Comment:Visions | Space-exploration

Space Exploration

Programme: Prospecting the Solar System

June 6, 2008 in Space Exploration

There is little doubt among experts and observers that the world’s resources are stretched and will continue to be depleted in decades to come. It is the best solution to this resource shortage that animates the debate in international society. How to keep the globe going in the face of resource shortages is a question that encompasses issues of energy, population, migration, and technology.

But what if the answers to the problems our planet is encountering do not lie on the planet at all? This month’s Comment Visions talks to Dr Athena Coustenis, an Astrophysicist who specialises in studying planetary atmospheres and is an international authority on Titan, the moon of Saturn that has long fascinated scientists due to its environmental similarities to Earth.

Discussion: Some ideas for producing energy seem completely unrealistic today, but are there, in fact, new technologies waiting to be developed that we are yet to explore?