Stephen Hawking has proposed that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA’s current budget – or 0.25% of the world’s financial resources – to space exploration and the colonization of the Moon and Mars.

He suggests that colonising space is an “insurance policy” against the possibility of humanity being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. He argues that humanity should eventually expand to other solar systems.

Now, I’m all for all of this. Hell, I want to be one to GO on one of these trips. But this also ties nicely into a story I’m currently preparing for submission to an anthology whose theme is mass exodus of a population from its homeworld. Lunar and Martian colonies (along with tourist resorts in low earth orbit) provide much of the remnant of humanity who survive a meteor impact on Earth.

Stephen Hawking and Stephen Kotowych: great minds thinking alike again… 😉

– S.