White Paper 12: Our future? Space colonization and exploration

The exploration and colonization of the outer space represents a foreseeable future for the Humanity. This endeavour involves deepening our knowledge about the formation and evolution of the solar system, of other planetary systems, emergence of life (and its prospects once it exists), the interaction between Earth and Space (particularly with its Sun) and the impact of space conditions (radiation, gravity, etc.) on Earth-borne organisms. Materialization of this exploration and colonization currently drives technological developments in several fronts as optics, electronics and sensors just to mention a few. Other aspects as well law & ethics, psychology, biology, etc., cannot be discarded.