Travelling to a distant a planet for food?

How ridiculous, you might say...

this is what springs to mind immediately

But, I've been thinking about time and space a lot this week. (And not the whibbly wobbly kind of spacetime) Maybe it's because I watched #Interstellar, I don't know. For those who haven't seen it do yourself the favour and do so. It's Christoper Nolan doing what he does at his best.

Why should we take note, now? Well Nolan hits the nail on the head---Food. It is a known fact that by 2050 we will have to feed 2 billion more, and frankly this planet will not be able to do so, given our lack of respect for it and its processes! Space might be our only option (as a species) for surviving major climate change. (we don't want to end up like Venus with its runaway green house effect) We are already growing a lot in space, many of the missions to space has had greener companions to explicitly see how they will grow in zero gravity. And on a side note, we have been making and drinking space beer for a while.

a view of space agriculture from NASA in the 1970's

Another reason to explore space might be mining. Mining has become a rather taboo practise on earth today. We have come to associate mining with all that is negative, digging up coal, destroying the rainforest etc. But we forget most industries are built on mining activities which fueled our advancement. Space might be the next wild west were materials that are in low quantities on earth are abundant. Who knows?

And finally, another reason might be more romantic and the topic of our TEDTalk today. The idea of travelling to diatant planets, describing new life and ultimately understanding our place in vast universe. A quest you might say as old as the human race. Who better, than Professor Brian Cox, to take us not really on a journey of space but to encourage the explorer within all of us. In this inpsiring talk he shows that the MONEY (we are constantly worrying about) should not be the reason why we should stop exploring, as he puts it---It will fund itself. So, enjoy

The exploration of the spacetime continuum or the new wild west, you be the judge. But money should not be the limiting factor.

All I know is we have looking up at the stars since the day we walked upright and wanted to travel there. Maybe now is the time, given that we might need to find a new home "out there" sooner than we'd like.