Space Equilibrium

The world population is growing 1.1% year over year. That's 81,400,000 people a year which is 222,861 per day. An average human weighs 80.7 kg, so every day the mass of humans on the planet increases by 17,984,887 kg. That's just the mass of the people. If we want to get these people into space, at the very least, we need seats. For comparison, let's look at the Boeing 747. It's operating empty weight is 162,400 kg. It has four engines each which weigh about 3,905 kg. So, without engines, empty weight is 146,780 kg. It can seat 550 people maximum. That's 266.9 kg of plane for each person. Transporting people to space may require structure more resilient than in the 747, and thus more weight, but some weight of an airplane goes to large wings which are not needed. So, for our estimates, we will stick with this. Together, this brings us to a launch weight of 347.6 kg per person. Bottom line: 77,466,483.6 kg of people and seats to launch into space e

Since 1987 we've been using Earth resources faster than they are naturally created. Though this is a fact is undeniably debatable, it is generally accepted by scientists. There are five basic ways we can reach equilibrium: Do nothing. Eventually Earth will become so inhospitable that the human population will decline, until we go either extinct, or severely reduced. Reduce human population by having fewer children Reduce our consumption of resources through both good will and legislation Reduce our consumption by finding ways to live on Earth with less impact Get people off the planet faster than they are born Here I explore the final option. It is the only option which can sustain unbounded population growth. The resources available in the solar system as a whole greatly outstrip those available only on Earth. Though reaching the limits of our solar system may happen eventually, that point is so far in the future, it will be as realistic to look beyond our solar syste