The Dream of Flight and the Vision of Tomorrow

Abstract

We consider the possibility that our species may develop into a spacefaring civilization. This represents a future where we rise to the challenges that the universe presents us while enjoying the rewards of discovery and new sources of energy production. In this possible future access to space is not limited to a few but enabled for many, beginning an era of interplanetary and eventually interstellar migration of our species into the cosmos. Our species would be free from the confines of a single planetary body and instead have the opportunities of countless worlds and resources. It is the observations of nature, the flight of the birds, and beyond to the depths of space that drove us towards this vision. Plato said it was astronomy that compelled the soul to look upwards and lead us from this world to another.