No way it's a waste. Some here would disagree, but Ferdinand and Isabella were right to fund Columbus. We're right to fund this.
Count on it: Earth has innumerable twins By 'twin' they don't mean identical down to the last atom, but a rocky world roughly half to five times as massive as Earth, in a Goldilocks orbit around a stable star, and having water on the surface. Some would require an oxygen rich atmosphere, but even that's not necessary.
If you loosen-up the qualifications sufficiently, the term becomes meaningless.
Anyway, no significant number of Earthlings will ever leave the trophos of planet Earth. Life is incredibly delicate, and totally dependent on Earth for its continuance.
Count on it: Earth has innumerable twins By 'twin' they don't mean identical down to the last atom, but a rocky world roughly half to five times as massive as Earth, in a Goldilocks orbit around a stable star, and having water on the surface. Some would require an oxygen rich atmosphere, but even that's not necessary. Don't forget the importance of our big moon in making Earth the hotbed for life that it is:
- Our large moon's gravity churns up our iron core into a rotating liquid, making it generate a magnetic field that shields the atmosphere from getting blown away by solar winds;
- It stabilizes the earth's wobble, making for constant seasons and constant temperature zones;
- It provides a large local shield against asteroid and comet impact; and
- It generates tidal action for the oceans that probably played a big role in life's climb out from the sea on to land;
All this, because we were so stinkin' lucky to have "Theta", a planet as big as Mars, slam into us at
EXACTLY the right angle, at
EXACTLY the right speed to reform the resulting debris into a nice, big, close moon. Thanks, God!
I want other "twin earths" to be out there, if for no other reason than to give humanity back-up locations to ensure our survival. However, I think the presence and nature of our moon - in addition to the rest of the "Goldilocks criteria" - makes the odds of ever finding as nice as a home s our current one pretty low.