For as long as humans have been conscious, they have been attracted to outer space. The sun, the stars, the moon… an endless number of elements that have flooded our skies and that mankind has come to worship as true gods in past times.
With the evolution of technology, this fascination with outer space is not diminishing, but changing. Gone are the times when man worshipped the stars of space as if they were gods, and yet, in a different way, this fascination with everything related to it continues.
Fiction trying to answer the eternal question
Undoubtedly, one of the most striking aspects for many is the eternal question, “Is there life on other planets? a question as juicy as it is controversial, which gives rise to countless theories. Since time immemorial we have tried to give shape to the creatures that inhabit other planets, pop culture has given us different beings from other spaces of the most popular (E.T., the Alien of the famous frnaquicia of horror movies and of course Star Wars).
A most peculiar approach to the types of creatures that would theoretically inhabit other planets is offered to us by the Warhammer 40k books. A series of military science fiction novels inspired by the deep and interesting lore of a board game rpg.
A fascination that will soon take us to Mars
It is no secret that technological advances in space travel are advancing by leaps and bounds. With the arrival of the companies Blue Origin (owned by Jeff Bezos) and SpaceX (owned by Elon Musk) and their attempts to make space travel cheaper by providing reusable rockets, it is clear that the space technology revolution is already a reality.
SpaceX in particular aims to be able to colonize Mars. An ambitious project that, although perhaps a long way off, seems likely to become a reality. In the same way, NASA has already announced that in 2025 it plans to land the first woman on the moon, and not only that, but this launch is an approach that will allow in the future to start testing to be able to colonize Mars.
Fascination turned into reality
There is no doubt that the fascination that human beings feel for outer space works as a powerful engine that pushes extraordinary people to get closer to it. As a result, new theories and groundbreaking discoveries emerge every few years that allow us to understand the universe better.
One cannot help but wonder how the primitive beings who worshipped the sun god would feel if they knew that their predecessors ended up colonizing other worlds. They would undoubtedly have laughed at what, for them, would be all purpose and which, for us, will soon be a reality.
Thinking about it, it is possible that even approaches that would be absurd for us today will end up becoming the reality for future generations. At the speed at which science has advanced in recent decades, we may not even have to wait long for this to happen.
Our ancestor’s fascination still prevails
Today there are still traces of this now forgotten worship of the stars. Probably the clearest element is Sunday, a day that literally means the day of the sun, and is that in pagan theology, the sun was the source of life and therefore was worshiped faithfully by the Romans (before converting to Christianity of course).
Despite this conversion, it was decided to adopt this sacred day within the new religion of the empire. A fact that also occurs with the 25th of December, winter solstice day that the Romans celebrated as part of their sun worship and that later when they were converted to Christianity came to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ.
Will humans eventually conquer space?
A question that would once have seemed crazy is gradually becoming an increasingly valid question. Not so long ago, the colonization of Mars would have seemed crazy to us, and yet it is gradually becoming a very feasible idea.
There is no doubt that, with the first approach to the colonization of another planet (and assuming that everything turns out to be satisfactory), progress towards the attempt to colonize other planets will be made by leaps and bounds. Now it only remains to be seen whether we, the men and women who live here today, will be able to witness such a revolutionary spectacle.
