Are you thinking about buying that second home, condo, or time share?
What’s that old saying? “Buy real estate because they ain’t makin’ any more of it.” Something like that. Well, “they” are, actually. But the new real estate isn’t easy to get to. You’ll need a rocket.
Affluent humans have long built or bought second homes. Think of those Roman villas outside Rome, for example. You, for all I know, might want or already have a condo or second home on the Italian Riviera, the coast of Florida or Costa Rica, on the banks of some mountain lake, or in the Maldives. Just curious: Have you thought of Venus, maybe on a hill overlooking the Baltis Vallis?
Venus is definitely warm. Not a skier’s paradise. There’s no winter ice and snow. Actually, it’s hot enough at its surface to melt lead; Venus never has a cool breeze, let alone a cold spell. Well, maybe it’s a bit too hot, but apparently not too hot for Dimitry Rogozin, who recently referred to Venus as a “Russian planet.”* Think Dimitry is onto something? Is he looking to invest in a land deal for dachas?
You know it has to happen. What with the Chinese and others launching rocket after rocket to do what NASA and the then the ESA have been doing for decades, some country will inevitably plant a flag as NASA did on the moon. But, unlike Neil Armstrong, the next country’s astronaut (or cosmonaut) to land on an extraterrestrial body won’t claim the land for all humanity, but rather like Columbus say, “I claim this land for ________ (put the country’s name here).”
Neil Armstrong was probably an exceptional explorer because of his “one small step” statement. He was first; he was uninhibited by any locals; he could have said he claimed the moon as a territory of the USA. He could even have said, “I claim this satellite for Janet, my wife.” Tribes, countries, and empires have long made such claims. Look at recent history in the South China Sea, arguably international waters, where the Chinese government actually made an island and then claimed it as their own. Look at the artificial islands of Dubai. Humans are generally land-hungry. Humans are natural colonizers. Humans are, at heart, often avaricious. And hungry for more land, we disprove the old saying about "not makin' any more real estate."
Dimitry’s land claim for Russia is not surprising. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on another planet and send data back to Earth. But his claim raises questions. Should the USA lay claim to Eros and Japan to Itakawa and Ryugu while the ESA claims Comet 67P for its member nations? And what constitutes setting a foothold on a new body? Does spacecraft Cassini’s suicidal dive into Saturn and those intentional and unintentional crash-landings on the moon by Russia and the USA between 1959 and 1965 qualify as a foothold? Dimitry is certainly aware that the longest lasting Russian Venera lander survived only a couple of hours on the Venusian surface before succumbing to its atmosphere’s high-pressure acidic attack. Yet, in that short visit, the Russians beat everyone to squatter’s rights. See a problem with Dimitry’s claim? Well, Germany and France could also lay claim to Ryugu. And the USA and others have also sent spacecraft to Venus. Remember Magellan, the spacecraft that mapped the Venusian surface? If so, then recall that the Americas are named not after Columbus, but rather after Amerigo Vespucci, the cartographer who mapped them.
Squabbling over land claims wouldn’t be a new development for humans; just look at the battles among the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish over the already occupied Americas. Look at the battles between the Celts and Romans, or between them and the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who, by the way, unsuccessfully tried to fend off claims by the Danes and the Normans. Or observe the current tension over the borderlands between India and its neighbors, Turkey and the Kurds, and...
Among the Seven Deadly Sins is Avarice. Show some people that something is available by one means or another, and one of them will want it. Territory is a highly prized “something.” Apparently, Dimitry wants Venus because the Russians had that short-lived landing and many other Venera spacecraft missions. We could give him the benefit of doubt with regard to avarice. Maybe he was just being cosmopolitan and simply expressing his desire to discover extraterrestrial life for the sake of all humanity. Life on hot Venus? Yes, phosphine has recently been detected in the Venusian upper atmosphere? Isn’t that a possible sign of life? Maybe his motive is altruism, therefore, and not avarice. He knows, no doubt, that living on Venus is impossible. What could be his motive sans a plot with a dacha?
But back to avarice. We can’t seem to get through a year without some country making a claim on another or on what was previously considered property commonly owned by all humanity, like the seafloor. Sure, we might see humans establish colonies on the moon and on Mars in this century, maybe sooner rather than later. Will we then see an inevitable push for ownership?
That people have cooperatively lived in Antarctica without making claims to the land seems to be the exception in a long history of human colonization. But that harmony among peaceful researchers might one day turn into a land grab for resources exposed after the predicted ice melt. As for now, the cold and ice of Antarctica appear to be the analog of the heat and sulfuric acid of Venus. We can’t have what we can’t get to, and maybe that’s the only constraint on an otherwise avaricious species.
* https://news.yahoo.com/russias-top-space-official-tried-132218710.html
What’s that old saying? “Buy real estate because they ain’t makin’ any more of it.” Something like that. Well, “they” are, actually. But the new real estate isn’t easy to get to. You’ll need a rocket.
Affluent humans have long built or bought second homes. Think of those Roman villas outside Rome, for example. You, for all I know, might want or already have a condo or second home on the Italian Riviera, the coast of Florida or Costa Rica, on the banks of some mountain lake, or in the Maldives. Just curious: Have you thought of Venus, maybe on a hill overlooking the Baltis Vallis?
Venus is definitely warm. Not a skier’s paradise. There’s no winter ice and snow. Actually, it’s hot enough at its surface to melt lead; Venus never has a cool breeze, let alone a cold spell. Well, maybe it’s a bit too hot, but apparently not too hot for Dimitry Rogozin, who recently referred to Venus as a “Russian planet.”* Think Dimitry is onto something? Is he looking to invest in a land deal for dachas?
You know it has to happen. What with the Chinese and others launching rocket after rocket to do what NASA and the then the ESA have been doing for decades, some country will inevitably plant a flag as NASA did on the moon. But, unlike Neil Armstrong, the next country’s astronaut (or cosmonaut) to land on an extraterrestrial body won’t claim the land for all humanity, but rather like Columbus say, “I claim this land for ________ (put the country’s name here).”
Neil Armstrong was probably an exceptional explorer because of his “one small step” statement. He was first; he was uninhibited by any locals; he could have said he claimed the moon as a territory of the USA. He could even have said, “I claim this satellite for Janet, my wife.” Tribes, countries, and empires have long made such claims. Look at recent history in the South China Sea, arguably international waters, where the Chinese government actually made an island and then claimed it as their own. Look at the artificial islands of Dubai. Humans are generally land-hungry. Humans are natural colonizers. Humans are, at heart, often avaricious. And hungry for more land, we disprove the old saying about "not makin' any more real estate."
Dimitry’s land claim for Russia is not surprising. Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on another planet and send data back to Earth. But his claim raises questions. Should the USA lay claim to Eros and Japan to Itakawa and Ryugu while the ESA claims Comet 67P for its member nations? And what constitutes setting a foothold on a new body? Does spacecraft Cassini’s suicidal dive into Saturn and those intentional and unintentional crash-landings on the moon by Russia and the USA between 1959 and 1965 qualify as a foothold? Dimitry is certainly aware that the longest lasting Russian Venera lander survived only a couple of hours on the Venusian surface before succumbing to its atmosphere’s high-pressure acidic attack. Yet, in that short visit, the Russians beat everyone to squatter’s rights. See a problem with Dimitry’s claim? Well, Germany and France could also lay claim to Ryugu. And the USA and others have also sent spacecraft to Venus. Remember Magellan, the spacecraft that mapped the Venusian surface? If so, then recall that the Americas are named not after Columbus, but rather after Amerigo Vespucci, the cartographer who mapped them.
Squabbling over land claims wouldn’t be a new development for humans; just look at the battles among the Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish over the already occupied Americas. Look at the battles between the Celts and Romans, or between them and the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who, by the way, unsuccessfully tried to fend off claims by the Danes and the Normans. Or observe the current tension over the borderlands between India and its neighbors, Turkey and the Kurds, and...
Among the Seven Deadly Sins is Avarice. Show some people that something is available by one means or another, and one of them will want it. Territory is a highly prized “something.” Apparently, Dimitry wants Venus because the Russians had that short-lived landing and many other Venera spacecraft missions. We could give him the benefit of doubt with regard to avarice. Maybe he was just being cosmopolitan and simply expressing his desire to discover extraterrestrial life for the sake of all humanity. Life on hot Venus? Yes, phosphine has recently been detected in the Venusian upper atmosphere? Isn’t that a possible sign of life? Maybe his motive is altruism, therefore, and not avarice. He knows, no doubt, that living on Venus is impossible. What could be his motive sans a plot with a dacha?
But back to avarice. We can’t seem to get through a year without some country making a claim on another or on what was previously considered property commonly owned by all humanity, like the seafloor. Sure, we might see humans establish colonies on the moon and on Mars in this century, maybe sooner rather than later. Will we then see an inevitable push for ownership?
That people have cooperatively lived in Antarctica without making claims to the land seems to be the exception in a long history of human colonization. But that harmony among peaceful researchers might one day turn into a land grab for resources exposed after the predicted ice melt. As for now, the cold and ice of Antarctica appear to be the analog of the heat and sulfuric acid of Venus. We can’t have what we can’t get to, and maybe that’s the only constraint on an otherwise avaricious species.
* https://news.yahoo.com/russias-top-space-official-tried-132218710.html
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