User:Ghostwar666/sandbox2

The Second Exodus is the ongoing permanent migration of humans from Earth to space. The Exodus began in the early 21st Century and continues to this day. The physical exploration of space is conducted both by unmanned robotic probes and human spaceflight.

Brief History of Space Exploration[edit]

While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the early 20th century that allowed physical space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing scientific research, national prestige, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity, and developing military and strategic advantages against other countries.^[1]

Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and the United States. The launch of the first human-made object to orbit Earth, the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, on 4 October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 mission on 20 July 1969 are often taken as landmarks for this initial period. The Soviet space program achieved many of the first milestones, including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1) in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971.

After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space Station (ISS).

With the substantial completion of the ISS^[2] following STS-133 in March 2011, plans for space exploration by the USA remain in flux. Constellation, a Bush Administration program for a return to the Moon by 2020^[3] was judged inadequately funded and unrealistic by an expert review panel reporting in 2009.^[4] The Obama Administration proposed a revision of Constellation in 2010 to focus on the development of the capability for crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), envisioning extending the operation of the ISS beyond 2020, transferring the development of launch vehicles for human crews from NASA to the private sector, and developing technology to enable missions to beyond LEO, such as Earth–Moon L1, the Moon, Earth–Sun L2, near-Earth asteroids, and Phobos or Mars orbit.^[5]

In the 2000s, the People's Republic of China initiated a successful manned spaceflight program, while the European Union, Japan, and India have also planned future manned space missions. China, Russia, Japan, and India have advocated manned missions to the Moon during the 21st century, while the European Union has advocated manned missions to both the Moon and Mars during the 20/21st century.

From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism and then private space exploration of the Moon (see Google Lunar X Prize).

In 2020, SpaceX began the first successful ventures into the solar system. The company advocated for the terraformation and colonization of Mars, but they were met with little interest. By 2025 SpaceX had developed their Magellen class starship, designed for long distance self-sustaining space travel. The technology relied heavily on the use of solar sails and promising research developed at Biosphere 2. Elon Musk is regarded as the grandfather of modern space travel. Under his supervision the goal of SpaceX became to make interstellar travel achievable for the average person.

Cultural Shifts[edit]

Society in the 21st century shifted from macro to micro. Many successful micronations such as Ladonia, Talossa, and Seborga became the template for large living groups. Many of these groups were founded on some kind of commonality. Groups based around religion, race, language, and political beliefs would emerge. Many sociologists of the time believed that humanity was regressing back into a tribal phase.

The emergence of feasible long distance space travel and it's affordability was greatly appealing to these micronations. Many purchased ships so the community could migrate and create a utopia elsewhere.

Jungerian Philosophy[edit]

Sebastian Junger, an American journalist, inadvertently started a social movement with his book Tribe. In Tribe (2016) Junger studied war veterans from an anthropological perspective and asks how “do you make veterans feel that they are returning to a cohesive society that was worth fighting for in the first place?”. Junger's premise is that "soldiers all but ignore differences of race, religion and politics within their platoon," and upon return to America, find a fractious society splintered into various competing factions, often hostile to one another.^[6]

Junger argued that humans naturally desire a tribe, a sense of belonging and that it is not met in modern life. Junger states, "modern living has cost us^[7]." He believes that people need to feel authentic in what they do and how they live their lives.

This book garnered much attention and many people used it as their foundation when creating new neo-tribal groups.