Yeah, let's just sit here on our planet, posting cats on the internet and wait for the next extinction event.
It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
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Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#12> But a colony on Mars would need to be a nearly perfectly self-contained, resource neutral system that harvests energy from the sun and is rarely or never re-supplied. That is currently beyond the reach of science and human ingenuity. It is no where near the limits of our reach. We already have people living in space year round without any local resources. What we do seem to lack however is any faith in ourselves.
Compared to what is available on Mars, Earth counts as a local resource for living in LEO.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#13> But a colony on Mars would need to be a nearly perfectly self-contained, resource neutral system that harvests energy from the sun and is rarely or never re-supplied. That is currently beyond the reach of science and human ingenuity. It is no where near the limits of our reach. We already have people living in space year round without any local resources. What we do seem to lack however is any faith in ourselves.
I am not sure what you trying to pointing out. Current people in space are being re-supplied from Earth all the time, and they aren't completely our of our gravity well, so the energy required to get stuff there is lower and still very expensive.
If you want to re-supply people on Mars you would have to escape Earth's gravity well completely, which is crazy expensive.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#14> But a colony on Mars would need to be a nearly perfectly self-contained, resource neutral system that harvests energy from the sun and is rarely or never re-supplied. That is currently beyond the reach of science and human ingenuity. It is no where near the limits of our reach. We already have people living in space year round without any local resources. What we do seem to lack however is any faith in ourselves.
It may not be beyond our reach, but it is beyond my tolerance as to what I am willing to support as a taxpayer.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#15And yet Google has invested almost a billion dollars in SpaceX.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#16I agree with the title; for now. In the near term, perhaps even the next couple hundred years, it is likely that a colony on Mars would make zero sense aside from scientific research (even that could be done without people on the surface themselves).
Beyond that, I won't try to predict what will and won't make sense 500 years from now, 1000 years from now. Mars may not have a lot of resources, but it does have one thing that could be useful to a much larger and much more space-capable human population in the future: room. There's a lot of room there for people. We can argue all day whether that's realistic or not, but we should never assume that it will never make sense in the future based solely on the resources and problems of today.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#17Good points comparing colonizing Mars to colonizing places on Earth such as Antarctica, the Sahara, or the bottom of the oceans.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I think it's a fair comparison given that those Earth-based locations are easier to colonize, yet haven't been.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#18One thing I think is important when considering colonizing another planet is that we have to drop certain expectations for the first few waves of colonists: e.g. the expectation that your lifespan will be as long as your Earth brethren.
By all accounts, the first colonists to the New World lived short, miserable, brutish lives and it was only well after sufficient infrastructure was established and European style civilization was properly bootstrapped could the average American expect to live as long as the average European.
Several early American colonies failed to last even a handful of years!
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#19Yeah, let's just sit here on our planet, posting cats on the internet and wait for the next extinction event.
If your concern is the possible extinction of humanity, I don't see how an arduous journey to a barren and inhospitable wasteland is of any use to the cause. If we can manage to survive on Mars, certainly we can manage to survive on the most life-friendly planet known to man.
Re: It’s completely ridiculous to think that humans could live on Mars
#20If you ever want to go to Mars, establish a base on the Moon first and develop the ability to mine water, rock, and metal from the moon and close asteroids. If you can make propellant tanks and fill them up the trip to Mars will be a snap and there will be a lot of human experience in deep space so the first visitors won't be setting endurance records