Humans have achieved some mediated presence throughout the Solar System, but the most extensive presence has been in orbit around Earth. Humans reached outer space mediated in 1944 (MW 18014) and have sustained mediated presence since 1958 (Vanguard 1),[a] as well as having reached space directly for the first time on 12 April 1961 (Yuri Gagarin) and continuously since the year 2000 with the crewed International Space Station (ISS), or since the later 1980s with some few interruptions through crewing its predecessor, the space station Mir.[4] The increasing and extensive human presence in orbital space around Earth, beside its benefits, has also produced a threat to it by carrying with it space debris, potentially cascading into the so-called Kessler syndrome.[5] This has raised the need for regulation and mitigation of such to secure a sustainable access to outer space.
For outer space being the dominant expanse of space, "space" is often used synonymously for outer space, referring to human presence in space to human presence across all of space, including astronomical bodies which outer space surrounds.
The United States has been using the term "human presence" to identify one of the long-term goals of its space program and its international cooperation.[1][9] While it traditionally means and is used to name direct human presence, it is also used for mediated presence.[1] Differentiating human presence in space between direct and mediated human presence, meaning human or non-human presence, such as with crewed or uncrewed spacecraft, is rooted in a history of how human presence is to be understood (see dedicated chapter).
Human, particularly direct, presence in space is sometimes replaced with "boots on the ground"[1] or equated with space colonization. But such terms, particularly colonization[9] and even settlement has been avoided[1] and questioned to describe human presence in space, since they employ very particular concepts of appropriation, with historic baggage,[10][11][12] addressing the forms of human presence in a particular and not general way.
Alternatively some have used the term "humanization of space",[13][14][15] which differs in focusing on the general development, impact and structure of human presence in space.
On an international level the United Nations uses the phrase of "outer space activity" for the activity of its member states in space.[6]
Human presence in outer space began with the first launches of artificial object in the mid 20th century, and has increased to the point where Earth is orbited by a vast number of artificial objects and the far reaches of the Solar System have been visited and explored by a range of space probes. Human presence throughout the Solar System is continued by different contemporary and future missions, most of them mediating human presence through robotic spaceflight.
First a realized project of the Soviet Union and followed in competition by the United States, human presence in space is now an increasingly international and commercial field.
Participation and representation of humanity in space is an issue of human access to and presence in space ever since the beginning of spaceflight.[16] Different space agencies, space programs and interest groups such as the International Astronomical Union have been formed supporting or producing humanity's or a particular human presence in space. Representation has been shaped by the inclusiveness, scope and varying capabilities of these organizations and programs.
Some rights of non-spacefaring countries to partake in spaceflight have been secured through international space law, declaring space the "province of all mankind", understanding spaceflight as its resource, though sharing of space for all humanity is still criticized as imperialist and lacking,[16][9] particularly regarding regulation of private spceflight.[17]
Additionally to international inclusion the inclusion of women,[18]people of colour and with disability has also been lacking.[19][20][21] To reach a more inclusive spaceflight some organizations like the Justspace Alliance[16] and IAU featured Inclusive Astronomy[22] have been formed in recent years.
Space activity is legally based on the Outer Space Treaty, the main international treaty. Though there are other international agreements such as the significantly less ratified Moon Treaty.
The Outer Space Treaty established the basic ramifications for space activity in article one:
"The exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind."
And continued in article two by stating:
"Outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."[23]
The development of international space law has revolved much around outer space being defined as common heritage of mankind. The Magna Carta of Space presented by William A. Hyman in 1966 framed outer space explicitly not as terra nullius but as res communis, which subsequently influenced the work of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS).[16][24]
Humans have been producing a range of radiation which has reached space unintentionally as well as intentionally, well before any direct human presence in space.
Electromagnetic radiation such as light, of humans, has been reaching even stars as far away as the age of the radiation.[25]
Beginning in the 20th century, humans have been sending radiation significantly into space. Nuclear explosions, especially high-altitude ones have since at times, starting with 1958, just a year after the first satellite Sputnik was launched, introduced strong and broad radiation from humans into space, producing electromagnetic pulses and orbital radiation belts, adding to the explosion's destructive potential on ground and in orbit.
Objects in Earth orbit including fragmentation debris. November 2020 NASA:ODPO
Space junk as product and form of human presence in space has existed ever since the first orbital spaceflights and comes mostly in the form of space debris in outer space. Space debris has been for example possibly the first human objects to have been present in space beyond Earth, reaching its escape velocity after being ejected purposefully from an exploded Aerobee rocket in 1957.[3] Most space debris is in orbit around Earth, it can stay there for years to centuries if at altitudes from hundreds to thousands of kilometers, before it falls to Earth.[29] Space debris is a hazard since it can hit and damage spacecraft. Having reached considerable amounts around Earth, policies have been put into place to prevent space debris and hazards, such as international regulation to prevent nuclear hazards in Earth's orbit and the Registration Convention as part of space traffic management.
Many firsts of human presence in space have been achieved by robotic missions. The first artificial object to reach space, above the 100 km altitude Kármán line, and therefore performing the first sub-orbital flight was MW 18014 in 1944. But the first sustained presence in space was established by the orbital flight of Sputnik in 1957. Followed by a rich number of robotic space probes achieving human presence and exploration throughout the Solar system for the first time.
Laika was sent into space in 1957, without plans for survival on return, becoming the first animal (including humans) to reach orbit.[36] Here in her flight harness on a Romanian stamp from 1959.
Since the very beginning of human outer space activities in 1944, and possibly before that,[37] life has been present with microscopic life as space contaminate and after 1960 as space research subjects. Prior to crewed spaceflight non-human animals had been subjects of space research, specifically bioastronautics and astrobiology, being exposed to ever higher testflights. The first animals (including humans) and plant seeds in space above the 100 km Kármán line were corn seeds and fruit flies, launched for the first time on 9 July 1946,[38] with the first fruit flies launched and returned alive in 1947.[39] In 1949 Albert II, became the first mammal and first primate reaching the 100 km Kármán line, and in 1957 the dog Laika became the first animal in orbit, with both also becoming the first fatalities of spaceflight and in space, respectively. In 1968, on Zond 5 turtoises, insects and planets became the first animals (incl. humans) and plants to fly to and returned safely from the Moon and any extraterrestrial flight. In 2019 Chang'e 4 landed fruit flies on the Moon, the first extraterrestrial stay of non-human animals.[40]
Plants first grown in 1966 with Kosmos 110[41] and in 1971 on Salyut 1, with the first producing seeds August 4, 1982 on Salyut 7.[42] The first plant to sprout on the Moon and any extraterrestrial body grew in 2019, on the Chang'e 4 lander.[43]
Plants and growing them in space and places such as the Moon have been important subjects of space research, but also as psychological support and possibly nutrition during continuous crewed presence in space.[42]
Direct human presence in space was achieved with Yuri Gagarin flying a space capsule in 1961 for one orbit around Earth for the first time. While direct human presence in open space, by exiting a spacecraft in a spacesuit, a so-called extravehicular activity, has been achieved since the first person to do so, Alexei Leonov, in 1965.
Though Valentina Tereshkova was in 1963 the first woman in space, women saw no further presence in space until the 1980s and are still underrepresented, e.g. with no women ever being present on the Moon.[18] An internationalization of direct human presence in space started with the first space rendezvous of two crews of different human spaceflight programs, the Apollo–Soyuz mission in 1975 and at the end of the 1970s with the Interkosmos program.
Space stations have harboured so far the only long-duration direct human presence in space. After the first station Salyut 1 (1971) and its tragic Soyuz 11 crew, space stations have been operated consecutively since Skylab (1973), having allowed a progression of long-duration direct human presence in space. Long-duration direct human presence has been joined by visiting crews since 1977 (Salyut 6). Consecutive direct human presence in space has been achieved since the Salyut successor Mir starting with 1987. This was continued until the operational transition from the Mir to the ISS, giving rise with its first occupation to an uninterrupted direct human presence in space since 2000.[4]
While human population records in orbit developed from 1 in 1961, 2 in 1962, 4–7 in 1969, 7–11 in 1984
and 13 in 1995,[44] to 14 in 2021, 17 in 2023[45] and 19 in 2024,[46] developing into a continues population of no less than 10 people on two space stations since 5 June 2022 (as of 2024).[47] The ISS has hosted the most people in space at the same time, reaching 13 for the first time during the eleven day docking of STS-127 in 2009.[48]
STS-131 and Expedition 23 crew members gather for a group portrait of 13 in 2010, which set the record of four women at the same time in space.[49]
Beyond Earth the Moon has been the only astronomical object which so far has seen direct human presence through the week long Apollo missions between 1968 and 1972, beginning with the first orbit by Apollo 8 in 1968 and with the first landing by Apollo 11 in 1969. The longest extraterrestrial human stay was three days by Apollo 17.
While most persons who have been to space are astronauts, professional members of human spaceflight programs, particularly governmental ones, the few others, starting in the 1980s, have been trained and gone to space as spaceflight participants, with the first space tourist staying in space in 2001.
By the end of the 2010s several hundred people from more than 40 countries have gone into space, most of them reaching orbit. 24 people have traveled to the Moon and 12 of them walked on the Moon.[50]
Space travelers have spent by 2007 over 29,000 person-days (or a cumulative total of over 77 years) in space including over 100 person-days of spacewalks.[51]
Usual durations for individuals to inhabit space on long-duration stays are six months,[52] with the longest stays on record being at about a year.
A permanent human presence in space depends on an established space infrastructure which harbours, supplies and maintains human presence. Such infrastructure has originally been Earth ground-based, but with increased numbers of satellites and long-duration missions beyond the near side of the Moon space-to-space based infrastructure is being used. First simple interplanetary infrastructures have been created by space probes particularly when employing a system which combines a lander and a relaying orbiter.
Space stations are space habitats which have provided a crucial infrastructure for sustaining a continuous direct human, including non-human, presence in space. Space stations have been continuously present in orbit around Earth from Skylab in 1973, to the Salyut stations, Mir and eventually ISS.
The planned Artemis program includes the Lunar Gateway a future space station around the Moon as a multimission waystation.[53]
Orbital altitudes of several significant satellites of Earth
For basic general outer space presence, as in Earth sub-orbital to orbital presence, see above the overlaping chapter of "Forms" of human presence in space.
Some interplanetary missions, particularly the Ulysses solar polar probe and considerably Voyager 1 and 2, as well as others like Pioneer 10 and 11, have entered trajectories taking them out of the ecliptic plane.
Humanity has reached different types of astronomical bodies, but the longest and most diverse presence (including non-human, e.g. sprouting plants[54]) has been on the Moon, particularly because it is the first and only extraterrestrial body having been directly visited by humans.
Future direct human presence beyond Earth's orbit is possibly going to be re-introduced if current plans for crewed research stations to be established on Mars and on the Moon are continued to be developed.
Concept art of the planned Lunar Gateway, serving as a communication hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation for crewed missions and holding area for rovers in Lunar orbit[56]
Human presence in the outer Solar System has been established by the first visit to Jupiter in 1973 by Pioneer 10.[33] Thirty years later nine probes had traveled to the Outer Solar System, and the first such probe (JUICE, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) by another space agency than NASA had just been launched on its way. Jupiter and Saturn are the only outer Solar System bodies which have been orbited by probes (Jupiter: Galileo in 1995 and Juno in 2016; Saturn: Cassini–Huygens in 2004), with all other outer Solar System probes performing flybys.
The Saturn moon Titan, with its special lunar atmosphere, has so far been the only body in the outer Solar System to be landed on by the Cassini–Huygens lander Huygens in 2005.
Expedition 43 crew celebrate a birthday in Zvezda the ISS service module, 2015.
Living in outer space is fundamentally different to living on Earth. It is shaped by the characteristic environment of outer space, particularly its microgravity (producing weightlessness) and its near perfect vacuum (supplying few and producing unhindered exposure to radiation and material from far away). Mundane needs such as for air, pressure, temperature and light have to be accommodated completely by life support systems. Furthermore movement, food intake and hygiene is confronted with challenges.
Research has begun into the culture and "microsocieties" that are formed in space, with space archeologists analyzing residue from space environments to learn about astronaut life.[60] A few incidents of astronauts from different countries having difficulties in getting along have also been studied.[61]
Impact, environmental protection and sustainability
This section is about the impact of human presence and the mitigation of any unwanted impact on space and human presence. For the purpose of sustaining human presence, see Human presence in space § Purposes and uses.
Human space activity, and its subsequent presence, can and has been having an impact on space as well as on the capacity to access it. This impact of human space activity and presence, or its potential, has created the need to address its issues regarding planetary protection, space debris, nuclear hazards, radio pollution and light pollution, to the reusability of launch systems, for space not to become a sacrifice zone.[62]
Sustainability has been a goal of space law, space technology and space infrastructure, with the United Nations seeing the need to advance long-term sustainability of outer space activities in space science and application,[6] and the United States having it as a crucial goal of its contemporary space policy and space program.[7][8]
Human presence in space is particularly being felt in orbit around Earth. The orbital space around Earth has seen increasing and extensive human presence, beside its benefits it has also produced a threat to it by carrying with it space debris, potentially cascading into the so-called Kessler syndrome.[5] This has raised the need for regulation and mitigation of such to secure a sustainable access to outer space.
The Nebra sky disc (c. 1800–1600 BCE), one of the oldest astronomical artifacts, displaying the Sun, possibly the Pleiades and the Moon as a crescent, and gold strips on the side of the disc marking the summer and winter solstices,[63][64] and the top representing the horizon[65] and north.
Individually or as a society humans have engaged since pre-history in developing their perception of space above the ground, or the cosmos at large, and developing their place in it.
Earth and Moon from Mars, imaged by Mars Global Surveyor on May 8, 2003, 13:00 UTC. South America is visible.
Earth observation has been one of the first missions of spaceflight, resulting in a dense contemporary presence of Earth observation satellites, having a wealth of uses and benefits for life on Earth.
Viewing human presence from space, particularly by humans directly, has been reported by some astronauts to cause a cognitive shift in perception, especially while viewing the Earth from outer space, this effect has been called the overview effect.
Parallel to the above overview effect the term "ultraview effect" has been introduced for a subjective response of intense awe some astronauts have experienced viewing large "starfields" while in space.[66]
Space observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope have been present in Earth's orbit, benefiting from advantages from being outside Earth's atmosphere and away from its radio noise, resulting in less distorted observation results.
Related to the long discussion of what human presence constitutes and how it should be lived, the discussion about direct (e.g. crewed) and mediated (e.g. uncrewed) human presence, has been decisive for how space policy makers have chosen human presence and its purposes.[67]
The relevance of this issue for space policy has risen with the advancement and resulting possibilities of telerobotics,[1] to the point where most of the human presence in space has been reallized robotically, leaving direct human presence behind.
The location of human presence has been studied throughout history by astronomy and was significant in order to relate to the heavens, that is to outer space and its bodies.
The historic argument between geocentrism and heliocentrism is one example about the location of human presence.
Realizations of the scales of space, have been taken as subject to discuss human and life's existence or relations to space and time beyond them, with some understanding humanity's or life's presence as a singularity or one to be in isolation, pondering on the Fermi paradox.
A diverse range of arguments of how to relate to space beyond human presence have been raised, with some seeing space beyond humans as reason to venture out into space and exploring it, some aiming for contact with extraterrestrial life, to arguments for protection of humanity or life from its possibilities.[68][69]
Considerations about the ecological integrity[70] and independence of celestial bodies, counter exploitive understandings of space as dead, particularly in the sense of terra nullius, have raised issues such as rights of nature.
Earth observation, like with this famous image of Earth called Blue Marble, has been one of the most basic uses of outer space, having enabled a critical awareness of the global dimension of humanity's impact on Earth.
Space and human presence in it has been the subject of different agendas.[2]
Human presence in space at its beginnings, was fueled by the Cold War and its outgrowing the Space Race. During this time technological, nationalist, ideological and military competition were dominant driving factors of space policy[71] and the resulting activity and, particularly direct human, presence in space.
With the waning of the Space Race, concluded by cooperation in human spaceflight, focus shifted in the 1970s further to space exploration and telerobotics, having a range of achievements and technological advances.[72] Space exploration meant by then also an engagement by governments in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Since human activity and presence in space has been producing spin-off benefits, other than for the above purposes, such as Earth observation and communication satellites for civilian use, international cooperation to advance such benefits of human presence in space grew with time.[73] Particularly for the purpose of continuing benefits of space infrastructure and space science the United Nations has been pushing for safeguarding human activity in outer space in a sustainable way.[6]
^ abcBartels, Meghan (May 25, 2018). "People are calling for a movement to decolonize space-here's why". Newsweek. Retrieved Oct 31, 2021. [Mae] Jemison's nonprofit 100 Year Starship initiative emphasizes using space-bound technology to improve life on Earth as well and frames travel around the phrase 'establishing a human presence.'" ... "Robert Zubrin, said that the one word he shies away from is colony, preferring settlement because the first "confuses the issue with imperialism."
^Peter Dickens; James Ormrod (2016). "Introduction: the production of outer space". In James Ormrod; Peter Dickens (eds.). The Palgrave handbook of society, culture and outer space. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1–43. ISBN978-1-137-36351-0.
^Arcynta Ali Childs (2011-06-11). "Q & A: Nichelle Nichols, AKA Lt. Uhura, and NASA". Smithsonian.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2019-01-09. Ten years after "Star Trek" was cancelled, almost to the day, I was invited to join the board of directors of the newly formed National Space Society. They flew me to Washington and I gave a speech called "New Opportunities for the Humanization of Space" or "Space, What's in it for me?" In [the speech], I'm going where no man or woman dares go. I took NASA on for not including women and I gave some history of the powerful women who had applied and, after five times applying, felt disenfranchised and backed off. [At that time] NASA was having their fifth or sixth recruitment and women and ethnic people [were] staying away in droves. I was asked to come to headquarters the next day and they wanted me to assist them in persuading women and people of ethnic backgrounds that NASA was serious [about recruiting them]. And I said you've got to be joking; I didn't take them seriously. . . . John Yardley, who I knew from working on a previous project, was in the room and said 'Nichelle, we are serious.' I said OK. I will do this and I will bring you the most qualified people on the planet, as qualified as anyone you've ever had and I will bring them in droves. And if you do not pick a person of color, if you do not pick a woman, if it's the same old, same old, all-white male astronaut corps, that you've done for the last five years, and I'm just another dupe, I will be your worst nightmare.
^Bohan, Elise; Dinwiddie, Robert; Challoner, Jack; Stuart, Colin; Harvey, Derek; Wragg-Sykes, Rebecca; Chrisp, Peter; Hubbard, Ben; Parker, Phillip; et al. (Writers) (February 2016). Big History. Foreword by David Christian (1st American ed.). New York: DK. p. 20. ISBN978-1-4654-5443-0. OCLC940282526.
^"Space Race". National Cold War Exhibition. Royal Air Force Museum. 2013. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
^Launiusa, Roger; McCurdyb, Howard (2007). "Robots and humans in space flight: Technology, evolution, and interplanetary travel". Technology in Society. 29 (3). Elsevier Ltd.: 271–282. doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2007.04.007.
Various conventions, treaties, agreements, memorandums, charters or declarations establishing and governing intergovernmental organisations or inter-agency bodies dealing with space affairs
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