Physicist and TV presenter Brian Cox shares his thoughts on missions to Mars and the future of humankind
In a world of Kardashians and Jenners, it seems unlikely that a particle physicist would become a global TV sensation—and yet that’s exactly what’s happened to Brian Cox. For more than 10 years, British scientist Cox has been a fixture on screens around the world, making stories such as the formation of the sun and nuclear fusion interesting and accessible to people of all ages.
Cox's immersive live stage show, which covers everything from black holes to the likelihood of alien life to the future of humankind, sells out stadiums worldwide and recently set Guinness World Records for selling the most tickets for a science tour and for the largest science show ever performed.
Here, Cox shares five insights into the future of space travel.
1. Humankind will not survive without space exploration
“It’s not science fiction any more to say, ‘If we’re going to continue to expand as a civilisation, how are we going to do it without damaging this planet?'. To me, there’s only one answer—if we want to expand, we have to expand upwards. We cannot continue to sit on the surface of a planet that’s already under strain. And we will go to Mars because there’s nowhere else to go."
Jeff Bezos has a lovely line: he says the one thing we’ve discovered about going into space is that the Earth is the best planet. So how do we protect it? His idea is to zone the Earth as residential, which is a very good idea. His ambition is not to have heavy industry on the planet, but to have it off the planet.
The power and resources are not here on Earth—they’re up there in the asteroid belt. The power is a few hundred miles above our heads. There are already asteroid mining companies. Ask yourself why three of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in the world—Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and [Virgin’s] Richard Branson—have rocket companies. One is purely economic—there’s loads of money in it."