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Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

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

#41

Post by asploder »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #21
jessriedel wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Semiconductors are one of few products that are so value dense ($/kg) that you can ship them from Earth for a reasonable marginal price. It's everything else with a long production chain (or very large upfront costs, like mining) that's infeasible to do on Mars without 1M+ people.

I imagine construction materials will be a right pain. E.g. concrete is right out, as is most metals, since you need a lot of carbon (coal) in the production process. Those two are pretty important in tunnel digging.

What exactly would a Mars colony need to dig tunnels for?

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

#42

Post by larkeith »

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…

One thing to note is humans can entrain to a 24.65 hour (Mars sol) circadian rhythm [1]. This does not significantly detract from your point, however.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1934931/

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

#43

Post by maxxxxx »

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

If we can't do this easily on Earth we should forget about Mars. Unless we are ok with sending people there to slowly die off

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

#44

Post by seren »

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…

I am often thinking about food, it will likely be incredibly bland and not very varied. Plus you'll spend probably most of your time indoors. You won't ever lay on a beach listening to the sounds of the wave, or walk on dry leaves in a forest anymore.

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

#45

Post by ceejayoz »

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…

> First, you have to deal with a different day-night cycle and the reduced gravity.

There's more difference between Alaska and the Equator than the extra 40 minutes Mars introduces, and there don't seem to be significant mental health issues from zero gravity on the ISS. Bone density, sure.

> I'm betting the novelty of it will wear of in an hour (tops) of landing there.

I know a geologist who's still getting super-excited over rocks ten years later.

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

#46

Post by dangom »

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…

Interesting. I didn't know that it was that hard. Just read that the biggest problem is that fuel freezes and so planes cannot fly.

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/how-to-su...

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

#47

Post by Pigo »

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…

It seems like gravity is the biggest factor that the pie in the sky posts always seem to gloss over. As you said, living in the low of gravity, for the rest of your life, has to have untold issues on bodies that evolved here. It would also add another layer of complexity to everything you do.

So many people act like it's just a cool destination spot for Sheldon-types. I have no doubt there'd be no shortage of people wanting to sign up, but it does seem very sad to me. Like people willing to get facial tattoos sad. They should focus on finding ways to create a VR experience that would allow everyone to experience it safely.

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

#48

Post by LeifCarrotson »

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…

> Then, you're going to have to deal with boredom and cabin fever. Mars seems cool in the abstract--"explore another world!"--but its just a big, completely dead desert. I'm betting the novelty of it will wear of in an hour (tops) of landing there.

Have you ever been backpacking in a desert, mountains, wilderness? It continues to be amazing for days. Anything that new and different definitely induces novelty more than an hour tops.

Also, have you seen the data returned by the rovers? There's stuff to explore and discover everywhere. Mars may have less biome variation (on a scale that can be sensed by unprotected humans, and for whatever the 'bio' of 'biome' means on a lifeless world) than Earth, but it's not featureless.

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

#50

Post by samsonradu »

zeristor wrote: post #37
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.

Did you see the "Mars" series (National Geographic) ? Definitely touches the psychological implications of such a trip.
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