Eclectic Planet: Space. Exploration. Human Exploration

Humans have been exploring this planet for almost 70,000 years. We have all been born out of, what is now Northern Ethiopia, and migrated all over the planet.

This picture shows the genetic heritage and migration of my own mother's DNA over the past 70 -100,000 years. She was a member of Haplogroup K.

. My Mother's Haplogroup Migration

This picture shows my father's migration. He and I am a member of DNA Haplogroup Q:

My Father's Haplogroup Migration

This is ironic because, a) I was born in England, and b) I just became a US citizen -- which cost me a lot of time and money. Yet my ancestors must have traversed the US some 50,000 years ago

I received these results as part of a series of DNA tests that are relatively inexpensive to obtain.

I've always wondered why I was "pulled" to come from my birthplace in England to the US, but also have this innate affection for Greece.

Now I can see that my ancestors were in both places.

All human beings have DNA that reveals the history and wanderings / migrations of their ancestors. Some went south to India and some went to Polynesia and Australia, others went to Northern Europe and Russia.

Earth

This is how our planet was initially populated.

We have continued of course to explore: (the "New World", Australia, the Silk Route, often conquering and destroying to bring home riches and worse. Hopefully we are beginning to grow up.

Now we are beginning to explore Space.

This will not happen immediately. Just as my own ancestors must have adapted (mutated) over centuries, to seek shelter, warmth and nutrition amidst changing climates and different types of foods, our own bodies will need to adapt to life in Space.

So we have several problems to overcome in Human Space exploration.

1. Getting anywhere -- building transport vehicles to take us places, and

2. Adapting to survive in extreme climates. In space, we are subject not just to extreme temperatures, but also to solar radiation -- something we are largely protected from on Earth, and

3. Our bodies are not yet acclimated -- as a specie -- for long term space flight. In a weightless environment, we must exercise strenuously to avoid losing bone density.

We are at the beginning.

We can get into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), but it's dangerous, and wildly expensive.

We have been to the moon, but we didn't stay there.

Other peoples are planning outposts and maybe in a few years from now, we will have figured out how to sustain ourselves safely in space.

This section deals with human exploration of Space.