In 2020, the promise of escaping Earth has never been more tantalizing. Our planet is facing a climate emergency  as the world burns; entire countries have been put into lockdown over coronavirus pandemic fears; nuclear weapons treaties are unraveling, bringing us closer to the threat of nuclear war ... and if that's not enough to make you want to get the hell out of Dodge, there's another US election this year. Save us.

Though the scientists and technological innovators of the world are working on solutions to save us from the apocalypse , the only viable answer might be to ditch this planet and make our way to a new one.

The world's billionaires are already working on an exit strategy. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is planning to send tourists into space, but others are more ambitious. Jeff Bezos wants us to live in massive space colonies beyond the realm of Earth. SpaceX intends to put its first private citizen in space in 2023, and CEO Elon Musk already has big plans for settling humans on Mars and making us a truly "multiplanet species." And NASA, the space race pioneer that first put us on the moon? The agency is forging ahead into the next era of space travel -- its Artemis program is already well on its way to putting the first woman and the next man on the moon, before heading on to Mars itself.