Abandon Earth, or Face Extinction

I am quite often asked by friends and family members why we (the US) still have a space program.  Or for that matter, why we put so much money into it.  In this economically distressing time, why put forth the effort to man the International Space Station or set our sights on manned flights to Mars?

Most of us these days are emotionally and intellectually detached from the space program.  You'd have to search far and wide to find a space enthusiast like myself who is still awe struck at the accomplishments of humanity, and downright giddy on the future prospects of manned and unmanned spaceflight.  It's just not as entertaining anymore.  There used to be a time where parents would sit their kids down in the living room to watch the TV broadcast of latest launch down at Cape Canaveral.  The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions were a big part of the success of NASA back in the 60's because it was a groundbreaking exercise of what human ingenuity could accomplish...people were glued to the respective media outlets to catch a glimpse of the latest person in space.  In fact, those first spacefarers were the ultimate celebrities; the Brad Pitt's of their time.  This type of admiration of the practical uses of science was exhilarating, but time has passed, the space program now has a "been there, done that" stigma associated with it.  This saddens me, but I'm not surprised.  Back then, the space program was entertainment for the general public.  Exciting shows can only be entertaining until you start seeing reruns...which is what the space program is now.

Stephen Hawking has another compelling, yet undeniably chilling reason to pursue the space program...the extinction of our species.  In his argument, he states that any intelligent species that inhabit a world, and can use its natural resources to not only manipulate its atmosphere, but inflict harm on each other (through nuclear weapons in our case); not only may end up destroying the planet, but given enough time, will.  The other reason is the "death by natural causes" argument.  Comets and other celestial bodies have struck the planet many times before causing mass extinctions.  Not to mention the ever present threat of nearby supernovas and gamma ray bursts.  If humans can't seem to find a way to live indefinitely on a spacecraft or terra form another world (such as Mars), we're bound for extinction.  As I always tell people, imagine the Earth's geological history on a timescale of a 24 hour clock.  The start of the 24 hour clock being the formation of the Earth and the Solar System.  Then imagine all of the explosions of life, mass extinctions, comet strikes, vulcanism, constantly changing layout of the continents...all of this for 4.5 billion years encapsulated in a 24 hour clock...the human race has been on this planet for only the last 2 seconds.  I think we need an insurance plan.