From my study of space habitation, most, if not all the problems, are solved. There are detailed plans for space settlements, business arguments proving that it will be profitable and engineering analysis of obstacles surrounding space habitation.
Even so, there is no moon base or mars base and Sendhil Mullinathan’s TED talk explains why. We have done most of the work and I will claim we are traveling the last mile of the journey towards space habitation. I claim that the same reason why insulin isn’t used as much as it should by patients is why space habitation hasn’t occurred. Space habitation will need a behavioral change in humanity to gain support. I don’t know much about human behavior, but my understanding is that humans hard wired to not leave a resource until it is depleted. This was a core survival technique that is the base of our society (major cities cluster around resources needed for survival, mainly water, were as dessert settlements are rarer). Space habitation supporters are telling humanity that we need to go acquire more resources before we run out of resources on Earth.
In Case You Skimmed
-Human behavior may prevent space habitation
Reactions
-Do you think we will be able to change this behavior, even though we are already suffering because of dwindling resources.
Resources
Mullinathan, Sendhil. "Solving Social Problems with a Nudge" February 2010. Online video clip. TED. Accessed on February 6 2010. <http://www.ted.com/talks/sendhil_mullainathan.html>
