This blog post is based heavily on the Jonathanfields.awake@thewheel post The Surfer’s Guide To Entrepreneurial Bliss. I am only applying the ideas of that blog post to space habitation. All quotes are from the blog post.
The way humanity handles the start of the space age is the same way surfers handle the waves.
The first thing we must do is to be active in space despite lack of funding or public support. Surfers do the same thing when they go to where the great waves are. Even if it means we only have the ISS for 20 more years, it is critical for us to keep launching rockets to stay in practice. Furthermore, I bet there is a exponential relationship between the number of rockets launched and the number of humans who are passionate about manned space flight. But, as long as we launch rockets, we will have another day.
Before we become a space-faring species, we must survey the sets like a surfer. We must know, before paddling, “the easiest openings to paddle out without getting crushed”. Our passion for space is not enough, we know how to become space faring and the easiest way to become space faring. Knowing this, we can wait for the right time to become space faring. But, we can not put off becoming a space faring species. The cold war brought a nice swell of public support, we could have been space faring then, but we waited. But Apollo rode on an epic wave of support, we only have average swells. It won’t be epic, like Apollo, but it is better then sitting in the water. We also must be ready, at all times, for a huge wave.
