There is something very alluring about space. Maybe it’s the unfathomable vastness of it coupled with our inherent curiosity and our nature as explorers that keeps pushing us to leave the comfort of home and out into the unknown.

Or maybe its because of our hard wired survival instinct that makes us want to establish a second home or even a third and expand our presence as a species into the cosmos. Whatever it is, humanity has always been attracted to the idea of venturing out into space.

Our space journey, and by that I mean manned missions, began with the moon landings and it was a really exciting period as it was the first time we were going where we had never gone before. But as we all know, that excitement died off as that was the end of it, as far as exploring heavenly bodies went.

Recently however, there has been a renewed and concentrated effort towards going beyond the Moon and towards Mars for not only exploring it but to actually try and colonize it. I have written about it quite a few times and I always get asked the same thing….why?

Why? Really??

Let me be honest with you. This question about why we need to do it really infuriates me. People generally say something like, “We have enough problems here on Earth. The resources and time could be better spent solving problems here.”

I am glad that the visionaries that are pushing the boundaries of humanity don’t have this type of mentality that we can only solve one set of problems at a time. It would have been a totally different world if they did.

Yes, the point that they make is valid. We do have a lot of serious issues that we need to address as soon as possible or it could spell the end of humanity. But there is absolutely no reason why it has to be an either/or situation.

We have enough of us (7.5 billion people is quite enough), and also we have enough resources that we can take care of the problems here on Earth as well as venture out and colonize other planets, because that’s what we do. We are an explorer race. The world we have created today is the result of tireless exploration, and even if that doesn’t satisfy the naysayers, let me give you more reasons why.

Why We Need To Do It

Right now humanity has all its eggs in one basket, and that basket is planet Earth. There are so many existential threats facing us that there is a high chance we could face a doomsday like event not too far into the future.

There are risks of nuclear war or an asteroid could strike Earth and wipe us out (we miss many asteroids all the time that narrowly miss our planet). Then there are problems like global warming and climate change that could spiral into something huge and cause mass extinction.

So, if we can ensure our survival by colonizing another planet, shouldn’t we do it? And that too, as fast as we possibly can? Of course we should!

On the other hand, and this is really important, the task of establishing a permanent human presence on Mars or any other planet for that matter, requires us to solve a great deal of issues like ensuring food, water, air, coming up with highly efficient energy generation and storage technologies, protection from radiation, terraforming the planet to suit our needs, sustainable use of resources, and so much more.

Necessity is the mother of innovation and all those problems will be necessary to be solved before we can actually colonize an entire planet. Don’t you think that the solutions to those problems would be applicable to Earth too? By increasing our know-how, we can literally tackle the problems here on Earth.

So, no! It’s not a waste of time or resources but a natural next step in our story as humans and by taking that step not only would be fulfilling our destiny and ensuring our survival, we would also be indirectly (or directly) finding solutions to problems on Earth too!