are space colonies our future?

As western nations groan under the financial and social burden of massive immigration, refugee problems, lack of lebensraum and general unrest, it is natural that forward-thinking people like Stephen Hawking propose space colonies as a solution. NASA's recent announcement that it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, seems to be a step in that direction.

The renewed interest in space exploration, particularly of Mars, could be seen as a sign that some western leaders are seriously worried about the future, and lack of room may not be their primary worry.

Do our western leaders know something about an impending nuclear holocaust that they are not telling us about?

Following a nuclear holocaust, cocoon space colonies may indeed provide a new homeland for a few selective migrants, but like the nuclear bunkers on Earth they would only be available to the very rich and powerful.

It would be ironic if the enormous public, tax-payer funds given to space exploration are being used not to better mankind but to locate a new homeland -- or playground -- for the rich; but in 1492 such sentiments were also being expressed and eventually turned out to be ill-based.

In fact, the new worlds of America (until the revolution) and Australia (until the mid-1800s) were not so much playgrounds for the rich as dumping grounds for the undesirables.

Whenever anyone scoffs at the possibility that the Moon, Mars and beyond may one day be a homeland for millions of migrants from Earth, we should remember that there were similar scoffers when Columbus set off across an uncharted Atlantic Ocean looking for China and finding a brand new continent.

And, if our ancient ancestors were able to articulate their thoughts, they probably scoffed, too, when one of them shuffled out of the jungle determined to find a new place to live.

There may not be a gene for it, but the desire to emigrate -- to explore and find a new place to live -- must be hard-wired into us.

When one considers the fantastically long timeline of human life on Earth, the c.500 years since America was discovered and the c.200 years since Australia was discovered are but flickers of time.

At the rate the world's population is exploding it will be a necessity -- not just an innate desire to push the limits -- that we explore the galaxy.

By 2200, there will be colonies in outer space but whether they will be dumping grounds for the great unwashed or the last refuge for the rich and powerful after they nuked Earth remains for future generations to discover.