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Future Directions
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As its manufacturing facilities and population grow, and as our experience in constructing massive space-based structures builds, the L-5 work sites will be expanded into one or more full-fledged, self-sufficient colonies. The space colonies constructed here will ultimately lead to the expansion of the human race beyond the limits of the Earth-Moon system. Slowly rotating to provide artificial gravity and to achieve thermal stability, these autonomous units will be able to offer a wide range of environments, services, and comforts to the population of the growing space-based civilization. With closed and functional ecosystems, the colonies will become truly independent, at least in terms of survival. Thus freed of worries about when shipments of critical materials will arrive, the colonists will have time and energy to turn their attention to other places in space. From New Technopolis, as this base may be called, with its flourishing culture and scientific interests, we will launch exploratory missions, both robotic and manned, to many other locations in the solar system. After analyzing the data returned by these missions and charting a new course of action, we will build mobile colony units at L-5, which are then dispersed throughout the solar system. Working in both space- and planetary-based development centers, scientists will be directed to research spacecraft drive options, with the intent of replacing the clumsy, dangerous rockets used today. When the effort has come to fruition, a truly revolutionary change in our methods and interplanetary development will be possible.
Ultimately, with expansion and diversification of the human race across the Solar System a reality, we will once again be turning to a new frontier. It then will be another time of expanding our minds and broadening our horizons, and to establish an interstellar exploration and development program. I would hesitate today to predict the methods and mechanisms that will be employed, but there is one thing I am sure of: It will happen, and sooner than most of us realize, but only if we have the courage and confidence to move now to step off the planet that has been our home for all of our recorded history.
A company's long-range plans shape the character of the entire firm, from the day it is started. Those that are concerned only with an immediate return, and have no long term goals, are bound to disappear more quickly than they appeared on the scene. Firms with a multiplicity of objectives can become divided at an inconvenient point, unless a prioritization of those goals is clearly set, and held to, by the company's management. This is not to say that a company's long term objectives cannot change; indeed, they must, as old ones are achieved, new ones must be set. However, when changing its direction, a company needs to be certain that the new path is an evolutionary step, rather than a radical move that could destroy the firm. In planning its activities, therefore, management must not only be concerned with this year's bottom line, but the next ten, the next twenty, even the next hundred year's results, and how today will influence the whole picture.
As is stated at the beginning of the FKE Space Program General Plan, the design and construction of space colonies, in the shortest possible time frame, is the primary objective of FKE (the parent company of The L5 Development Group). Nearly all of the efforts that company presently plans are directed toward that end. Recognizing, however, that its goals will be accomplished, and that the firm will need an established direction once it has been achieved, several longer-range objectives have been defined. These include:
- Life extension. Few people want to die "when their time comes." Through investigations into the causes of death, we can hope to gain more time to achieve our objectives, and to enjoy the fulfillment of our dreams.
- Interstellar travel, exploration and trade. Traveling to the Moon, or even to Jupiter or Pluto, will be tremendous steps, even as they become more commonplace events than they are today. However, these are only the very beginnings of a much greater development: expansion of the human race into the universe at large. As we expand our sphere of influence, we will probably encounter alien civilizations, a prospect which holds the potential of such a vast change that we can really have no idea of how big it will be until it happens.
- Basic scientific research. The physical exploration of the universe is bound to bring us to situations and conditions we have no comprehension of, let alone an awareness of. Only through research into the ways the universe is constructed, and how it works, can we hope to gain the type of understanding we will need to be able to deal with the future.
FKE is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a space-oriented company. The firm has recognized a vast array of needs which can be satisfied through development of a space program, and has committed itself to a plan of action which will satisfy those needs. That plan is its space program, a program destined to cause the company to earn its motto: "Leaders in Growth!"
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