

Time for humans to start thinking about moving says Hawking




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RE: Sheer nonsense.
By masher2 (blog) on 6/15/2006 2:56:44 PM , Rating: 3
> "If Earth's woes come from outside then just how far away from Earth must these survivors/colonists be? "

The further, the better. So we should start as soon as possible, no?

> "if we can use solar or clean technologies on the moon or Mars, why not use them here on Earth?"

For reasons which should be obvious, solar power on Luna is far more viable than it will ever be on Earth. In any case, "clean power" is only one tiny part of the equation. A lunar colony is insulated from a huge variety of Terran-based disasters, both natural and manmade.

Sure we could get *almost* as much safety by building domes on the bottom of the ocean...but such a dome would exist ONLY for safety considerations. What would people do down there? But on the Moon, they can be members of a thriving, productive economy...many industrial processes can be done cheaper and easier there than they can here. There is access to a vast amount of raw resources. Eventually, mining and other dirty industries could be moved off the earth entirely.

Finally, a lunar colony is a first step towards going further. Colonies on Mars, Ganymede, or even space itself. And then, mankind would truly no longer have "all its eggs in one basket", where a single errant meteor or natural disaster could end it forever.


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