Stephen Hawking calls for a return to the moon as Earth's clock runs out

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Speaking on Tuesday at the Starmus Festival, a science-slash-musical gathering, the astrophysicist offered two parts doom cut with one part scientific optimism. He argued that we should prepare for a cosmic exodus to take place  in the next 200 to 500 years.

Hawking's plan to boogie off this planet is ambitious. Countries should collaborate to construct a moon colony within 30 years.  We can reach Mars " in the next 15 years," he said, with a base to follow a few decades later.

The head of the Europeon Space agency siad in 2016 that a moon village would take 20 years to plan and construct. NASA's long term plans include sending humans to Mars by the 2030's.

So let us set our sights on other worlds. At a neighborly 4.37 light years away, the planet Proxima B in the Alpha Centauri system is a promising target, Hawking said- except that with current technology, intersellar travel is "utterly impractical".

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