Ariel Ekblaw asserts that establishing space habitats is necessary for humans to thrive rather than just survive, and it is a achievable, practical goal.

“and then how do you think about the society operating and hopefully thriving not just surviving inside of them”

The effort and resources required to terraform and colonize Mars far outweigh the efforts required to deflect foreseeable threats to Earth or to solve problems on our own planet.

“everything we can foresee it seems to me would be easier to solve that than to ship people to Mars after you've terraformed it people said oh we're trashing Earth we need an earth backup plan whatever it takes to turn Mars into Earth has got to be a greater effort than to turn Earth back into Earth”

He suggests that growing food on the moon would likely require a pressurized, hydroponic or aeroponic system combined with artificial lighting due to the absence of soil, atmosphere, and a natural diu

“I think you'd have to grow them hydroponically or aeroponically in like a pressurized chamber. And I think you'd have to use artificial light”

It is logical for a self-perpetuating civilization to have a survival instinct that drives it to colonize other planets to avoid extinction events.

“It's Perfectly Natural that any species that that's interested in self-perpetuation would see the obvious benefits of trying to expand to other colonies to other plets and eventually even to other stars”