Analog Space Missions: Earth-Bound Training for Cosmic Exploration

What are Analog Space Missions?

Analog space missions are a unique approach to space exploration, involving the simulation of extraterrestrial environments on Earth. These missions offer a valuable platform for scientific research, technological testing, and astronaut training, providing crucial insights into the challenges of spaceflight.

Key Features of Analog Space Missions

1. Earth-Based Simulations: These missions utilize terrestrial locations that closely resemble extraterrestrial environments, such as deserts, volcanic regions, and isolated research stations.

   

   Mars Desert Research Station

   
   

2. Controlled Environments: Simulated environments are meticulously designed to replicate specific aspects of spaceflight, including microgravity, radiation exposure, isolation, and confinement.

   

   simulated Mars habitat

   
   

3. Scientific Research: Analog missions serve as platforms for conducting experiments and studies on a wide range of topics, including human physiology, psychology, technology, and resource utilization.

4. Crew Training: These missions provide invaluable training opportunities for astronauts, allowing them to hone their skills and practice procedures in realistic conditions.

5. Technology Testing: New technologies and equipment are rigorously tested and refined in analog missions before being deployed in actual space missions.

Real-World Examples of Analog Space Missions

• NASA's HI-SEAS: This program simulates life on Mars in the remote volcanic environment of Hawaii.

  

  HISEAS habitat

  
  
• Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS): Located in the Utah desert, MDRS offers a Mars-like setting for research and training.
• European Space Agency's Concordia Station: This Antarctic research station replicates the isolation and extreme conditions of space exploration.
• ISRO's Analog Space Mission: India's space agency has recently launched its first analog space mission in Leh, Ladakh, to simulate life in an interplanetary habitat.

ISRO's Analog Space Mission: A Giant Leap for India

ISRO's analog space mission in Leh, Ladakh

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made a significant stride in its space exploration endeavors by launching India's first analog space mission in Leh, Ladakh, on November 1, 2024. This groundbreaking initiative aims to simulate the challenges of life in an interplanetary habitat, paving the way for future human space missions.

Key Features of ISRO's Analog Mission

• Extreme Environment: The mission is conducted in the harsh, high-altitude environment of Ladakh, which offers a unique setting to replicate the challenges of extraterrestrial conditions.

Ladakh landscape

• Simulated Habitat: A specially designed habitat is set up to mimic the confined and isolated conditions of a space station or a lunar base.
• Scientific Experiments: The crew members will conduct various scientific experiments to study human physiology, psychology, and the impact of isolation on cognitive functions.
• Technological Demonstrations: The mission will also serve as a platform to test and demonstrate advanced technologies, such as life support systems, communication systems, and robotics.

Significance of ISRO's Analog Mission

• Preparing for Future Missions: By simulating the challenges of long-duration space missions, ISRO aims to gain valuable insights into human factors, technological requirements, and operational procedures.
• Developing Indigenous Capabilities: The mission will help India develop indigenous capabilities in space technology, human spaceflight, and life support systems.
• Inspiring the Next Generation: The mission will inspire young minds and encourage them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

ISRO's analog space mission marks a significant milestone in India's space program. By undertaking such ambitious projects, India is positioning itself as a major player in the global space exploration community. As India continues to push the boundaries of space exploration, analog missions will play a crucial role in ensuring the success of future human missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.

Benefits of Analog Space Missions

• Risk Mitigation: By testing technologies and procedures in controlled environments, analog missions help reduce the risks associated with actual space missions.
• Scientific Advancement: These missions contribute significantly to our understanding of the human and technological challenges of space exploration.
• Public Engagement: Analog missions inspire public interest in space exploration and STEM fields.
• International Collaboration: Analog missions often involve international cooperation, fostering scientific exchange and collaboration.

The Future of Analog Space Missions

As we venture deeper into the cosmos, analog space missions will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of human spaceflight. By providing a realistic testing ground for technology, human factors, and operational procedures, these missions ensure the success of our ambitious endeavors.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

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You may also want to read more about space based systems here.

References

• NASA's HI-SEAS: https://www.hi-seas.org/
• Mars Desert Research Station: http://mdrs.marssociety.org/
• European Space Agency's Concordia Station: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Concordia
• ISRO's Analog Space Mission: https://www.isro.gov.in/
• NASA's Human Research Program: https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/
• ESA's Human and Robotic Exploration: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration  
• Canadian Space Agency's Human Space Flight: https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Human Spaceflight Program: https://humans-in-space.jaxa.jp/en/
• Roscosmos' Human Spaceflight Program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscosmos

Space, Exploratory Behavior And Genetics

So much for any psychological support for assertions regarding space as a universal or distinctive object of human curiosity. 

What about biology and anthropology? 

Isn't it true that numerous migrations, from the out-of-Africa exodus to the settlement of the American West, have altered our genetic heritage? 

Shouldn't this lengthy history of migration after migration have resulted in human creatures with a proclivity for exploration and movement? 

Genes linked to migratory behavior have been discovered, which is fascinating. 

Various polymorphisms of the dopamine D4 (DRD4) receptor, in particular, have been linked to the novelty seeking (NS) phenotype, which refers to a heritable tendency to respond strongly to novelty and cues for reward or relief from punishment, leading to exploratory activity in search of rewards as well as avoidance of monotony and punishment. 

Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios (Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios, 2009, 1655) The activities prompted by the many types of curiosity previously outlined are referred to as novelty-seeking. 

Individuals with the NS phenotype may engage in a variety of activities, including migratory activity and more "local" kinds of exploration, such as examining local resources. 

The link between DRD4 and the NS phenotype has yet to be shown clearly. 

• Some studies and meta-analyses have shown a link between specific DRD4 polymorphisms and novelty seeking, including Laucht, Becker, and Schmidt (2006), Munaf, et al. (2008), and Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios (2009). 

• Other investigations and meta-analyses, such as those by Schinka, Letsch, and Crawford (2002) and Kluger, Siegfried, and Ebstein, have shown no link (2002). 

The impacts of the environment on the determination of the novelty-seeking phenotype are largely unknown, as is the case with many phenotypic-genotype connections. 

Both sex (Laucht, Becker, and Schmidt 2006) and socioeconomic characteristics (Lahti, et al. 2006) have been suggested as possible modifiers of novelty seeking. 

Similarly, additional genes are likely to influence novelty seeking in substantial but unknown ways. 

• A priori, if there is a positive association between DRD4 and novelty seeking, as some of these findings suggest, then a positive correlation between the proportion of individuals with the relevant DRD4 polymorphisms in a population and the population's distance from East Africa would not be unreasonable. 

• As Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios point out, traits associated with novelty seeking, such as "efficient problem solving," "under-reactivity to unconditioned aversive stimuli," and "low emotional reactivity in the face of preserved attentional processing of emotional stimuli," may have been advantageous during migration periods (Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios 2009, 1658). 

Other researches have backed up this claim. 

There is "a very high connection between the number of long alleles of the DRD4 gene in a population and its prehistorical macro-migration histories," according to Chen et al. (1999, 317). (It's worth noting that 7R is the most prevalent DRD4 long allele.) 

What is the source of this link? 

Two theories are proposed by Chen et al. 

• One is what I call the "wanderlust" theory, which claims that DRD4-related qualities encouraged people to migrate. 

• The second idea is what I term the "selection" hypothesis, according to which DRD4-related features were chosen for after migration. 

The wanderlust theory, according to Chen et al., has "limited evidence": Immigrants have nearly the same rate of long alleles of DRD4 as their respective reference groups in their native country. 

• These findings show that migratory tribes' greater rate of long alleles may have resulted from adaptation to the unique needs of migration. 

• To put it another way, Chen, et alresults .'s show that the 7R variation of DRD4 (along with other long alleles) was selected for as a consequence of migration, for essentially the same reasons as Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios: Long alleles (e.g., 7-repeats) of the DRD4 gene have been associated to novelty-seeking personality, hyperactivity, and risk-taking behaviors, according to prior studies.

The inquisitive part of human nature seems to be the common thread that runs across all of these actions. 

• It is reasonable to argue that exploratory behaviors are adaptive in migratory societies because they allowed for more successful resource exploitation in the particular environment migration entails—which is typically harsh, constantly changing, and always providing a plethora of novel stimuli and ongoing survival challenges. 

• (320, Chen et al., 1999) Following study has backed up Chen, et al preference's for the selection hypothesis over the wanderlust theory. 

There is a substantial amount of evidence indicating qualities associated with novelty seeking DRD4 alleles have adaptive relevance for people living in migratory communities. 

This does not bode well for efforts to legitimize the exploration or settlement of space on the basis of supposedly intrinsic exploratory or migratory inclinations. 

Novelty-seeking behaviors are not the only candidate explananses for why NS-alleles of DRD4 were adaptive post-migration. According to Ciani, Edelman, and Ebstein, “the DRD4 polymorphism seems also associated with very different factors, such as nutrition, starvation resistance and the body mass index” and that “it is possible that these factors alone might have conferred an advantage of selected alleles, such as 7R, on nomadic individuals compared with sedentary ones” (2013, 595).

• In the event that people are genetically or mentally predisposed to exploration or migration, this has minimal bearing on space exploration and migration in particular. 

• We may all be interested and participate in exploratory activity, but we all do so in our own unique way. 

• We aren't all enthralled by the same things, and we don't all explore for the same reasons or in the same manner. 

Importantly, the desire to travel or move to unknown regions in space is not a universal aspect of human psyche or biology. 

• Though some of us may have one of the DRD4 gene variants linked to ancient migration, there is more evidence that these genes were chosen after migration rather than before it (because it is likely these genes were adaptive for migrants28). 

• And perhaps also maladaptive for individuals in societies that do not provide outlets for novelty seeking, which has been proposed as an explanation for ADHD, substance abuse, and compulsive gambling in modern sedentary societies; see the references in Roussos, Giakoumaki, and Bitsios (2009).

• This isn't conclusive evidence that DRD4 or another gene (or group of genes) was not a driving force behind migration, but there's clearly a lack of compelling evidence that it was. 

As a result, we can't use the presence of particular DRD4 polymorphisms in certain people as proof that the urge to explore and colonize space is in our genes. 

While it is conceivable that future study may find a significant genetic predictor of behaviors such as space curiosity or a desire or impulse to explore space, there is currently no evidence that these behaviors have a distinct genetic foundation. 

As a result, any reasoning for space travel that presupposes differently should be rejected at this time.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

You may also want to read more about Space Exploration, Space Missions and Systems here.

References and Further Reading:

Chen, Chuansheng, et al. 1999. Population Migration and the Variation of Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Allele Frequencies Around the Globe. Evolution & Human Behavior 20: 309–324.

Ciani, Andrea, Shany Edelman, and Richard Ebstein. 2013. The Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Exon 3 VNTR Contributes to Adaptive Personality Differences in an Italian Small Island Population. European Journal of Personality 27: 593–604.

Laucht, Manfred, Katja Becker, and Martin Schmidt. 2006. Visual Exploratory Behavior in Infancy and Novelty Seeking in Adolescence: Two Developmentally Specific Phenotypes of DRD4? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 47: 1143–1151.

Roussos, Panos, Stella Giakoumaki, and Panos Bitsios. 2009. Cognitive and Emotional Processing in High Novelty Seeking Associated with the L-DRD4 Genotype. Neuropsychologia 47: 1654–1659

Schinka, J. A., E. A. Letsch, and F. C. Crawford. 2003. DRD4 and Novelty Seeking: Results of Meta-Analyses. American Journal of Medical Genetics 114: 643–648.

Wang, Eric, et al. 2004. The Genetic Architecture of Selection at the Human Dopamine Receptor D4 (DRD4) Gene Locus. American Journal of Human Genetics 74: 931–944.

NASA 4-Wheel DuAxel Rover To Explore Moon, Mars, And Asteroids.

 

The adaptability of a flexible rover that can travel long distances and rappel down hard-to-reach regions of scientific interest was shown in a field test in California's Mojave Desert. 

DuAxel is a pair of Axel robots intended to investigate crater walls, pits, scarps, vents, and other severe environments on the moon, Mars, and beyond. 

• The robot's capacity to split in half and dispatch one of its parts - a two-wheeled Axle robot - down an otherwise impassable hill is shown in this technological demonstration produced at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 

• The rappelling Axel may then seek out regions to research on its own, securely navigate slopes and rough barriers, and return to dock with its other half before traveling to a new location. 

• Although the rover does not yet have a mission, essential technologies are being developed that might one day assist mankind in exploring the solar system's stony planets and moons.

DuAxel is a development of the Axel system, a flexible series of single-axle rovers meant to traverse high-risk terrain on planetary surfaces, such as steep slopes, boulder fields, and caverns — locations that existing rovers, such as Mars Curiosity, would find difficult or impossible to approach. 

DuAxel's Advantages:

To cover greater distances, two connected Axel Rovers are used: 

• DuAxel travels large distances by connecting two Axel rovers. 

• They divide in two when they approach a steep slope or cliff so that one tied Axel may rappel down the steep danger to reach otherwise inaccessible area while the other works as an anchor at the top of the slope. 

Tether that can be retracted: 

• The Axel rover can lower itself down practically any sort of terrain by reeling and unreeling its built-in rope. 

Greater Maneuverability: 

• The two-wheeled axle simply spins one of its wheels quicker than the other to turn. 

• The core cylinder between the wheels houses the sensors, actuators, electronics, power, and payload.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan

Find Jai on Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram

You may also want to read more about Space Exploration and Space Systems here.

References & Further Reading:

JPL Robotics: The Axel Rover System

Educational Resources:

Student Project: Design a Robotic Insect.

Educator Guide: Design a Robotic Insect.

Meet VIPER, NASA's Lunar Ice Hunter Rover!

 

NASA chooses a Moon location for an ice-hunting rover. 

NASA is hoping that the robot will confirm the existence of water ice under the surface, which may be turned into rocket fuel for trips to Mars in the future. 

NASA said on Monday that in 2023, it will deploy an ice-seeking rover in the Nobile Crater, an area of the Moon's south pole. 

The space agency is hoping that the robot will confirm the existence of water ice under the surface, which may one day be turned into rocket fuel for trips to Mars and beyond. 

"Nobile Crater is an impact crater near the south pole that formed as a result of a collision with another smaller celestial objects," NASA's planetary science division director Lori Glaze told reporters. 

It's one of the coldest places in the solar system, and it's only been studied from afar using instruments from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. 

Glazer said, "The rover will get up up and personal with the lunar dirt, even digging several feet deep." The robot is known as the VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover). 

It has the proportions of a golf cart – five feet by five feet by eight feet (1.5 meters by 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters) – and resembles droids from Star Wars. 

It is 950 pounds in weight (430 kilograms). VIPER, unlike rovers on Mars, can be controlled in near real time because to its close proximity to Earth - just around 200,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) or 1.3 light seconds. 

The rover is also quicker, reaching a maximum speed of 0.5 mph (0.8 kph). 

VIPER is a solar-powered robot that has a 50-hour battery, can endure severe temperatures, and can "crab walk" sideways to keep its panels facing toward the Sun to keep charging. 

The VIPER crew aims to discover how frozen water got to the Moon in the first place, how it stayed frozen for billions of years, how it escapes, and where it goes now in terms of the mission's scientific objectives. 

Artemis is America's plan to return people to the Moon, and this mission is part of it. 

The first crewed mission is scheduled for 2024, although it will most likely take occur much later due to delays in many areas.

The ice-hunting Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) will land near the moon's south pole, just west of Nobile Crater (Sept. 20). 

VIPER will go to the moon in late 2023 on Griffin, a lander developed by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic and launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. 

In a statement, Daniel Andrews, VIPER project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, stated, "Selecting a landing location for VIPER is an exciting and significant choice for all of us." 

Andrews said, "Years of research have gone into assessing the arctic area VIPER will investigate." "VIPER is venturing into unknown terrain, guided by science, in order to test theories and disclose crucial data for future human space travel." 

VIPER is a key component of NASA's Artemis program, which seeks to create a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around the moon by the end of the next decade. 

According to NASA experts, achieving this objective would require significant utilization of lunar resources, particularly water ice. 

According to observations by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and other spacecraft, the moon has a lot of water ice, particularly towards its poles in permanently shadowed regions (PSRs). 

VIPER is intended to validate such research by informing scientists about how much ice is really there and how accessible it is to humans. 

The Nobile site is 36 square miles in size (93 square kilometers). 

The solar-powered VIPER, which weighs 950 pounds (450 kilograms), will measure and describe the water ice under its wheels at various sites throughout Nobile, including PSRs, which are among the coldest places in the solar system. 

VIPER will collect samples from up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) down over the period of at least 100 Earth days, utilizing three spectrometers and a drill. 

"The data VIPER returns will provide lunar scientists around the world with more insight into our moon's cosmic origin, evolution, and history, and it will also help inform future Artemis missions to the moon and beyond by allowing us to better understand the lunar environment in these previously unexplored areas hundreds of thousands of miles away," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said. 

The VIPER team had chosen four candidate landing locations for the four-wheeled robot near the lunar south pole. 

VIPER project scientist Tony Colaprete of NASA Ames stated during a press briefing today that the other three were a region outside Haworth Crater, a ridgeline extending from Shackleton Crater, and a location near Shoemaker Crater. 

According to Colaprete, all four candidate locations are interesting and seem to be acceptable both scientifically and logistically. 

"Ultimately, it came down to the overall number of working days," he stated at a press conference today, adding that a "working day" is one during which the rover has enough sunlight to function while still being able to communicate with Earth. 

(VIPER's connection with its handlers will be direct; the robot will not utilize a relay satellite.) 

"To complete our mission objectives, we'll need at least 10 or so days," Colaprete added. "At Nobile, we get 40 or more, which is much more than any of these other locations." 

According to NASA officials, the entire cost of VIPER's mission will be about $660 million, including $433.5 million for mission development and operations and $226.5 million for the delivery contract with Astrobotic, which includes the cost of launch. 

NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program was used to sign the delivery contract. 

While VIPER will be NASA's first unmanned rover to land on the moon, it will not be the agency's first wheeled lunar vehicle of any kind: during the last three Apollo missions in 1971 and 1972, NASA deployed astronaut-driven moon buggies.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan 

You may also want to read more about Space Exploration, Space Missions and Systems here.

Space Exploration, Curiosity, and Human Psychology.

Emotions and actions are involved in genetic and anthropological considerations of exploration and migration, it is worth outlining briefly a psychological notion of curiosity. 

Despite the fact that psychology has numerous ideas on human curiosity25, one key discovery is that it is extremely idiosyncratic. 

While it is true that all people are inquisitive in some way, this curiosity manifests itself in a variety of ways. 

The difference between cognitive or epistemic curiosity and sensory or perceptual curiosity is worth noting. 

“The need for new information” is referred to as cognitive curiosity, while “the desire for new experiences and thrills” is referred to as sensory curiosity. 

The difference between particular and diversive curiosity is another important distinction. 

Diverse curiosity refers to a broad need for perceptual or cognitive stimulation, while specific curiosity refers to a desire for a specific piece of knowledge (Kidd and Hayden 2015, 450). 

As a result, knowing that someone is inquisitive tells you very little about them since they may exhibit specific cognitive curiosity, diversive cognitive curiosity, specific sensory curiosity, or diversive sensory curiosity. 

Furthermore, knowing that someone is inquisitive in one of these ways tells us nothing about what kinds of knowledge or experiences would help them fulfill their curiosity. 

The details differ greatly from person to person, and there is no evidence that knowledge and feelings linked to any one subject or area, including space travel, serve as common or universal objects of interest. 

Nonetheless, there is a significant link between curiosity and exploration— but only in a psychological and biological sense: 

Exploration includes finding new information to address a problem through observation, consultation, and focused thought (specific exploration), as well as new sensory experiences and thrills to broaden one's knowledge into the unknown (diversive exploration). 

Curiosity, according to a definition that connects the two categories, is the need for new knowledge and sensory experiences that drives environmental exploration. 

Curiosity motivates exploration, but it is usually much more mundane acts of information or sensation seeking, such as tinkering with a new toy, surveying one's local environment (be it one's neighborhood, office, or refrigerator), or experimenting with hallucinogens, rather than something as lofty as sending humans to explore the Moon. 

It would be an equivocation to conclude from the facts that we are all inquisitive in some way and that we are all explorers in some way that humans in general are interested about and want to explore space in particular. 

Individuals may be interested about and want to explore space, but this does not define the species; to argue differently risks the composition fallacy.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan 

You may also want to read more about Space Exploration, Space Missions and Systems here.

SPACE AND THE DESIRE TO EXPLORE

An argument for a duty to explore space is that humans can only fulfill some inherent human impulses via space exploration, such as the drive to explore or move. 

The main activities involved by such a duty would be human space exploration and space colonization. 

Robert Zubrin, the founder of the Mars Society, is one of the proponents of this logic: 

One of our primary adaptations is the human desire to explore. 

Because our forefathers did, and because we are alive because they did, we have a fundamental desire to see what is on the other side of the hill. 

As a result, I am confident that mankind will go into space. 

If we didn't, we'd be less than human. 

Carl Sagan and Ian Crawford are two other proponents. 

In Cosmos, Sagan says, 

"We began on our cosmic journey with a question first posed in the infancy of our species and asked again with undiminished amazement in each generation: 

What are the stars?" Exploration is ingrained in our DNA. 

We started out as wanderers, and we still are. 

We've spent much too much time on the cosmic ocean's beaches. 

Finally, we're ready to set sail for the stars. 

Meanwhile, Crawford makes an even stronger case for space travel as a need for humanity's survival: 

There are grounds to believe that as a species, Homo sapiens is genetically inclined to exploration and colonization of an open frontier. 

Access to such a frontier, at least vicariously, may be psychologically essential for human civilizations' long-term well-being. 

It's essential to highlight that this is a human trait, not just a Western one, since it led to our colonization of the whole globe after our development as a species in a geographically limited area of Africa. 

Regardless of how seriously these arguments are taken, it must be true that if we participate in cosmic research, our perspectives will be wider and our culture will be richer than if we do not. 

Despite its cult following, claiming that human nature is characterized by exploratory and migratory tendencies is problematic. 

For starters, such statements are ambiguous since they may be construed in one of three ways: Such statements may be referring to the notion that mankind has a fate or "destiny" in space. 

Such statements may be referring to the notion that inquisitive and migratory habits are fundamental to human civilizations. 

On an individual, biological level, such statements may relate to the notion that inquisitive and migratory tendencies are fundamental characteristics of humans. 

These are the spiritual, cultural, and biological manifestations of the notion that mankind is characterized by adventurous and migratory inclinations. 

If at least one version of the assertion that exploratory and migratory inclinations define humankind is true, then such a claim may be used as a premise in an argument supporting a duty to support those spaceflight activities that fulfill these desires. 

To begin, even if it is undisputed that at least one formulation of the claim is true, we would risk the naturalistic fallacy, as Rayna Slobodian (2015) acknowledges, if we conclude directly from one of these formulations that it would be desirable for humans to act on these urges. 

At the very least, it might be argued that acting on these impulses does more good than not acting on them, whether via the fulfillment of wants or the realization of positive outcomes. 

As a result, it would be easy to dismiss this argument by claiming that funding kinds of spaceflight that fulfill desires to explore or migrate would be insufficiently beneficial. 

I will argue that the scientific exploration of space produces enough good, therefore I do not want to go down this path of rejecting a duty to fulfill our claimed desire to explore. 

Instead, I will argue against the first assumption, namely, that any articulation of the assertion that mankind is characterized by exploratory and migratory inclinations contains little meaningful reality. 

However, space constraints prevent a comprehensive examination of all three versions. 

As a result, I'll just address my problems with the third, biological formulation; for further information on the mystical and cultural formulations.

So, for the time being, I'd want to concentrate on the argument that inquisitive and migratory behaviors are necessary human characteristics in a biological or genetic sense. 

We'll need to look at psychology, anthropology, and genetics for some answers.

~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan 

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