>
> We have to go to Mars. If we don't, we'll
>never leave this planet. Human civilization
>will only thrive on this small speck of a
>world. Eventually, the sun will increase to a
>red giant and engulf the planet. Everyone and
>everything you've ever read about, everyone and
>everything that will follow you: gone. We have
>to go or we'll die.

It's worse than that. A popular Larry Niven quote among SF nerds is "The Dinosaurs died out because they didn't have a space program." And it's entirely true. They, like us, had all their eggs in one basket, so to speak. We're sitting ducks on this little rock. Just one other, littiler rock is all it takes to completely wipe us out. It happened to the Dinosaurs. It will almost certainly happen to us if we don't decide we need to make offsite backups of ourselves.

-- Dave