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Officials with the Global Alliance for Scientific Space Exploration and Research announced today that 50 volunteers will be selected for mankind’s first settlement in the asteroid belt. GASSER director Frederick Elliaon stated the project represents humanity’s most far reaching endeavor yet, coming on the heels of the successful colonization of Jupiter’s moon, Titan.

With the Titan population now numbering nearly 250,000, Ellison stated his organization is ready to move forward and reach farther as man continues to conquer the Solar System if not yet the stars. But this move will put the Alliance within galactic shouting distance of GASSER’s long term goal of establishing a base on Neptune, considered to be essential to the dream of reaching out into the stars.

The volunteers for the asteroid settlement will be chosen for their ability to help establish the colony and determine the best way to move forward. One volunteer almost certain to be involved is Dr. Robert Asimov. The noted physicist has been involved in the asteroid mission since returning from Titan three years ago and has been a primary proponent of the drive to send a manned mission to Alpha Centauri by the turn of the century.

An Alpha Centauri mission would be a major step forward in GASSER’s long term goal of reaching the Sirius stellar system where scientists have detected radio transmissions that are strongly believed to be originating from an intelligent source. Scientists have believed in the possibility of sentient life on other planets for decades, however, the likelihood of life in the Sirius system became the target of interest when the radio signals were first detected ten years ago in late 2076.

But for now, all eyes are on the much closer asteroid belt and choosing the 50 volunteers to make up the first settlers for this distant outpost. In addition to Asimov, other likely candidates include Philip Heinlein, the former head of GASSER’s Space Medicine Division, and former United States Vice President Ursula Norton, the woman many consider responsible for humankind’s most recent push to find and make contact with intelligent life in the universe.

The process of choosing the members of the asteroid expedition will likely take more than a year with an expected launch date of early in 2089. The mission will launch from Cape Armstrong at GASSER’s New World Space Station on Titan.