Stephen Hawking has urged leading nations to send back astronauts to the Moon by 2020. Moreover, he wants them to fly humans to Mars as early as 2025.

Financial Express also reported that the renowned physicist challenged space companies to build a lunar base in the next 30 years. Why? Hawking hopes to elevate the morale of humanity.

Speaking at the Starmus Festival, he warned that humans need to "leave the Earth" to survive for another million years. Some of Hawking's proposals include forging new alliances between developed countries and re-igniting the space programs of the United States.

Hawking said that "spreading out into space" will completely change the future of mankind. With any luck, previous competitors must now unite for a single goal. For one, this challenge is for everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, and nationality.

While the professor understands the concerns of other people regarding spending the national budgets on solving the problems within the planet, he believes that looking for alternative homes is also necessary. In addition, he blasted Donald Trump for the "most serious, and wrong" decision on climate change the world has ever seen.

Per BBC, Hawking cautioned that humanity is running out of livable space. Probably, he added, the only destinations left to go to are other worlds. Certainly, the physicist is eager to make other scientists realize that it is time to explore other solar systems in the universe.

For the record, the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) Jan Woerner admitted that he foresees the construction of a Moon base to replace the current International Space Station. ESA plans to make it in 2024. Woerner's team could partner with Russia to send a probe and assess the most potential site on the lunar surface.

On the other hand, China has set the goal of sending an astronaut to the Moon. However, NASA has no plans to repeat the Apollo missions. Nevertheless, the American space agency will take on the Mars assignment.

Tags Stephen Hawking, Mars, Nasa, European Space Agency, Mars Mission, International Space Station, Donald trump