Another reason we need to Colonize Solar System

We humans have had the technology to colonize the moon, Mars, various moons, and asteroids for a long long time now. We have squandered and maybe losing our chance to do so.

It is pretty much fact that at some point in the future, earth will be hit with something catastrophic that will render Earth unlivable by humans. Sure eventually it might return to mother earth but what will we do in the interim and will we see it coming?

If we move some of us out into the Solar System we can survive as a species. If we don't we wont. Also moving us out into the solar system will teach us how to live on a changed earth which may not always be able to support us as it does now.

I am not trying to scare you into this belief as it is fact that eventually the Sun will overcome the earth but that is a long time in the future.

None of this may happen in our life or even our great great grandchildren lives but we owe it to our ancestors and Humanity as a whole which maybe the only intelligent life ever in the universe to start learning how to survive long term.

We do not need warp drive or space elevators to begin colonization. We can do it now.

Originally posted by Xeven
It is pretty much fact that at some point in the future, earth will be hit with something catastrophic that will render Earth unlivable by humans. Sure eventually it might return to mother earth but what will we do in the interim and will we see it coming?

My thoughts exactly. S&F.

We do not need warp drive or space elevators to begin colonization. We can do it now.

I'm not sure you can do it now. How do you do it then?

i think if the minds of human kind do not evolve... then i would say no.. please can we keep the disease that is mankind on one location.
for some reason the majority of society think they are above anything else that is not them... i am sick of hearing " oh it's just a tree" or .. " oh it's just a bird"... that mindset is the reason the earth is in the state it's in now... the reason we keep having so many species go extinct.... why the hell ...human extinction or not.. would you want to spread that kind of thinking elsewhere in the universe.

*spelling edit

[edit on 27-3-2010 by Zeres]

I agree that the technology is there. Another thought pops up in my mind maybe such plans are already in the works but not for the majority but for the select few who might have been chosen based on their endurance, genetics, skills, IQ's, etc.

The governments and power to be believe in dis-info and secrecy, show one card but hide the deck.

Do you think you could provide a brief synopsis on why you think we are able to do this now?

We are beginning to find water on various planets and moons, but to me that seems like a very small discovery on the path to colonization.

Most planets/moons in our solar system would probably be MORE inhospitable than the Earth after an asteroid hit on the Earth.

I suppose to colonize a place like Mars or Titan, we would need to build grand pressurized structures, large "greenhouses" for growing food, large storage tanks for water, among other things vital to keep the species going.

Do you think it may be possible that it would be easier to build such "shelters" on Earth, even an Earth that is not fit for human habitation otherwise?

Of course, if the kind of catastrophe you are talking about is one that causes the entire surface of the planet to be wiped clean -- either by global flood or by the entire crust becoming molten -- then I agree that we could not survive here. Or, as you said, we may never see it coming in the first place.

However, if you are talking about the kind of impact event that wiped out the dinosaurs (or even one larger than that) in which the surface stays in tact but most living things die, then I would say it would be easier to build the necessary shelters here on Earth.

Would the post-impact Earth really be more inhospitable than, say, Mars?


[edit on 3/27/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]