Space:

Our Earth is only a tiny speck in our Galaxy, which is only a speck in the vastness of the universe. There is so much out there for us humans to discover; New worlds, new stars... Hell, we may not even be the only sapient species in the universe. When you really break it down, our species are merely bacteria inhabiting a pebble in the vast ocean that is space. Would it be possible however, realistically for us to expand beyond our little pebble and colonize the stars? That's quite the question.

The fact is our Earth will eventually be unable to support our species. We are reproducing too quickly, and using up more and more resources. It won't be long until we are forced to make a move out into space or face catastrophe.

But are we really that far from reaching this goal?

The first thing we must all realize about space is that it is very hostile. Open space is more hostile than nearly anywhere here on Earth. Picture yourself out in space, just floating; with no space ship or space suit. How long do you think you'd last before dying out?

The first thing you would be likely to notice is the distinct lack of oxygen. You would float around, desperately gasping for air. That wouldn't last very long however, you would pass out within' 15 seconds. Because there is no air pressure in the vacuum of space, there would be nothing keeping the fluids in your body in a liquid state. They would 'boil' so to speak; because of this, your body would lose heat and energy far more rapidly than it usually would. Your tissue would expand because of the boiling fluids, though you would not 'explode' like some science fiction would lead you to believe. You would face crippling temperatures of nearly -248 degrees Fahrenheit (-120 Celsius). Floating debris of rock, sometimes the size of a speck of dust, whip threw the air at blinding speeds. These would burst threw your body like bullets. despite everything listed above; the thing that is most likely to kill you is the radiation.

It is likely that you would die within' a single minute, losing consciousness after only 15-30 seconds.

Good thing we have sealed space suits right?

Despite the hostilities of space, mankind has proven before that it is willing and well prepared to deal with it. The moon landings, the ISS and the Mars rover all prove that.

But are we really prepared for a full on colony of civilians?

Once you get passed all of the dangers of space, the next biggest obstacle in the way of our future in space is money. Space travel is very expensive; manned space shuttles on average cost tax payers upwards to $500,000,000. If we were to send an entire colony of say, two hundred people into space, the cost could shoot up into the trillions. Not to mention billions of dollars actually setting up the colony and billions more keeping it running and sending more supplies into space.

In short, it would be more cost efficient to set up a colony at the bottom of the Ocean.

What about, dare I say it, habitable planets? Planets like earth that are more than capable of handling life. Full of it's own food sources and natural resources? That dream is not as impossible as it sounds.

Nasa has located several planets with Earth like properties. Kepler 22b for instance, is very similar to Earth's size and stays in it's stars habitable zone. The only problem? It's nearly 600 light years away.

Distance will always be a crippling problem, and until we have the technology earth like planets may stay out of our reach for quite some time. We may have to settle with the less cost efficient colonies on moons and dare I say it? Mars.

Many people however, say that we should focus more on bettering life on planet Earth. While that's all well and good, we can't keep this up forever. We will never be able to solve all of Earth's problems, it's just never going to happen. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can work towards moving forward.

Someone needs to make the first step. If we don't eventually expand, we will just be another species that eventually dies out; on our little pebble in the enormity of space.