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Space colonization
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==Influence of science fiction== {{See also|Space travel in science fiction}} [[Image:TerraformedMarsGlobeRealistic.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|An artist's view of a terraformed Mars centered on [[Valles Marineris]]. [[Tharsis]] is visible on the left side. This transformation was imagined in science fiction author [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]'s [[Mars Trilogy]] but also studied by scientists including [[Robert Zubrin]].<ref>{{cite report |title=Technological Requirements for Terraforming Mars |first1=Robert M. |last1=Zubrin |first2=Christopher P. |last2=McKay |date=2003 |url=https://marspapers.org/paper/Zubrin_1993_3.pdf |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Robinson and Zubrin are both members of the Mars Society.|alt=artists view of [[Terraforming of Mars]].]] Space colonization is a recurring theme in [[science fiction]].<ref name="StablefordColonisation">{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |author-link=Brian Stableford |title=[[Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia]] |date=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-415-97460-8 |pages=93β95 |language=en |chapter=Colonisation |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uefwmdROKTAC&pg=PA93}}</ref> NASA began to assess space colonization issues as early as 1975 with their Space Settlements Design Study. The report directly acknowledges the foundation of various ideas for colonization in science fiction. It quotes author Robert Salkeld and highlights the role of the precursors of science fiction alongside the founders of astronautics, where for example Jules Verne rubs shoulders with Constantin Tsiolkovsky.<ref>{{cite report|title=Space Settlements: A Design Study |chapter=1. The Colonization of Space|first1=Richard D. |last1=Johnson |first2=Charles |last2=Holbrow |url=http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2016/ph240/martelaro2/docs/nasa-sp-413.pdf |publisher=NASA |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Indeed, colonization as a fictional theme and colonization as a research project are not independent. Research feeds fiction and fiction sometimes inspires research. Many of the most fascinating ideas in science originated not in the laboratory but in the minds of such science fiction writers as Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury. Clarke's 1945 article on communications satellites was the original idea behind modern communications satellites. <ref>{{cite magazine|title=May 25, 1945: Sci-Fi Author Predicts Future by Inventing It |first=Dylan |last=Tweney |date=25 May 2011 |url=https://www.wired.com/2011/05/0525arthur-c-clarke-proposes-geostationary-satellites/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Bradbury's [[The Martian Chronicles]] explores the exploration and settlement of Mars and has been attributed as the main inspiration behind NASA's many missions to Mars.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bradbury Revered In Space Exploration Community|date=7 June 2012 |first=Renee |last=Montagne |url=https://www.npr.org/2012/06/07/154485146/remembering-ray-bradbury |website=NPR |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Communicators and tricorders from the science fiction of Star Trek are said to be inspirations for cell phones and wireless medical triage devices.<ref>{{cite web |title=Live long and prosper: Star Trek-inspired medical devices on agenda at UND |date= 1 October 2024 |first= Adam |last=Kurtz |url=https://blogs.und.edu/und-today/2024/10/c2ship-annual-meeting-brings-future-medical-technology-research-to-und/ |website=University of North Dakota |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref><ref name =klimek>{{Cite magazine|last=Klimek|first=Chris|date=8 September 2016|title='Star Trek' at 50: How the Sci-Fi TV Show Changed Everything |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/star-trek-at-50-how-the-sci-fi-tv-show-changed-everything-104127/|access-date=19 April 2025|magazine=Rolling Stone|language=en-US}}</ref> Fiction inspired innovation and invention to develop new technologies. Communications, governance principles, and advanced technological devices, all speculated by science fiction, are all precursors to survival of an extraterrestrial colony.<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert |last=Bly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LH2gqgGm7DEC |title=The Science in Science Fiction: 83 SF Predictions that Became Scientific Reality |publisher=BenBella Books, Inc. |date=2005|isbn=978-1-932100-48-8 |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> The European Space Agency ITSF project (Innovative Technologies in Science Fiction for Space Applications) study offers similar consideration for the cross-fertilization between fiction and science.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.esa.int/esapub/br/br176/br176.pdf |title=Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction for Space Applications|website=ESA |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> [[Science fiction]] writer [[Norman Spinrad]] highlights the role of science fiction as a visionary force that spawned the conquest of space, a term he believes betrays its imperialist tendencies, and the colonization of space. <ref name="spinrad-1999">{{cite news |title=From Jules Verne to Star Wars - Too high the moon |first=Norman |last=Spinrad |date=July 1999 |url=https://mondediplo.com/1999/07/14star |publisher=Le Monde diplomatique |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> He also shows that political scientist and science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle, in wanting to revive the conquest of space for this purpose in the early 1980s, actually launched the [[Reagan administration]]'s Strategic Defense Initiative project, which he considers a failure, because instead of the military program reviving the space program, the opposite happens: the $40 billion cost of the program is actually taken away from the construction of a base on the Moon.<ref name="spinrad-1999"/> One of the great names in science fiction, [[Arthur C. Clarke]], a supporter of Marshall Savage's ideas, announced in a 2001 article, the date appearing in one of his most famous titles [[2001: A Space Odyssey]], that by 2057 there would be humans on the Moon, Mars , Europa, Ganymede, Titan and in orbit around Venus, Neptune and Pluto.<ref>{{cite web|title=Arthur C. Clarke Predicts in 2001 What the World Will Look By December 31, 2100 |date= 29 January 2015 |url=https://www.openculture.com/2015/01/arthur-c-clarke-predicts-in-2001-what-the-world-will-look-by-2100.html |website=openculture.com|access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref> Contemporary science fiction has extended the colonization vision further. The TV series [[The Expanse (TV series)|The Expanse]] which is based on a series of novels of the same name by James S. A. Corey, addresses the politics and conflict of humanity hundreds of years in the future after it has colonized the solar system and Mars has become an independent military power. In Theresa Hutchin's essay on the series in 2021, comparisons are drawn between the fiction of the story and the reality of current corporate led development of space exploration activities.<ref>{{cite web|title=How 'The Expanse' Is A Cautionary Tale For Real World Space Commercialization: Excerpt |first=Theresa |last=Hitchens |date= 15 October 2021 |url=https://breakingdefense.com/2021/10/how-the-expanse-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-real-world-space-commercialization-excerpt/ |website=breakingdefense.com |access-date=21 April 2025}}</ref>
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