Article
An Adaptive Paradigm for Human Space Settlement
Acta Astronautica
(2016)
Abstract
Because permanent space settlement will be multigenerational it will have to be viable on ecological timescales so far unfamiliar to those planning space exploration. Long-term viability will require evolutionary and adaptive planning. Adaptations in the natural world provide many lessons for such planning, but implementing these lessons will require a new, evolutionary paradigm for envisioning and carrying out Earth-independent space settlement. I describe some of these adaptive lessons and propose some cognitive shifts required to implement them in a genuinely evolutionary approach to human space settlement.
Keywords
- Space law,
- Exploration of outer space
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2016
DOI
10.1016/j.actaastro.2015.11.017
Publisher Statement
Copyright 2015 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Citation Information
Smith, C. M. (2016). An adaptive paradigm for human space settlement. Acta Astronautica, 119, 207–217. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2015.11.017