The survival of the human species has always depended on our ability to expand out of our native environments and into new ones and though the step now may seem more difficult than those steps in the past it is just as vital that we as a species continue or relentless march outward. Just as we left Africa the heart of our species we must someday leave the cradle of the earth or be destroyed.
With this understanding we must considered the cost and difficulties weighed beside the human need for exploration and the understanding of our eventual extinction if we do not. So what are the dangers that face us remaining here and what are the dangers of leaving our home.
The dangers or remaining here have become more evidence to humanity in the last century and even more so in the last decades. We have learned through our ability to create weapons that we are capable of destroying ourselves and though our science we have learned that we are capable of ruining the environment. What we have not yet established clearly is if we are capable of choosing not do to these things and as the science that allowed a few countries to develop these weapons a century ago continues to advance the difficulties of creating weapons that can destroy cities will continue to decrease and the ability to destroy the environment will increase.
Yet even if we ourselves find a way to not destroy ourselves remaining on a single planet in a single solar system will eventually lead to the extinction of the human race. This could come in the short term through natural disasters such as asteroids, or massive solar flairs or in the long term the inevitable entropy of our world or the suns expansion as it nears its death. These dangers range from years, decades or even millions of years but eventually if we remain on this world one of them will end our species.
This leads us with the question of the cost of space exploration. These costs can be high. If we choose to truly expand our species we will lose lives and we will expend resources. These have always been the cost of exploration be it leaving Africa, Europeans sailing to America on wooden boats or sending people across the vastness of space. Yet just like those explores of the past we will find that there are riches almost unbelievable to us. We will find asteroids of pure gold and planets with atmospheres of rocket fuel but only if we look.
There are many factors that will make this exploration and expansion of our species difficult. Space is beyond vast and our technology is barely above the level of the primitives if taken on a scale of the galactic. We have mastered fire well enough to use it to throw ourselves off this world but little more. We have learned to shape metal well enough to create a shell that will not leak air into the vacuum of space, and we understand ourselves well enough to not die immediately while entering this unexplored realm. The rest must come with time and effort, but these factors have always existed for our species and the conquering of them is one of the most defining aspects of humanity.
