As Stephen Hawking, the world’s most famous scientist, warned that humanity faced extinction from man-made or natural disaster and should start preparing without delay for the evacuation of Earth, NASA confirmed that its plan to send astronauts planet hopping was on course.

The Cambridge University professor, author of the best seller “A Brief History of Time,” said he feared that the inhabitants of Earth face the possibility of extinction within the next 100 years. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out,” he told reporters yesterday at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

What could cause such a catastrophe? “Sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers we have not yet thought of,” he said.

So how can we avoid this doomed fate? By leaving behind Earth and finding a new home in the uncultivated, distant regions of outer space, he said.

“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Mr. Hawking said.

He added that he has been considering a new home for Homo sapiens and suggested that in 20 years the moon would provide humans a first permanent base, while 40 years later Mars would be ripe for colonization.

But it appears the eminent mathematician and astrophysicist is not simply indulging in science fiction dreams. NASA confirmed that Mr. Hawking’s vision will soon be a reality, saying it is well on its way to taking space exploration into a “new generation,” with the hope of sending more missions to the moon within two to 10 years and establishing a lunar base near the end of this century.

“We are making plans for the next generation of spacecrafts,” a spokesman for NASA, Grey Hautaluoma, told The New York Sun. “We are looking to set up a lunar base for a stepping-stone to Mars.”

But he said NASA’s motive was merely to make “scientific progress” and that the project had nothing to do with worries about an impending apocalypse. “We only want to learn about the processes of the universe,” he said.

Whatever the reasoning behind the colonization of other planets, Mr. Hawking said he is skeptical that humans will ever enjoy a better quality of life than the one found now on Earth. “We will not find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system,” he said.

So perhaps we should not pack our bags just yet, then.