Posted on 06/14/2006 11:55:06 AM PDT by txroadkill
HONG KONG The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because theres an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy Earth, world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday.
Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years, the British scientist told a news conference.
We wont find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system, added Hawking, who came to Hong Kong to a rock stars welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture Wednesday were sold out.
Hawking said that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species, Hawking said. Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.
(Excerpt) Read more at tracypress.com ...
Wouldn't the distance from the Sun still prevent Mars from being habitable?
I think we should send them to Mars to form a "worker's paradise." They can set up a commune where they'll grow martian corn and sing kumbaya in perfect harmony. Guns and Christianity would be outlawed, and the ACLU would govern the socialist judicial agenda.
"WRONG .... Mars can be terraformed fairly quickly."
Sure it can...then the solar wind will blow the new multi-trillion dollar atmoshpere out into deep space along with the promised H2O swamp land these terraformers are proposing.
The one little fact that intellectually dishonest terraformers of Mars are failing to provide is that the core of Mars is solid. What protects the earth from evaporation has been the protective magnetic field shielding us from solar winds.
An ACLU run Mars colony would become the next Roanoak colony.
Mars cannot be terraformed unless we could somehow kick start its inert core to produce a magnetosphere.
Interesting............
D*mn there goes my taxes...........
Can we just send the Libs? Or, pack 'em all into Mexifornia and Eurabia (along with the RINOs) and start getting this place back to "normal"??
What does Hawking know, and when did he know it?
I think i'll worry about this in my spare time!
Losing an atmosphere would take thousands of years. In the meantime, technology will get better.
At the equator in summer, Mars can get up to 78 degrees. Enough greenhouse gases and it would be a cooler version of Earth.
In fact, at the risk of asounding unpatriotic, most of this astronaut stuff strikes me as suspicious science and engineering. The shuttle should be on a used car lot somewhere, while we get into the heavy duty manned flights from our Moon bases to Mars to set up colonies.
Where do I sign up!
Actually, you're wrong. We THINK we can terraform Mars fairly quickly.
On the other hand, we've never terraformed ANY planet to date.
And, of course, we need the technology and infrastructure to be ABLE to attempt the Terraforming of Mars.
The process appears to be fairly straightforward, but as in any major engineering process, the bugaboos are in the details. . . . and we don't HAVE the details yet.
50 years from now, that will likely change. . .
It'll take 50 years just to figure out who has jurisdiction and how to get the building permits.;o)
I think this may be true in the long run. But the long run is about 50,000 years from now, and we've got bigger problems to deal with now.
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