Hello, SFIA audio listeners. In this month's Nebula exclusive, big alien theory,

we're asking the reason alien civilizations might be rare is because most aliens are huge.

To hear it and every episode early and ad-free, plus hours of bonus content,

check out go.nebula.tv slash Isaac Arthur and use my code, Isaac Arthur.

We all dream of a future in space, but it would take a lot of work to get there, and more to make it a place we can visit and live.

Of course, where there's work to be done, there's jobs to be had.

As you came in to watch this video, you might have been wondering if the topic was going to be about current jobs in the space industry and how to get into one, or if we

meant actual jobs physically taking place in space nowadays, or even those in the future.

And the answer is yes, as we'll be discussing the current state of the industry

and how to get into it, but also where it's going.

That said, getting to be an actual Ashnot anytime soon is genuinely possible, but not

much easier than any time since the space race began.

Even with record numbers of launches, with 211 successful launches

last year, most don't have people on them, and there's only been a little over 100 new

astronauts making their first trip to space since this show began almost a decade ago.

If you're curious about how to improve your odds to become one, we did discuss that

in depth

in our episode back in the winter on selecting crew for a spaceship and where we also

tried to contemplate what some of the jobs on spaceships would be.

Now unlike most topics about the future, the further forward we look in time, the clearer

the picture gets for jobs in space, which is to say,

for me the primary point of space exploration and development is to set up permanent habitations

...