James Lovelock: 'I Would Not Waste My Fortune on Colonizing Mars'

Post by 34679 » Mon, Feb 03, 2020, 3:29 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #66

keanzu wrote: post #55

Perhaps it might have been possible in some long distant past to underestimate Elon Musk and write him off as a crazy person. That time is gone. If Musk appears to be doing something crazy you've not understood it. > It’s crazy, completely crazy. Elon Musk has read too much science fiction. He got carried away with it. If I were in his position, I would not waste my fortune on colonizing Mars. And all they would lear…

JFK sold us on space because "we choose to do these things because they are hard." It was an aspirational exploratory message. The reality is that we are in space because it is required for great power contests. I'm mired in space as a DoD executive, so I promise you space - at least inside the GEO orbits - is extremely practical. Starlink is honestly amazing. Mars though? I've steel-manned that one and I don't see i…

Post by jacobush » Mon, Feb 03, 2020, 3:30 PM UTC

rubidium wrote: post #89

wrsh07 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that true of nuclear winter or a major impact event? Wouldn't either of those render the Earth temporarily uninhabitable? Is the argument that it would be easy enough to build on Earth places to survive such events rather than going to Mars?

A massive, underground biodome would be cheaper and easier.

Post by anonymou2 » Mon, Feb 03, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #12

hising wrote: post #6

He may be a smart dude, but this answer is out there: > "DER SPIEGEL: Cancer is a silent killer that might get diagnosed long after the exposure, when it is too late. > Lovelock: I've had 10 cancers in the last few years and it hasn't been very bad. They just appear and grow. If you go to a good oncologist nearby, they'll take it out. It's just unfortunate for people who let it happen and it grows and grows until it'…

“out there” is a pretty charitable description. I stopped reading the article there. I am not interested in reading the crazy ramblings of someone disconnected from reality.

Post by goatlover » Mon, Feb 03, 2020, 3:31 PM UTC

russdill wrote: post #114

LinuxBender wrote: post #99

This topic comes up a lot and I know it excites investors, but I have yet to see a viable plan for kick-starting the magnetic field on Mars. No magnetic field means no way to have an atmosphere, water or life and everyone has to stay in caves or incredibly durable modules indefinitely. The only O2 and H2O is what you bring with you or produce in the modules. The only reason I could see doing this is if we knew of imp…

A lot of people get fooled into thinking that because Mars lacks an atmosphere due to a lack of a magnetic field, a magnetic field is required to have an atmosphere. The atmosphere was stripped away from Mars over hundreds of millions of years. If you could somehow restore the atmosphere today, it would remain just fine over any reasonable human timescales. Giving Mars at atmosphere is of course very difficult.

Post by dirktheman » Mon, Feb 03, 2020, 3:33 PM UTC

legohead wrote: post #120

keanzu wrote: post #55

Perhaps it might have been possible in some long distant past to underestimate Elon Musk and write him off as a crazy person. That time is gone. If Musk appears to be doing something crazy you've not understood it. > It’s crazy, completely crazy. Elon Musk has read too much science fiction. He got carried away with it. If I were in his position, I would not waste my fortune on colonizing Mars. And all they would lear…

Mars is totally inhospitable to humans in multiple ways. And that's precisely why we should go there! We would have forced leaps in technology, habitation, and most importantly for Earth, terraforming.