

Policy Area
Priority Level
Last Updated
Space
Long-Term
August 17, 2024
The RPC will provide the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), working in conjunction with Canadian post secondary institutions, a one-time grant to form and lead a technical working group with the primary purpose of researching the feasibility of commencing construction of two small-scale test systems one capable of terraforming Mars and another Venus by 2070. The findings of the working group's report will describe the necessary technologies which don't currently exist and the materials which aren't currently available, which will in turn inform future government research grants and infrastructure investments.
We are on the verge of an age of space exploration fueled by unprecedented capability of individuals to create and operate private space vehicles. As a result, it's time to catch up - and get ahead - of these changes to prevent repeating in space the same mistakes we've made here on Earth.
Hand-in-hand with exploration of space will inevitably come human expansion. In 1967, humanity had the foresight to create the Outer Space Treaty[1] which sought to protect space from unsustainable exploitation and dangerous weaponization. With all that's changed in more than 50 years, it's time to update international treaties governing human expansion into the infinite dark void.