All these processes will become intensified when man carries out his activities in space. When manned space stations are put into orbit around the Earth, the Sun, and other celestial bodies, and when large scientific bases are established on other planets, it will be necessary to solve the problems involved in the creation of an artificial environment suitable for human beings, This means altering the natural environment in space. As Marx has said, man is always compelled to struggle with nature in order to maintain his life and propagate, and in the course of this struggle he creates another, artificial, "humanized" nature, which satisfies his needs and demands. Now since man has already had to cope with the problem of creating a more favorable environment for himself on Earth, where he was born and where he evolved, and has even had to employ cosmic forces in the process, he will already be armed when he emerges into space. Further more, the conversion of nature in space and the development of a space industry will be spurred by a number of factors that are not commonly found on Earth. First and foremost there are the extreme conditions prevailing in space that are normally fatal to man and which will make it necessary to produce and maintain an artificial environment in space within which man will be able to live and work. There are, in addition, the stringent weight limitations imposed on any material, equipment, stocks of various kinds, etc. that are to be transferred from Earth to another celestial body (whether natural or artificial). These restrictions will make it necessary to make as extensive use as possible of the local (extraterrestrial) resources in raw materials etc., and to develop production on this basis, or as K.E. Tsiolkovskii picturesquely put it, to set up an "ether-borne
industry". It is obvious that advances in space engineering and production beyond our planet will exert a reciprocal effect on productive efforts on Earth and speed up their development.
Thus we see that the previously considered space-orientation of natural science represents another, more extensive and profound process—the space-orientation of human practice. These two processes run parallel and are connected in two basic ways (as is the case with the interrelation between scientific knowledge and practical activity). Science meets the requirements of the present moment and helps solve the current problems of production, the control of nature, etc. But it also always anticipates practice, works ahead, and sets about solving such problems as might arise within the distant future. The fact that natural science places its subject matter within a cosmic context enables it to provide an answer to present problems and also to pave the way for forthcoming developments in the space age.
This formulation of the space-orientating factors in science does not, of course, come anywhere near to a full treatment of the subject. Such a treatment is possible only after elucidating the space-orientating factors at work in practice itself. An analysis of this much more difficult question shows that definite regularities operate in the universe, which make it necessary and inevitable that man should emerge into space en masse and later also settle on other planets. Placed in such a light, the space-orientating factors of science may be studied much more thoroughly. This, however, goes beyond the purview of this article.