Space & Astronomy

Hawking: space travel will save mankind

By T.K. Randall
February 21, 2015

Image: Stephen Hawking
Credit: (PD) NASA Speaking at London's Science Museum this week while escorting a competition winner around the exhibits, Hawking emphasized that human aggression could ultimately bring our civilization to an end and that our best hope for long term survival is to venture out in to space and to colonize other worlds.

"Sending humans to the moon changed the future of the human race in ways that we don't yet understand," he said."It hasn't solved any of our immediate problems on planet Earth, but it has given us new perspectives on them and caused us to look both outward and inward."

Hawking, who has long supported the view that we will eventually destroy ourselves if we do not venture to the stars, believes that confining ourselves to a single planet could prove disastrous.

"I believe that the long term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets," he said.

Source: Independent

Tags: Stephen Hawking, Space