Head for the stars within 500 years to survive, Hawkins urges humanity

Humanity will have to head for the stars in the next 200 to 500 years if it is to survive, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

The top physicist repeated his warning that the human race is doomed unless it can find a new home beyond the Earth.

Speaking at the Starmus science and arts festival in Trondheim, Norway, he argued that interstellar travel – impossible with today’s technology – should be a definite longterm aim “in the next 200 to 500 years”.

The professor imagined nuclear fusion-powered ships 0 Steven Hawking warned of the threat to humanity propelled by light, Star Trekstyle matter-antimatter reactors, or “some completely new form of energy”.

A small first step was already being taken by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Start Shot project, said Prof Hawking.

This envisages sending a fleet of tiny “nanocraft” carrying light sails on a four lightyear journey to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth.

The camera-equipped miniature probes would be sent on their way by tens of gigawatts of focused power from an array of lasers, reaching their destination in about 20 years.

Travelling to the stars is not a fanciful idea but a necessity, according to the professor, whose address was broadcast via a video link to the festival.

Being “cosmic sloths” was not an option, he said.