A lunar base designed by the European Space Agency (Photo/China Daily)

“We once looked up at the starlit sky and expected to move to other planet one day…” The recent blockbuster movie Interstellar is reviving curiousity about the idea of migrating to other planets.

The idea is not without foundation. One day the human race will have to move to a planet beyond our Solar System to protect the future of the species, the leading physicist Professor Stephen Hawking has warned. Gerald D. Griffin, a former Director of NASA, has also said that one single planet cannot provide a permanent home for its species, and one day humanity will have to migrate to other planets.

That day may not be so far away. It is reported that the ESA (European Space Agency) has carried out a research recently on building a lunar base. It is claimed that they have already mastered the relevant technologies, but due to costs and some other factors, the dream to migrate to the moon will not come true for another 40 years or so.

Their lunar pod can accommodate 4 people and looks like an Inuit igloo. The “bunker” is half-buried under the moon's surface and covered with thick rock walls so as to protect its inhabitants from radioactivity and meteorites and provide shelter from the huge temperature differences between day and night on the moon. It is connected to the exterior through an air-tight lock so that people can live without heavy suits inside the base.

The ESA plan is to use soil and rocks from the moon to form the shell of the base by means of 3D printing technology, and construct it with telerobotics. Once completed, its inhabitants will become neighbours of “Chang'e”.

So we have the technology to provide accommodation, but how do we get into galactic space? Don’t worry, Interstellar has the answer. We can use a wormhole—a tunnel passing through time and space through which we can look for habitable planets in deep space to continue our civilization.

But a “Wormhole” sounds rather theoretical and obscure. Couldn't we simply take a space taxi? According to Reuters, Boeing will complete its 7-seat CST-100 “Space Taxi” by the end of 2017. Boeing says it will be capable of carrying commercial passengers by CST-100 to the International Space Station within the next 5 years.

Given the vastness of the universe, are there any more fascinating shortcuts?

The idea of a space elevator appeared as early as the 1970s. Obayashi, a giant in the Japanese building industry said in September this year that their “Space Elevator” will be completed before 2050, providing elevator cabins big enough for 30 people. It will take about 7 days to transport them approximately 22,000 miles from Earth to an orbiting space station.

Americans have proposed a much faster method. NASA has launched the IXS Enterprise, a conceptual spacecraft which could exceed the speed of light and take its passengers on intergalactic space voyages!

The pace of the scientific development is growing fast. It may not take so long for us to look down at the earth from another planet.

The article is edited and translated from 《移居外星真的可以有？》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Bai Yujie