Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

hackaday.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 132 posts

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#31

Post by antisthenes »

grondilu wrote: post #26
maxxxxx wrote: post #8

I remember a talk by a NASA guy that a first try would be to land some people with limited supplies on the Antarctic and let them live autonomously for a few years. He said before we go to Mars we need the ability to do this easily.

Or try an other biosphere experiment[1]. The problem is, it would cost almost as much as a real mars mission. So it's not sure it'd be worth it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

It's worth it because the value of the success of the first Mars mission encompasses the value of the future Mars missions as well.

If the first one fails, how likely are we to continue doing it, considering the present challenges we face on Earth?

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#32

Post by bluGill »

jononor wrote: post #14

Wonder if one can extract power from the static buildup caused by dust moving on surfaces (triboelectric effect).

You can, but static electricity tends to be very high voltage but lot wattage. You typically cannot collect any meaningful amount of power.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#33

Post by takingflac »

erdle wrote: post #16
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically the sole inhabitants of Mars are robots so you're not too far off.

they get unlimited data but the network is crap

The bandwidth is improving. If they could fix that 240000ms ping it would at least be bearable.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#34

Post by Retric »

comicjk wrote: post #25
maxxxxx wrote: post #8

I remember a talk by a NASA guy that a first try would be to land some people with limited supplies on the Antarctic and let them live autonomously for a few years. He said before we go to Mars we need the ability to do this easily.

Also, it would be nice if we could make a self-contained ecosystem work on Earth before sending one into space. People seem to think this is a solved problem, but actually all attempts so far have lost their equilibrium pretty quickly, most notably Biosphere 2.

They sell closed ecosystems as novelty items. Existing attempts to have people in them have tried to do way to much.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#35

Post by maxerickson »

baron816 wrote: post #24

I think there are going to be some very serious mental health issues for people trying to colonize Mars, especially if they're taking a one way trip. First, you have to deal with a different day-night cycle and the reduced gravity. That stuff matters for humans who have gotten used to 24 hour days and 9.807 m/s^2 gravity over the last 200,000 years. Then, you're going to have to deal with boredom and cabin fever. Mar…

Yeah, I wouldn't do it.

But I bet that any substantial (more than a few dozen) effort would build some pretty huge indoor spaces.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#36

Post by kbenson »

jcranmer wrote: post #30
idlewords wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Antarctic is a poor analogue, since it has abundant water and food. The Atacama desert might be a better one. There's no earthly reason to make people live in the Atacama, but then again, there's no reason to send people to Mars, either.

The continental margin and ice shelves are where all the wildlife is. On the interior ice sheet plateau, there are pretty much no animals or plants. Water is, of course, plentiful, albeit in the wrong phase of matter. Another "advantage" of interior Antarctica is that, in winter time, it is difficult-to-impossible to actually get in or out of it. The Amundsen-Scott research base is isolated for three months of the ye…

> Water is, of course, plentiful, albeit in the wrong phase of matter.

Well, since they mention that water as ice is actually abundant[1], it's probably good for testing out strategies for harvesting and purifying water effectively and reliably at the same time they are dealing with the other problems.

1: From the article: Water is a mix of hydrogen and oxygen and is abundant in the form of ice mixed into the top meter of the Martian regolith. Around the equator and up to 60° latitude it varies in concentration from 2-18% but further north and south it’s in even higher concentrations, reaching 100% at the north pole.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#37

Post by zeristor »

baron816 wrote: post #24

I think there are going to be some very serious mental health issues for people trying to colonize Mars, especially if they're taking a one way trip. First, you have to deal with a different day-night cycle and the reduced gravity. That stuff matters for humans who have gotten used to 24 hour days and 9.807 m/s^2 gravity over the last 200,000 years. Then, you're going to have to deal with boredom and cabin fever. Mar…

This was the most annoying thing about the film The Martian for me.

Everyone crows about the science, but I've not heard anything about the psychological trauma someone marooned and isolated on an alien planet for several months would go through.

I imagine it would be something on a par with the Dancing plagues of Strasbourg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Plague_of_1518

But without the cheesy disco music.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#38

Post by noonespecial »

baron816 wrote: post #24

I think there are going to be some very serious mental health issues for people trying to colonize Mars, especially if they're taking a one way trip. First, you have to deal with a different day-night cycle and the reduced gravity. That stuff matters for humans who have gotten used to 24 hour days and 9.807 m/s^2 gravity over the last 200,000 years. Then, you're going to have to deal with boredom and cabin fever. Mar…

>As the years go on, loneliness and despair will set in. Those first colonists will likely spend the rest of their lives pretty much with who they landed with. Their lives won't change much at all over the decades they're there, and they'll have no hope for things to ever be different.

We don't have to wonder. We do it now. Its called jail.

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#39

Post by 0xffff2 »

justin66 wrote: post #23
Apocryphon wrote: post #10

The lower gravity than Earth bit sounds like the most debilitating thing about Martian colonization. One of the reasons why I think Venus cloud cities would be a better long-term bet for baseline humanity: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8985151

Nobody actually knows what an extended period living in 38% of Earth-normal gravity will do to a person. It seems probable that there will be bone density problems that might not be correctable with any existing drug or exercise regimen, but there's no evidence it will be as systematically debilitating as living for an extended period in microgravity.

Are the bone density problems actually a problem if you never plan to return to Earth?

Re: Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

#40

Post by deegles »

baron816 wrote: post #24

I think there are going to be some very serious mental health issues for people trying to colonize Mars, especially if they're taking a one way trip. First, you have to deal with a different day-night cycle and the reduced gravity. That stuff matters for humans who have gotten used to 24 hour days and 9.807 m/s^2 gravity over the last 200,000 years. Then, you're going to have to deal with boredom and cabin fever. Mar…

VR games/interaction will fill that void IMO. Especially if you grow up with that being the norm.
Post reply on HN