Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About

Post by visarga » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:16 PM UTC

TFortunato wrote: post #66

Pigo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

To play devil's advocate - there are a lot of people who would argue that the view: "Why would you do something with so many known and unknown dangers, when you could focus your energies on making a VR simulation of it instead?" also very sad.

Post by ianburrell » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:19 PM UTC

grondilu wrote: post #77

theothermkn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Colonization has usually moved the larger human society forward a little, with new forms of governance, new materials, new technologies or techniques for daily life. I would really like to see the historical data that bears out this broad claim. I'd like to see a more or less representative sample of "colonization" events that "moved society forward," for example. Also, I'd like to see an accounting of the counterf…

Quite off-topic, but sometimes I even wonder if we should not "de-colonize" Earth. I first thought of that when I learnt that if all human population was living in one place with the same population density as in Tokyo, this megacity would fit in the state of California or something. That sounds extreme, but I somehow am attracted by the idea of leaving entire continents completely void of humans.

Post by aidenn0 » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:48 PM UTC

finnh wrote: post #94

devrandomguy wrote: post #60

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Well, your constant mass means that you will still have the same inertia when playing sports. I would expect pairs of fractured skulls, pairs of broken shins in soccer players, etc. Wow, soccer would be epic in low G!

Maybe ... you can't run much faster, so i'd imagine it would be like ultimate aerobee[0] - i.e., minutes-long chases of errant balls with no other player within hundreds of yards. [0] is this a thing?

Post by KGIII » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:51 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #73

wyager wrote: post #62

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There are a huge number of humans on earth who spend their lives in urban centers and also never have those experiences. Speculating about the quality of food on mars is pointless; we have no idea how that will work. If you can afford regular equipment shipments to mars (which is probably what a mars colony will require with near-future tech), it would probably make a lot of sense to ship up a bunch of spices. They h…

> There are a huge number of humans on earth who spend their lives in urban centers and also never have those experiences. Those people can and do at least go to parks. A better analogy is that it would be like living in an underground bunker on Death Valley, with periodic excursions out to the desert, while wearing a spacesuit.

Post by hectorr1 » Thu, Aug 17, 2017, 6:56 PM UTC

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…