Choke Points

Theorists argue relatively few civilizations will ever reach the stars because most will fail to successfully navigate through certain choke points-- overpopulation, environmental degradation, economic collapse, thermonuclear war, and others.  There are probably some we haven't even considered yet.

Human civilization is now confrontuing several of those.  An aggressive move into space to tap new resources, use new gravitational regimes, develop the technology base, deepen our understanding of physics and biology and other disciplines, and greatly, quickly expand the human economy could produce a vastly more wealthy society.  That, in turn, would provide more options to policymakers as some of those choke points loom.  The development of a private sector space industry holds promise for expanding the economy and creating those options, but whether humanity will ultimately reach the stars is still an open question.