Spaceflight or Extinction

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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857–1935) was an astronautical theorist.

Humankind must colonize the solar system to survive

Man must at all costs overcome the Earth’s gravity and have, in reserve, the space at least of the Solar System.

All kinds of danger lie in wait for him on the Earth. We do not mean the difficulties we all daily experience: mankind will soon do away with these. We are talking of disasters that can destroy the whole of mankind or a large part of it.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, “The Aims of Astronautics,” trans. X. Danko, in The Call of the Cosmos, ed. V. Dutt (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1960?), 370.

Impacts from space may cause the extinction of humankind

For instance, a cloud of bolides, or a small planet a few dozen kilometres in diameter, could fall on the Earth, with such an impact that the solid, liquid or gaseous blast produced by it could wipe off the face of the Earth all traces of man and his buildings. The rise of temperature accompanying it could alone scorch or kill all living beings.

Ibid., 371.

Humankind should go into the cosmos to avoid the dangers of confinement on Earth

Numerous other terrible dangers await mankind on the Earth, all of which suggest that man should look for a way into the Cosmos.

We have said a great deal about the advantages of migration into space, but not all can be said or even imagined.

Ibid., 372.

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