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Space Time
The Challenges of Having Children in Space
Tech titans like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk want human beings to move off-planet, but reproducing away from Earth could be incredibly difficult
The romantic lure of space travel runs deep. It’s difficult not to look up at a sparkling night sky and wonder what it might be like to pass beyond the confines of the Earth. It’s not just science fiction — plans to colonize the moon and Mars are spreading throughout the private space industry. Jeff Bezos — who funds the rocket company Blue Origin — recently unveiled his ambitions to one day build floating space stations called O’Neill colonies. But there is one thing that is rarely discussed when we dream about a new life in the off-world colonies: what would life be like for the children.
To look deeper into this issue, Michael Oman-Reagan space anthropologist and Vanier scholar at Memorial University recently published a paper in the journal Futures where he delved into the story of a young child named David Vetter, otherwise known as “the bubble boy.” Vetter was born with a rare genetic disease called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) that meant his immune system was so weak his body was always susceptible to infection. To stay safe, from the moment of his birth…
