4 ms·

Yet it will take only a single asteroid, massive volcanic eruption, or giant H-bomb explosion to render the planet inhospitable to all those billions of people.

• jodrellblank 6y ago
  Not all of them. Nuclear fallout shelters exist. A Mars base is like that, but it needs flying to Mars and landing from orbit and constructing in a spacesuit with almost no local materials and no supply chain and few people, and you can't come back when the dust settles, and that makes it orders of magnitude more expensive and difficult. > The risk of staying on a single planet is crazy. Unless you plan to clone yourself, you are staying on a single planet whatever happens. If you think disaster is coming any time soon, you'd save more people trying to avert or survive it on Earth. To prioritise saving a, what, 50 person research base on Mars that doesn't exist yet over billions of people who exist right now on Earth by spending your resources on a research base on Mars instead of an asteroid detection and diversion system for Earth is crazy. If your priority was saving the most people, Mars wouldn't be on the list. Orbital space stations are closer. The Moon is closer. Under-ocean habitats are closer. Underground habitats are closer. Self-contained arcologies are closer. (Wearing a mask is closer).