Mars and Off Planet Colonization - General Possibilities Discussion

[aronth5]

timk225, Elon is one of the champions for colonizing Mars and this statement pretty well sums up his reasoning.
"Having a self-sustaining outpost on the Red Planet would serve as an insurance policy, making humanity's extinction unlikely even if something goes terribly awry here on Earth"

Now Is the Time to Colonize Mars, Elon Musk Says

 

[SageBrush]

Since we are asking the difficult questions, let me add another:

Why did the chicken cross the road ?

 

[ecarfan]

This is already being discussed in this thread Mars

 

[Saghost]

I can understand exploration, but I don't get why people are thinking of trying to colonize Mars.

1. It's a long ride.
2. It's a bit on the cold side.
3. Long term low gravity is not good for humans.
4. There's nearly no atmosphere.

Send all the probes you want, but people? I don't get how this is a good idea.

Maybe someone better informed can explain this to me and others.

Because as a species we're in a race against time, with no idea how much time we have left. Sooner or later, something will happen to Earth - whether it's extreme global warming, nuclear war, some impossible disease, or an asteroid impact - that will render the planet uninhabited.

If that happens before a viable population of humans lives somewhere off planet, that's the end of us, and all our rambling thoughts and endless arguments.

Note that I'm not expecting disaster tomorrow, and I have no personal plans to immigrate to Mars. Most likely the event above is hundreds or thousands of years ahead - possibly even millions of years. But as a species we need to consider doing something like colonizing Mars as soon as we have the technology to make a permanent colony practical.

 

[Canuck]

"Having a self-sustaining outpost on the Red Planet would serve as an insurance policy, making humanity's extinction unlikely even if something goes terribly awry here on Earth"

I know Elon really means extending the time humans are around, rather than making human extinction unlikely, since human extinction is all but certain. Not that our species will be around to see the sun die out, but assuming we do, we're done then, regardless of whether we have colonized mars. And if we get out of our solar system (beyond wishful thinking) we're still done.

Still it's a noble effort. Let's just not kid ourselves. We can't even figure out how to live properly on this planet, let alone others.

Unfortunately, I'm done in about three or four more decades. I think behind a lot of the drive is a fight against our own mortality. We're born with this damn problem. Well, two problems: death and taxes.

 

[timk225]

So how do we get through the radiation belts around earth without dying, to get to Mars?

 

[jerry33]

Human extinction is all but certain. Not that our species will be around to see the sun die out, but assuming we do, we're done then, regardless of whether we have colonized mars. And if we get out of our solar system (beyond wishful thinking) we're still done.

Still it's a noble effort. Let's just not kid ourselves. We can't even figure out how to live properly on this planet, let alone others.

Unfortunately, I'm done in about three or four more decades. I think behind a lot of the drive is a fight against our own mortality. We're born with this damn problem. Well, two problems: death and taxes.

Well, the sun becomes a red giant in 3 billion years or so. Let's try for a few ten thousand years first. Or should we just do nothing and let the mess we've made of the planet (assuming that we won't do anything to keep it viable for human life) wipe us out in a couple of generations.

 

[Krugerrand]

First people on Mars might go there with their own money. To be successful colony needs spare parts and new experts every 26 months. If this flow is discontinued, they will die. It is not enough to survive. They need to expand base and rebuild our industry. How large base is needed for this?

3-D printer; there's your 'spare' parts.

It IS enough to survive. That's the whole point. In surviving they will expand and learn and evolve. Grow their own food and hopefully terraform the planet. Humans are a rather persistent disease. You're concern is from analogy rather than first principles.

 

[Canuck]

Well, the sun becomes a red giant in 3 billion years or so. Let's try for a few ten thousand years first. Or should we just do nothing and let the mess we've made of the planet (assuming that we won't do anything to keep it viable for human life) wipe us out in a couple of generations.

Agreed. I did say it was a noble effort. I was just taking issue with Elon saying "making humanity's extinction unlikely" although I edited my original post since I know he didn't mean it to be taken categorically.

I sure hope we have more than a couple of generations left on this planet.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Most animal life has experienced a global extinction event at least once before on earth.

Good idea to extend our tribe to other planets before it happens again.

 

[808?]

Maybe a colony on our moon might be a better staging post to jump to Mars.

 

[JohnSnowNW]

Maybe a colony on our moon might be a better staging post to jump to Mars.

Yeah, but Mars goes along with Musk's want to re-invigorate the public's interest in space exploration. The same reason he initially wanted to send a plant to Mars.

We've been to the moon, and the public's interest waned. Yeah, it'd be more practical...but that's not really his goal. When he describes the purpose as making our species interplanetary that's really the broader reason, or the end goal. The real purpose to is to spark interest and innovation.

At least that's how it seems to me.

 

[TaoJones]

Because it is there.

 

[LargeHamCollider]

Maybe a colony on our moon might be a better staging post to jump to Mars.

It would be much harder to colonize the moon than Mars. Mars has many similarities to Earth, it's days are almost exactly 24 hours long, the tilt of its axis is 24 degrees to Earths 23.5, it's combination of greater distance from the sun and lower (by 2/3) gravity mean an atmosphere that had the same density as earth's at the surface would keep the planet at an average temperature similar to earth's.

Terraforming it could be done with today's technology (but we'd need to scale it all up in quantity a ridiculous amount) except for a few problems like the lack of a magnetosphere and the scarcity of water.

The moon has 700ish hour days and is therefore subject to prolonged temperature extremes and would (for other reasons too) shed any atmosphere you put on it rapidly.

 

[GoTslaGo]

Frontier Thesis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Skotty]

Some of us look at Star Trek as not just a show, but as a hopeful view of what humanity could be in the future. A more mature, responsible civilization that explores the stars. It is a positive view on the future. And the first step to making a future like that a reality, is to believe it is possible. The second step is to have the courage to try. Much of this is embodied by the documentary

. You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the gist of it, you can skip ahead to about 1:19:00 and just watch the closing bits.

There is the question as to whether or not we should terraform Mars. But as it is probably the only place within our reach for some time to come that could be made livable, and if it continues to look as though there is no native life there, I think it is completely acceptable for us to claim Mars as our own. It may be the necessary as the next major step in securing our future and avoiding the potential great filter of never aspiring to extend beyond our own planet.

 

[S'toon]

Some of us look at Star Trek as not just a show, but as a hopeful view of what humanity could be in the future. A more mature, responsible civilization that explores the stars. It is a positive view on the future. And the first step to making a future like that a reality, is to believe it is possible. The second step is to have the courage to try. Much of this is embodied by the documentary

. You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the gist of it, you can skip ahead to about 1:19:00 and just watch the closing bits.

There is the question as to whether or not we should terraform Mars. But as it is probably the only place within our reach for some time to come that could be made livable, and if it continues to look as though there is no native life there, I think it is completely acceptable for us to claim Mars as our own. It may be the necessary as the next major step in securing our future and avoiding the potential great filter of never aspiring to extend beyond our own planet.

I think that Star Trek was an unrealistic portrayal of humanity, and the future. That's why Babylon 5 was better than Trek. It was still in the future, but the same social problems we have now were still in the future, because no matter what we're still human and have human instincts and desires.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Solving hard problems makes humanity better.

 

[JAFO]

Because 80s Sharon Stone, that's why.

 

[JAFO]

The Mars motivation has nothing to do with being sensible.

It's just there!

And it's outside of your tax jurisdiction.

The financial system here has no interest to them up there.

Dying and hungry people here become someon else's problems.

Once you get to 50k Martians sent, interbreeding will be sustainable without genetic modification to save from birth defects.

Caverns can be lit and pressurized, the towns build on soil that would likely grow food. Water can found, and since you're underground no radiation or temperature problems.

SpaceX today just runs cargo to orbit, that creates the nest egg to build the spaceship to send us there. I for one won't be coming back, and I'm not alone.

You can put a statue of me up in Hawthorn.