Jeff Bezos speaks during the Italian Tech Week about space. He believes that soon millions of people will live in space. However, they wouldn’t have to, because robots are much cheaper. And robotics has made tremendous progress in recent years.
Jeff Bezos had a conversation during the Italian Tech Week in Turin with John Elkann (CEO of Stellantis and Ferrari). In this conversation, which you can find online on YouTube, he explained that soon millions of people would live in space.
At the same time, he clarified that people would not be needed there at all, as robots could perform the tasks much more easily and cheaply. He says (from minute 48 of the video):
Well, I believe that in the coming decades millions of people will live in space.
This is interesting because they [the people] want that. Our robot technology is getting better and better. We don’t need people living in space. Everything we need to do when we have to carry out work on the lunar surface or elsewhere, we can do with robots, and that is much more cost-effective than sending people there.
There are many plans for living in space, but the costs are very high
How likely is that? Technological development is currently progressing rapidly. Space stations or even smaller settlements in space are already imaginable or even in planning today. Numerous concepts exist for how artificial gravity and life support systems could be implemented; the construction of space colonies for hundreds or thousands of people is conceivable, even if that would require enormous investments. A NASA expert explained this to the German-language Focus.de.
On the other hand, the costs for establishing and operating colonies in space are considered extremely high, and funding and practical implementation are not yet secured. Numerous unresolved issues such as radiation exposure, supply security, and psychological stress impose tight limits on the colonization of space.
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