Mars or Bust

"We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," renowned professor Stephen Hawking said in a lecture this week, but in the short term he thinks Mars or the moon might make viable bolt-holes for the human race in the event of some disaster befalling the home world. I've long held the same view (not wanting to put myself on the same footing as Hawking), as it seems obvious that we are in a very precarious position on this little spinning rock of ours. Global warming, war or a meteor strike are all likely events that might trigger a mass extinction, so it's about time we started thinking seriously about spreading ourselves out a bit. If only a few thousand could survive in space, then their descendents might one-day reclaim a recovered Earth.