The Moon, Mars, and the Asteroid Belt - All Within Reach Within the Next Few Generations

The renewed political and cultural interest in space exploration is, for Randall Carlson, more than a news cycle. It is an opening - and one he intends to use deliberately. Part of the purpose behind the conferences, podcasts, and lectures he is involved in is to build enthusiasm for a vigorous space programme among the generations who will actually be responsible for executing it.

The roadmap he describes is ambitious but not speculative. A return to the Moon, followed by crewed missions to Mars, followed eventually by sustained engagement with the asteroid belt - with its extraordinary concentration of mineral and elemental resources - is a sequence that current trajectory puts within the reach of the next few generations if the political will and public enthusiasm can be maintained. Randall's contribution to that effort is making the case that the stakes are high enough, and the possibilities large enough, to justify the sustained civilisational commitment it will require.