Let's Ruin TWO Celestial Bodies!

Look, I'm all for space exploration AND for colonization of other planets. As Steve Hawking points out, it's foolish to have all our eggs in one basket when we can easily spread out a little and thus ensure the survival of the species.

But...:

The moon should be developed as a sanctuary for civilization in case of a cataclysmic cosmic impact, according to an international team of experts.

NASA already has blueprints to create a permanent lunar outpost by the 2020s.

But that plan should be expanded to include a way to preserve humanity's learning, culture, and technology if Earth is hit by a doomsday asteroid or comet, said Jim Burke of International Space University (ISU) in France.

Burke, once a project manager on some of the earliest American lunar landings, now heads an ISU study on surviving a collision with a near-Earth object.

First, I wouldn't trust anything this administration's "Space Agency" has to say. Second, it's not about preserving our learning, culture and technology, because in point of fact, that's precisely what has brought us to the brink of creating a world nearly inhabitable by us, and certainly by nearly any other species above the cockroach!

No, the point about colonization is to find new ways of answering old questions, to find better ways of solving the basic problems of life: sustenance, sanitation, shelter, and then getting those answers back to Earth.

To move us to the moon when we're threatened with doom (which is silly, when you think about it: no Earth, no more Moon, in all probability) is pretty dumb. It's like buying a new house and moving only because the old one is burning.

I want to see man expand his horizons, not drag them with him to some place with a better view.