Ideas worth spreading

Your kids might live on Mars. Here's how they'll survive

7,099,450 views |

Stephen Petranek |

TED2015

• March 2015

It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. In this provocative talk, Petranek makes the case that humans will become a spacefaring species and describes in fascinating detail how we'll make Mars our next home. "Humans will survive no matter what happens on Earth," Petranek says. "We will never be the last of our kind."

It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. In this provocative talk, Petranek makes the case that humans will become a spacefaring species and describes in fascinating detail how we'll make Mars our next home. "Humans will survive no matter what happens on Earth," Petranek says. "We will never be the last of our kind."

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Stephen Petranek

Stephen Petranek

Technology forecaster

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Stephen Petranek untangles emerging technologies to predict which will become fixtures of our future lives -- and which could potentially save them.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.