Stephen Hawking calls for Moon and Mars colonies

[lpxxfaintxx]

Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA's 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA's current budget – or 0.25 percent of the world's financial resources – to space.

http://space.newscientist.com/articl...-colonies.html

Comment on Digg:

The logic is so simple, it is unassailable.

As much as anyone may love the earth, investing too heavily in its upkeep to the point of neglecting the endeavor of moving beyond earth is a huge mistake. It's a bit like having only one car which is a classic car that you put all your time into keeping clean and well-preserved. Someday something will happen to that car, and then all that time you spent on only one car will feel really stupid as you walk everywhere you go.

Putting all our effort into "saving" this planet is a wasted effort. Ultimately this planet is doomed. Hopefully that wont be for another 3-4 billion years or so, but it is doomed nonetheless. Humanity's only chance of real survival is becoming spacefaring.

What do you think? Should we invest more money on space colonization research while there are millions of starving children in Africa, and an economy in crisis?

[stkr]

As much as I love astronomy and the idea of exploring space, I can't support this with all of the problems we're having on our own planet. Honestly, I would rather other planets stay pure and untainted by the human condition. Seriously, if the earth were a being, then we'd be like some infectious disease. There's no reason to see it happen elsewhere. It's a very cool thought, though.

[Gow616]

I think by looking past our current problems with each other and giving us a shared common goal it would work to cure the problems on Earth.

I have always been an advocate of more space exploration since I was babe and watched Star Trek and other space stuff.

[MasterSprtn117]

I'd say go for it.

[Gregory]

Go for it, I really don't think Africa will ever be plentiful with food. Our economy, meh, we will recover.

[F4tal_3rror]

I believe that in the long run the Earth will become so over populated that space, being well... Space will be used by humans to live in. Might as well start perfecting the tech. now so its not a big mess later. But thats just me.

[Trogdor]

Originally Posted by Gregory

meh, we will recover.

I don't think that is the right mindset to have and we should take more action to problems and solutions for those problems before unecsesary advancements

[133794m3r]

I refuse to listen to anything that Hawking says. The guy's an idiot. I hate 'im. 'nuf said.

[Weesnaw]

Originally Posted by 133794m3r

I refuse to listen to anything that Hawking says. The guy's an idiot. I hate 'im. 'nuf said.

Physics, DO YOU KNOW IT?

[133794m3r]

Yes, I do. I've studied the Quantum. I've read his theroy. It's all ****ing bull****. All ****ing bull****. Nothing works out. I mean what the **** the entire thing goes against the theory of special and general relativity and the law of the conservation of matter and energy. And thus it's ****ing bull****.

[Gow616]

Originally Posted by 133794m3r

Yes, I do. I've studied the Quantum. I've read his theroy. It's all ****ing bull****. All ****ing bull****. Nothing works out. I mean what the **** the entire thing goes against the theory of special and general relativity and the law of the conservation of matter and energy. And thus it's ****ing bull****.

Step away from the forum, cool down and put the words into a clear concise argument. Remember not everyone knows what you know and you do not know what everyone knows.

		****, Let us try to be argumentative without resorting to terse words, ****!

[Atrocious]

Originally Posted by 133794m3r

Yes, I do. I've studied the Quantum. I've read his theroy. It's all ****ing bull****. All ****ing bull****. Nothing works out. I mean what the **** the entire thing goes against the theory of special and general relativity and the law of the conservation of matter and energy. And thus it's ****ing bull****.

You must be doing it wrong then.

[BobtheWalrus]

Why do we need to screw up another planet?
Or fellow space body?

Fix Earth and then move on to the next one

And plus, do we want to go through War of the Worlds?

[Bear holding a shark]

There won't be anyone to help people in Africa if the world ceases to exist. There also wouldn't be an Africa, but you get my point.

But I like the idea of a back-up system, if you will, for the human race.

[Little Horn]

This is quite possibly one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And from someone so smart... I guess you can't have supreme intelligence and common sense as your head would explode.

Our economy will not just recover on it's own. That's the mind set that our leaders have had for the past five years and look where it's gotten us. The last that I read our national deficit was right around $400 Billion. yes, that is a real number and it's all dollars that we have spent that don't exist. Where is the money going to come from to cover this? The tax payers that's right! Well that and the already negative Social Security fund that I'm paying into every month and will never see a penny of it back.

I think the idea of space exploration is great. It's interesting and we've learned a lot about the origins of not only our planet but the universe as a whole. It's all very interesting but the question is: is it necessary? NASA just announced not too long ago their budget for 2009... 17.9 Billion dollars. Another very real number. A number that will continue to increase each and every year. That is billions of dollars that could go towards things like, oh I don't know, maybe the horrible public school systems in this country or what about research to find cures for diseases like autism, diabetes, cancer or AIDS? It's ridiculous.

We sunk $1.8 Billion into the international space station in 2005 alone. Are you f*cking kidding me? We've dumped $145 billion into the damn thing already and they still can't keep the damn thing from falling apart.

It's OK though. We've got people here, on this planet, in this country who have terminal illnesses with no cures. We've got an education system that is in the ****ter with no end in sight and we've got a deficit that is not getting any smaller... just bigger. But meh, we'll recover. Just like that. Because everything always fixes its self right? Give me a damn break.

I guess the civil rights movement was something that just worked on it's own right? It wasn't people that realized there was a problem and set out to make things change?

"We'll recover"... that kind of attitude is dangerous and counter-productive.

[Gow616]

I think you misread Hawking's point and took it as interpretation of everything will fix itself. He is stating that investing all our efforts on fixing the problems we have without looking beyond the planet will leave us up the creek without a paddle when this planet does take a turn for the worse (i.e. Giant meteor, Sun, gravitational shift, etc.).

His point is that if we DON'T look beyond than we will die with the planet when something does happen.

My personal feeling is that if we don't give people something to reach for such as space exploration than we will be continuing the cycle of problems we already have.

Face it, economic, social and political problems will always be there because they are problems rooted in the core of humanity.

Do we think we can solve the irreconcilable differences between the extremist islamic people and non-Islam world? Do we think that we can solve all the economic problems in the world if we just focus on it and not spend money on space? Hello, we haven't been spending money on space and the problem still persists, right?

Seriously, folks, not giving any optimism to the pessimistic state we are in we will all suffer and die without daring to dream for a better world, because most of these touted problems can be tied to the fact that people think this is all there is and there is nothing more.

Give them something to dream about, something more to live for and we might actually get some progress somewhere. Take away the dream and smash it, what is the point in trying to fix the broken things?

We can't honestly sit here and say that we can't take our focus away from Earth because it will do harm when it has already done harm and continues to do so. If we broaden our horizon, make ourselves focus on something more then we can probably actually solve a problem on this planet.

[Trogdor]

so let's avoid earths problem's by going to space Gow? sorry I don't see how space exploration is necsessary when the national debt is

and going up