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Stephen Hawking Says Humanity Won't Survive Without Leaving Earth

If humanity is to survive long-term, it must find a way to get off planet Earth – and fast, according to famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

In fact, human beings may have less than 200 years to figure out how to escape our planet, Hawking said in a recent interview with video site Big Think. Otherwise our species could be at risk for extinction, he said.

"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million," Hawking said. "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space."


Humans stuck on Earth are at risk from two kinds of catastrophes, Hawking said. First, the kind we bring on ourselves, such as possible devastating impacts from climate change, or nuclear or biological warfare.

A number of cosmic phenomena could spell our demise, too. An asteroid could slam into Earth, killing large swaths of the population and rendering the planet uninhabitable. Or a supernova or gamma-ray burst near our spot in the Milky Way could prove ruinous for life on Earth.

Life on Earth could even be threatened by an extraterrestrial civilization, Hawking has pointed out on his Discovery Channel television series, "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking."

Dangerous aliens may want to take over the planet to use its resources for themselves, he said in the series. It would be safer for the survival of our species if we had people living on other worlds as a backup plan, Hawking proposed.

"The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet," he told Big Think. "Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load."


SPACE.com -- Stephen Hawking Says Humanity Won't Survive Without Leaving Earth

The Joy of Zero G
We don't really need to discuss details that people can imagine for themselves, but basically, floating has got to be fun! Anything that makes you giggle in such a situation surely has to be a good thing! Among other effects, being weightless will mean that you and your partner can manoeuvre round each other without danger of either of you - or any parts of you - getting squashed! No more arms or legs going numb!
It's surely also true that there will be a certain "knack" to be learned for "rendezvous and docking". In fact, quite a number of ideas have already been published about this in both fiction and non-fiction books. For example, one author has suggested using special
four-legged shorts to hold couples together!

Another has suggested (apparently seriously) that three people will always be needed! (Well, I guess tastes differ - but not for me, thanks!)

Other authors have proposed a range of special furniture and fittings in zero-G bed-rooms for holding onto to prevent you floating around and bumping your head against the walls!

So far, people who've stayed in orbit have generally slept in sleeping bags attached to the wall - but remember, in zero G, walls, floor and ceiling are the same. This has been mainly in order to take up as little of the limited space as possible.

In orbiting hotel rooms, probably a mattress or futon against the "wall", and a sheet or blanket with a large patch of velcro at each corner will be preferred. This will be enough to keep you in place "in bed", and should work for double beds as well as for single beds. But there's clearly plenty of scope for entertaining experimentation! By bedroom designers - and by users!

The cheaper end of the spectrum of sleeping accommodation will be used by hotel staff (and students?) and will be more cramped - something like a sleeping-bag in a broom-cupboard!

Anyway, we can presumably be confident that honeymoons in orbit will become a significant segment of the space tourism market!


Space Future - The Joy of Zero G

Lunar Exploration Suit

from Kevitivity

by

kevin

Lunar

Photo courtesy of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory / NASA.




1960 photo shows Allyn B. "Hap" Hazard wearing a space suit he designed.

Hap was a Senior Development Engineer in the Missile Engineering Section of JPL in 1959 when he wrote a plan for manned space exploration. JPL was transitioning from missiles to space exploration, and Hap had a lot of ideas about the subject. In March 1961, Hap left JPL to work at Aerojet, and presumably to work on the suit and his other inventions. In addition to the suit, he designed and built a hydrofoil boat and a snow making machine during his time at JPL.

  An Experimental Engineering class at UCLA studied the suit, and Mattel created an astronaut toy that wore a replica of it.

Even today, many web sites include the story of Hap Hazard, his space suit, and Major Matt Mason (the toy).


Kevitivity » Lunar Exploration Suit




NASA HOSTS WORKSHOP TO DISCUSS EXPLORING NEAR EARTH OBJECTS

NASA will host an interactive workshop to identify objectives for exploration missions to near-Earth objects, or NEOs,
on Aug. 10-11 at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington.


The event will bring together experts and key leaders from NASA, other government agencies, industry, academia, and international
communities. They will discuss past experiences and focus on objectives, capabilities, and concepts of operations for human and
robotic exploration of NEOs.


The primary goals for the workshop are to increase the collective understanding of NEOs, communicate NASA's preliminary plans for a human mission to a NEO, and get input on proposed mission objectives. The workshop includes a series of briefings, panels, and breakout sessions.


Space is limited. Journalists interested in attending the workshop's Aug. 10 plenary sessions and reports from the Aug. 11 breakout
sessions should register by Aug. 6 with Michael Braukus at michael.j.brau@nasa.gov.


A live video stream of the plenary sessions and reports on the breakout sessions will be available on NASA's Exploration website. To
access the stream and a schedule of events, visit:


http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.nasa.gov/exploration&usg=AFQjCNEB7zpj66C8_1tLaojOrR5NmsdAmQ


For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:


http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.nasa.gov&usg=AFQjCNFtj-2VYUKhl8UO2FFVYdu30c2ZZg

A vision born at MIT will ride last space shuttle
A vision born at MIT will ride last space shuttle
Boston Globe – Large-scale experiments are common in the world of physics, where massive accelerators or detectors are necessary to re- create the conditions of the early universe or detect ghostly particles that shower down from exploding stars. Many are designed and built by committee. But the alpha magnetic spectrometer, or AMS, bears the distinct imprint of Ting. He put together a team of 600 scientists and shepherded the project through political, scientific, and logistical obstacles.


Top image by Gary LaSasso




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