If humans had to leave Earth and go live somewhere else in space, where/how?

[°Leprechaun]

Excellent question. Mars is the obvious answer, but maybe not the only one.
In ST 2063 is the year warp drive is invented, but I don't see any evidence that this fiction
will ever become fact. I don't know if any of the moons out there (of Jupiter, Saturn etc) are any better than Mars.

Mars is cold, but it is the only logical choice, as I see it.

I would be very interested if anyone has any specific ideas of places other than Mars.
Our moon doesn't have the most friendly climate. There is the idea of hollowed out asteroids, which could be used like space ships. (aka planetoids)

As for the how, well right now we don't have the ability to go to other solar systems, but exploring this one is not really a question of "how", but of the willingness to spend an awful lot of money.

[°Leprechaun]

Our closest neighbor is a little over 4 light years. We would have to create a ship that goes over 100 times faster than what we have achieved so far to get there in 100 years.

That's crude math. It took about 2-3 days to get to the Moon. It is about 2-3 "light seconds" away. (rough guestimates based on my memory) a day is 86000 seconds. Therefore a spaceship would have to go about 86000 times what we now are capable of. At the speed of light a round trip would take a little over 8 years, so even that would be difficult. The bottom line being that it would take a lot to get there. I would think that it will be at least 100-200 years from before we would make such a trip. Will any of us be alive?
A trip to those moons you mentioned would be plausible in the next 50 years. I think we have the ability to go to Mars much sooner than that, if we had the will to spend the money.
I certainly hope that the idea of peacefull exploration of space is an agreed upon goal. It wouldn't be a good idea to export our war like nature into space.

[°Leprechaun]

Perhaps another question (a little off topic perhaps), is if there is already sentient life out there somewhere. So far, no evidence. In this case the lack of evidence isn't necessarily evidence of absence, but it might be a good idea to be skeptical. I've always thought that it made sense to colonize the entire universe (a mind boggling concept, no doubt) if we are alone in the universe.

It's fun to think about. It may, as the thread title suggests even be necessary, if we somehow manage to destroy the earth's ability to sustain life, which may unfortunately at this point in time, be a possibility due to climate change if not nuclear war, although neither would necessarily mean that we destroy all life, just a lot of it. Certainly something about which to be concerned.

[°Leprechaun]

Of course some people believe that we have already been visited by ets; I do not.

[°Leprechaun]

There is a current plan to get to Mars by 2032. I will turn 77 in November of that year, so there is a good possibility that I'll still be alive. It will be interesting to see what the plan is by then if it is launched that year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_One

[°Leprechaun]

In distance from Earth (assuming Jupiter and Saturn are at there closest to Earth).

1. The Moon
2. Mars
3. Europa/Jupiter
4. Titan/Saturn
5. Alpha Centauri

Although Titan is a little further than Europa, we may go to Titan before Europa if it looks more
suitable.

[°Leprechaun]

Here are the moons with a diameter of 1000 kilometers or more. (=621 miles)
and Pluto and Mercury for comparison:

Ganymede         Jupiter   5262
Titan                  Saturn   5150
Mercury    planet             4879
Callisto               Jupiter  4820
Io                       Jupiter   3660
The Moon           Earth    3474
Europa               Jupiter     3121
Triton                 Neptune 2700
Pluto   planet                    2374
Titania               Uranus   1576
Oberon              Uranus   1522
Iapetus             Saturn   1470
Charon              Pluto      1208
Umbriel              Uranus   1169
Ariel                   Uranus   1157