Meet the Walking Extinct

MEET THE WALKING EXTINCT

Photo: Nola, the remaining northern white rhino in California,  San Diego Zoo Global

When there is only five of a species left and they are mostly old with genetic issues, low sperm counts, and physical problems that will make breeding unlikely, this species has ended. 

Even if a female managed to bring forth a baby rhino with the aid of science, the species is still doomed. Who is that little rhino going to mate with?  To be frank, this species has been dead for awhile, but the people in charge of them just don't want to face the truth.

So, what happens when five astronauts head off to space to find a habitable planet? When they arrive will they become the next white rhino?

More planets that may be similar to earth have been found, but we'll need huge breakthroughs, including traveling beyond the speed of light.

NASA actually has a team working on that.

Let's say we can travel to a planet ten times the speed of light through space warping. That's still 10-30 years of radioactive space time...unless the space warp saves us from radiation and bone loss as well, since we'll be traveling outside of normal space.

Perhaps only near the end of the journey will we be required to  enter space and endure the harsh realities. 

Will we survive the trip and land on the planet?
If we do,will we thrive or be like the white rhinos?  Alive but extinct.

And that's the upside.

The downside is that we don't discover how to travel faster than the speed of light, thus when our planet does its cyclical burn and freeze thing, then instead of going silently into the night like our white rhinos, we'll enjoy Armageddon first.

A few of us might be able to escape back to Mars, (Yes, I'm assuming we first lived on Mars, destroyed it, then jumped over to Earth.)  but they'll just be white rhinos.

To be honest, I fear we are all white rhinos. So like the rhinos, let's enjoy the sun while we can.