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NerdyKeith's avatar

Do you think human beings will ever need to relocate to another planet in the future?

Asked by NerdyKeith (5489points) April 29th, 2016

This question was inspired by an answer to my Mars mission question.

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19 Answers

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well, I’m sure if we get advanced enough technology we’ll try, whether we “need” to or not.

Coloma's avatar

Depends what shakes down here on earth. If some catastrophic event befalls us before we have the technology to blast off to a new world, we’ll be SOL. If this doesn’t happen, ( pick your poison, nuclear war, famine, pestilence, volcanic catastrophe, on & on ) we might find a likely planet to colonize but, without an earth like atmosphere we’d have to live in a biosphere environment , not very appealing nor, ultimately safe.
Personally I like earth and unless there is another earth like planet out there I have no desire to colonize on some gloomy, rocky, moonscape planet like Mars.

ragingloli's avatar

In about a milliard years (or a “billion” for you colonials), solar activity will have increased to a point that your planet will be uninhabitable.
That is the latest point where humans, should they not have become extinct as they should, would have to leave the planet in order to survive.
Not to mention the death of the sun in 5 milliard years, and its transformation into a red giant that will engulf and consume the planet.

Coloma's avatar

@ragingloli True, but I’m thinking more along the lines of the next 200 years not billions. haha

Dutchess_III's avatar

200 years for what @Coloma?

Coloma's avatar

200 years, as in whether or not we might have the ability to relocate to another planet in the event of a catastrophic event on earth or loss of resources.

ragingloli's avatar

@Coloma
Typical, short sighted human.
You are small, and you think in small terms.

Pachy's avatar

Trump will no doubt promise to build a great, great ladder… and make an alien race pay for it.

Coloma's avatar

@ragingloli Beg your pardon, my response has nothing to do with short sightedness and everything to do with the fact that the odds of something catastrophic happening in the next 200 years is pretty high IMO. We live with the hammer poised over our heads at this very moment with threat of nuclear war, biological warfare, extreme terrorism, global warming, over population, dwindling resources. My answer is reflective or the relative near future, yes, because it’s doubtful we’re going to carry on as usual for another 5 billion years. The ultimate extinction of life on earth when the sun burns up is not a present day threat as is everything else I have mentioned.

If you want to get all cosmic then okay, possible too that a renegade black hole might absorb us or an asteroid might blast us into extinction like the dinosaurs.

NerdyKeith's avatar

@Pachy Nah I think he’ll want to build a giant energy barrier covering the entire earth.

flutherother's avatar

I will want to relocate if Trump gets voted in.

Love_my_doggie's avatar

Where would humanity go? The idea of relocating to another planet suggests that there are other places suitable for mammalian life.

Sadly, I believe that human beings have a limited time left on Earth, possibly a few more generations. I’m also fearful that the final decades will be wrought with mass migrations and rampant war, civil wars or otherwise. The end of life on Earth will be the end of humanity, not the ticket to another planet.

kritiper's avatar

Possibly, but it will be too little, too late. Adequate technology and the finding of a habitable planet that could be traveled to won’t occur at the same place in time if there was time. And who would go? Only sending a certain few would be like cutting off your head, sending it, and leaving your body behind. Not exactly practical…

NerdyKeith's avatar

@kritiper Well unless they keep it as a secret. Or manage to build more space crafts enough to accommodate all of humanity.

Coloma's avatar

Forget humanity, just build a space Ark. haha

kritiper's avatar

@NerdyKeith Have you seen the film “When Worlds Collide?” The mayhem is just what I would expect. (The happy ending is just too much!)

ibstubro's avatar

I’m with @Love_my_doggie in that I don’t think humanity will survive long enough to develop the technology that would allow them to successfully relocate to another planet.

Kropotkin's avatar

No other planet in our solar system is remotely hospitable for human life; whether it’s Mars, Europa, the upper atmosphere of Venus—or anywhere else that’s been proposed as a possible colony.

Any move to an alternative celestial body requires a lot of technological intervention to sustain an environment for human habitation. And that means that it’s easier to do the same on Earth, regardless of the conditions here.

There are some astronomically long-term events that could mean having to evacuate the Earth. One scenario is Mercury being pulled out of its orbit by Jupiter—and then possibly colliding with the Earth, or at least affecting the orbits of the inner planets in chaotic ways.

But there won’t be humans around in hundreds of millions of years anyway—not as we are now.

Unofficial_Member's avatar

Over-population will eventually force and give human the idea to relocate to another planet after every inch of available spaces have been tightly occupied, polluted, and exploited until nothing remain.

I believe it’s more likely that human will first try to live on ocean floor before they can even relocate to another planet. We have vast area on ocean floor that can be occupied, we’ll eventually find the technology to withstand high pressure of deep sea.

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