Just this week, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in a series of tweets, announced its plan to reach Mars in unmanned missions by 2018.  While NASA has announced its own plan for landing humans there by 2030, Musk is not alone among private entrepreneurs – Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson included —  aggressively advocating for more R&D into space exploration. And these innovators are not just thinking about exploration, but serious colonization. In Musk’s words: “It’s a fundamental decision we have to make as a civilization. Mars is the next, natural step. In fact, it’s the only planet we really have a shot at establishing a self-sustaining city on.”

Sounds like the stuff of science fiction is on its way to becoming science fact. To get our heads around these developments and what the next steps in space exploration could look like, I spoke with Allen Steele, an award winning writer whose most recent book, Arkwright, was published in March. Arkwright, all too timely given Musk’s high-profile announcement, follows the fictional Arkwright Foundation through multiple generations, from its founding by wealthy science fiction writer Nathan Arkwright,  as the foundation builds a human colony beyond Earth.

As one review noted, “Science fiction can’t really predict the future, but it can position itself to preempt it: it can inspire a direction that we can take.” So what could be the future of humanity, on or beyond Earth?

Allen Steele has been writing science fiction since 1988, and is the winner of three Hugo Awards. Before starting his career as a novelist, he had worked as a journalist. He has served on the Board of Advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  In April 2001, he testified before the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics of on space exploration in the 21st century. Steele’s almost innumerable essays, novellas, novels, and other works are available in twelve languages.

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