Do you have any hope that space exploration and the possibility of planetary colonization will "save" humankind?

We will just have more environments to pollute. I wouldn’t be startled to see space junk that has made it to Mars.

@RedDeerGuy1 That’s a given.

Absolutely not. I don’t care at all about space exploration. Why? We’ve shown that we couldn’t maintain our current planet. Why would we think that we’d do better on a different planet? Also, why do people feel that human life is worth saving?

No freakin’ way! Too little, too late, too far away.

If we can colonize our solar system, we’ll have the technology to live anywhere. That mitigates the risk of extinction due to a major disaster on Earth. But extinction due to human dumb-assery is not guaranteed.

I would like to try and live on another planet so when this one gets destroyed I’m safe.

Which planet @KRD?

Not even an iota.

I’m with @RocketGuy. Figuring out how to be better stewards of our planet, and to get along with/take care of each other isn’t mutually exclusive with space exploration—and in many ways both goals support each other. Both things are good and necessary for humanity’s future.

No. Humanity being what it is, we will only militarize space. Reagan’s “Star Wars” non sense ring a bell? Supposedly it would only have been a self defense/early warning type of thing. Yeah right.

I wouldn’t say no hope but for the foreseeable future planetary colonisation will remain a pipe dream. The universe is too big and too hostile for human life to flourish. We are very fortunate to have this planet Earth, I find it quite depressing that we don’t have more respect for it.

In some ways yes.

In regards to population explosion, it may help lesson the expansion of humanity.

In space colonization, it creates an outlet for overcrowding on earth.

With overcrowding on earth in the present ,we are forced to look into inhabitable places such

as the vast Amazon and create space by clearing out land for occupation, but at the same

time this creates environmental problems that change the climates and so on.

Probably not in my lifetime but I hope @KRD or his children get to do so.
I also love SciFi and all the space movies, so my hope will spring eternally.

It would have to be on a planet in another solar system.

@Dutchess_III I don’t know which planet as long as we are safe.

I think I agree with Carl Sagan.

“Saving humanity” will have to be done in our own time, right here, on this Pale Blue Dot. The technological advances that could allow long range space travel and settlement on other worlds may be within reach over the next 5 generations – But that development is in a race with our growing capacity to wreck our environment and destroy each other.

At this point the outcome may be too close to call.

I don’t think we’ve done so bad, actually. Considering population density, I think we have done quite well. Nobody could expect a baby to be born understanding calculus. Why couldn’t our species be forgiven for mistakes made? We have people constantly working to find ways to cause less pollution, without losing productivity.
I am interested in recolonization potential. I believe they are considering a moon or two. I don’t recall if they are near Jupiter or Saturn. I believe they found conditions for early stages of life. Primordial, I believe.

If that stuff is gonna happen, it’ll be so far in the future it won’t matter what we think.

It took us 200,000 years to build shopping malls and let women vote so…..maybe another 200k years to iron all the other details out.

Eventually there will be an Extinction Level Event. Whether it is an asteroid hitting the planet or the sun heating up or cooling down or some other such catastrophe. But that is a long way off. A little closer is the eventual decoding of the aging process or even the reversal. That will put a whole new light on over population. If we don’t find a way to colonize new planets, the human race is doomed. Personally, I would hate to see that. Space exploration is both exciting and necessary. We are capable of anything but we need to survive to make it happen. I will leave the details to those younger than I.

I would add that I believe we have resources available we are not using only because of massive costs, or time requirements.
Pursuing those resources could provide some needed employment.
It would at least make here more accommodating until an alternative can be achieved.

@Jaxk, well said.