space colonization
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Author(s):  
Bhairabi Prasad Sahu

This article focuses on the shifts in the ways of seeing the history and historiography of the emergence of agrarian landscapes, manufacture of crafts, and trade and commerce in north India, during the mid-first millennium bce to the 13th century. Continued manifestation of settled agrarian localities, or janapadas, with its attendant concomitant processes, is visibly more noticeable from the middle of the first millennium ce onward, though their early beginnings can be traced back to the later Vedic times. The study of the janapadas or localities and regions, as distinguished from earlier regional studies, focusing on the trajectory of sociopolitical developments through time is a development dating to around the turn of the 21st century. It has much to do with the recognition of the fact that historical or cultural regions and modern state boundaries, which are the result of administrative decision-making, do not necessarily converge. Simultaneously, instead of engaging in macro-generalizations, historians have moved on to acknowledge that spaces in the past, as in the present, were differentiated, and there were uneven patterns of growth across regions and junctures. Consequently, since 1990 denser and richer narratives of the regions have been available. These constructions in terms of the patterns for early India have moved away from the earlier accounts of wider generalizations in time and space, colonization by Gangetic north India, and crisis. Alternatively, they look for change through continuities and try to problematize issues that were earlier subsumed under broader generalizations, and provide local and regional societies with the necessary agency. Rural settlements and rural society through the regions are receiving their due, and so are their networks of linkages with artisanal production, markets, merchants, and trade. The grades of peasants, markets, and merchants as well as their changing forms have attracted the notice of the historian. This in turn has compelled a shift in focus from being mostly absorbed with subcontinental history to situating it in its Asiatic and Indian Ocean background.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonan Liu ◽  
Miaoxiao Wang ◽  
Yong Nie ◽  
Xiao-Lei Wu

AbstractMany organisms live in habitats with limited nutrients or space, competition for these resources is ubiquitous. Although spatial factors related to the population’s manner of colonizing space influences its success in spatial competition, what these factors are and to what extent they influence the outcome remains underexplored. Here, we applied a simulated competitive model to explore the spatial factors affecting outcomes of competition for space. By quantifying spatial factors, we show that colonizing space in a more dispersed manner contributes to microbial competitive success. We also find that the competitive edge deriving from a more dispersed manner in colonization can compensate for the disadvantage arising from either a lower growth rate or lower initial abundance. These findings shed light on the role of space colonization manners on maintaining biodiversity within ecosystems and provide novel insights critical for understanding how competition for space drives evolutionary innovation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 317-327
Author(s):  
Mirko Daniel Garasic

Space bioethics, or the bioethical approach to space exploration, is still a very limited field that mostly spins off from debates that we are having on Earth already. When discussing hypothetical scenarios such as that of colonizing Mars or other planets we tend to filter such conceptualizations through the eyes of our earthly standpoint. Yet, by looking into some of the approaches that various Posthumanist scholars with different levels of space exploration enthusiasm propose, we should resist the temptation to establish or reinforce a continuity between the ethical standards applied on Earth and Mars (or other planets or contexts in Space that substantially differ from Earth). This temptation is indeed very strong in the current literature; hence it needs to be addressed so to help us not being deviated from understanding what Mars or space colonization might indeed imply for humanity. This paper wants to introduce to a wider audience the concern that it is of crucial importance to acknowledge that the exceptionality of the conditions occurring in space should not be used as a tool to lower our guard towards a mass implementation of societal, biological and ethical revolutions on this planet and our world as the result of maladapting states of exceptionality that might work well in space but have a much weaker ethical legitimacy on Earth.


Author(s):  
Zhi Li ◽  

The concept of Space megastructures is originated from science fiction novels. They symbolize the material landscape form of a comprehensive advancement of intelligent civilization after the continuous development of technology. Space megacity is actually an expansion process of human development in the future. It is not only a transformation of space colonization but also a mapping of self-help homeland. Therefore, it is a symbol of technological optimism and a future utopia in the context of technology. In contemporary times, sci-fi movies use digital technology to translate the giant imagination in literature into richer digital image landscapes. Space giant cities are one of the most typical digital images with spectacle view, which reflects the impact of American sci-fi movie scene design on the landscape and preference that human will be living in the future. The aesthetic preferences and design principles of the future picture, and the aesthetic value of science fiction as a medium of imagination are revealed. The aim of this article is to explore the digital design style of space megastructure with utopia sense in science fiction movies, and analyzes its aesthetic connotation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaonan Liu ◽  
Miaoxiao Wang ◽  
Yong Nie ◽  
Xiao-Lei Wu

Many organisms live in habitats with limited nutrients or space, competition for these resources is ubiquitous. Although spatial factors related to population's manner of colonizing space influences its success in spatial competition, what these factors are and to what extent they influence the outcome remains under-explored. Here, we applied a simulated competitive model to explore the spatial factors affecting outcomes of competition for space. By quantifying spatial factors using 'Space Accessibility', we show that colonizing space in an anti-aggregation manner contributes to microbial competitive success. We also find that the competitive edge derived from being anti-aggregation in colonizing space, which results in a higher 'Space Accessibility', neutralizes the disadvantage arising from either lower growth rate or lower initial abundance. These findings shed light on the role of space colonization manners on maintaining biodiversity within ecosystems and provide novel insights critical for understanding how competition for space drives evolutionary innovation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Carlos García-Gómez ◽  
Marta Florido ◽  
Liliana Olaya-Ponzone ◽  
Juan Sempere-Valverde ◽  
César Megina

The present study constitutes the first evaluation of the space colonization strategies performed by Rugulopteryx okamurae when co-occurring with the resident macroalgal community in the introduced areas. Since the first apparition of the nonindigenous macroalga in the Strait of Gibraltar, its high propagation capacity together with its colonization ability has enhanced the establishment success of the species in detriment of the resident biota. In this study, we carried out observational surveys during 2017–2020 in order to assess the coverage levels of R. okamurae on different lighting conditions, surface orientations, and substrata types (artificial and natural). Results revealed that, beyond the high percent coverages already reported at illuminated and semi-illuminated natural rocky habitats, R. okamurae is able to settle on a wide variety of artificial substrata. The settlement performance of the species was also investigated and different mechanisms underlying the space colonization were proposed. Thus, R. okamurae was observed interacting with 43 resident macroalgal species at generally illuminated rocky habitats of the northern Strait coasts. Six colonization mechanisms were proposed for spatial growth scenarios. Overall, results pointed out that, in most of the cases where the invasive species co-occur with the resident community, R. okamurae would be favored as regards spatial growth success. Competitive interactions and environmental factors which influence results obtained must be addressed in order to fully predict impacts on resident communities. Moreover, together with previous scientific works, overall data provided in this study highlight the need to urgent implement management measures focused on habitats susceptible to be invaded, as well as studies on the ecology and dispersal vectors of R. okamurae in the Strait of Gibraltar and adjacent areas.


Author(s):  
Matthew R. Edwards

Abstract Assuming that securing the long-term survival of humans and Earth life is a valid goal, we briefly compare the strategies of building standard space colonies, such as on Mars, and embryo space colonization (ESC). In ESC embryos of humans and other Earth species would be sent to exoplanets and raised there via ectogenesis and android assistants. We find that the potential for securing long-term survival is far greater for ESC than for standard colonies, while the bioethical and other risks are far fewer.


Author(s):  
Konrad Szocik

Abstract The embryo space colonization (ESC) concept is an interesting, very rational and quite effective way to guarantee the survival of the human species, as long as the technology is achieved and no unforeseen complications arise during even many millions of years journey to an exoplanet. Despite these formal advantages of the concept, this paper points to a number of arguments against its validity. These arguments revolve around two issues. One is to point out that while the concept of saving the Homo sapiens species is noble and should be supported, the way of saving humanity envisioned by the ESC departs from what should be understood by the concept of saving humanity through space colonization. The second issue is to draw attention to the ethical controversies that make this concept perhaps unsuitable for implementation at all. At least some of these objections do not address the concept of saving humanity by sending adult living persons on space missions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Luigi Giuseppe Duri ◽  
Antonio Giandonato Caporale ◽  
Paola Adamo ◽  
Youssef Rouphael

In the last decade, a great deal of attention has been paid and many resources have been invested in space colonization. Indeed, many space agencies, perhaps most notably NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), have created programs that aim to establish a stable settlement on the Moon (ideally in the next few years), with additional future goals of a conducting the first manned mission to Mars. Bioregenerative Life-Support Systems (BLSS) will play a key role in these endeavors because it is unrealistic and incredibly difficult to provide all of the consumables that are necessary to keep the crew members on these missions alive due high production costs and the amount of planning that is required to ensure that these products maintain their quality. An alternative solution that can reduce the associated costs and that can support delivery can be provided through the implementation of BLSS with in situ resource utilization (ISRU). Specifically, this technology aims to improve the use of the regolith (the “soil” of a planet or a satellite) on the Moon and on Mars and to promote the re-use of the waste materials that are produced either during the journey or while living in these future colonies, such as human excreta and food residues. At present, little research has investigated the feasibility of use of these resources for crop production or the effects of these resources on crop yield and nutritional quality. Our work aims to fill this gap by using regolith simulants that have been mixed at different rates (0%, 30% or 50%) with a monogastric manure that has been sieved to 2 mm as plant growth substrates to evaluate their long-term effects on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). No synthetic fertilizers were delivered to the plants during the entire cultivation period, and the specimens were only provided deionized water. Our results show that the germination rate was around 97% under pure simulant conditions, whereas germination was inhibited in the substrates that contained the monogastric manure. Figure 1 shows the effects of monogastric manure, which was demonstrated to improve the fresh yield by 23% and 17% for the 30% and 50% of amendment treatments, respectively, compared to pure simulant.


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