem in the process.   Dear Cheap Astronomy – If we colonized the Solar System, Part 2 In part 2, we are looking into the far future which has access to speculative technologies, which may or may not come to pass. Indeed, as we stated in Pt. 1 we may never get beyond leaving a few footprints on our local satellite before civilization as we know it collapses. But if we assume the rise of technology can be kept on its current trajectory indefinitely, then sure, all sorts of things could become possible.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].