Stephen Hawking: We must continue exploring space in order to improve our knowledge of humanity. We must go beyond our humble planet. — Oxford Union (@OxfordUnion) November 14, 2016

In 2010, an interview with Big Think revealed a slightly wider window for calamity, as he said "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load." Hawking himself is involved in projects to help humans become multiplanetary , although lately billionaire Elon Musk has hogged much of the attention by trying to reach Mars. Hopefully, we'll see some movement on this within our own lifetimes, and Hawking's resilience while battling ALS for more than 50 years is certainly an inspiration.