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Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

gizmodo.com

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Re: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

#3
post #2

"will never" is probably an overstatement, but the article does discuss some interesting points, gestation in lower gravity environment, for example.

I think "guests on a robot-colonized Mars" is the more likely scenario.

Humans are poorly adapted to space travel, and it takes a great deal of effort to keep humans alive in space.

It's a shame about what's happening to our habitat, when you think about it that way.

Re: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

#6
post #2

"will never" is probably an overstatement, but the article does discuss some interesting points, gestation in lower gravity environment, for example.

I think "guests on a robot-colonized Mars" is the more likely scenario. Humans are poorly adapted to space travel, and it takes a great deal of effort to keep humans alive in space. It's a shame about what's happening to our habitat, when you think about it that way.

Mankind is basically too poor and too stupid at the moment. Building a self-sustaining colony on Mars will require not only tremendous amount of resources, both material and intellectual, but also a transfer of knowledge - which will be impeded by the current legal framework, i.e. copyright laws, for example.

But I do agree with Musk: we must colonize Mars in order to survive the next extinction event.

Re: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

#7
The way I see it, there are two goals to human space travels.

The first, very distant one, is to seed ourselves among the stars to avoid being erased from existence by anything that would threaten our existence on earth, from man made cataclysm to natural event.

The second, with much more immediate result on a human scale, is that every time we face such a challenge it's only an opportunity for us to develop a new technology. Eg sure lower gravity will be an issue, until we figure out how to regulate gravity on a ship / base. That might seem far fetched but just looking at the tech invented to put human on the moon how many of those were far fetched beforehand ? Give people a challenge for tomorrow and watch them work at solving it.

Re: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

#8
> Air pressure on Mars is very low; at 600 Pascals, it’s only about 0.6 percent that of Earth.

> The thin atmosphere also means that heat cannot be retained at the surface.

> Once temperatures get below the -40 degrees F/C mark, people who aren’t properly dressed for the occasion can expect hypothermia to set in within about five to seven minutes.

Such a thin atmosphere will not transfer heat as effectively as it does on earth, so hypothermia due to exposure to -40 degree Martian air is not as big of a concern as it would be on Earth. Interesting points otherwise, though.

Re: Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

#9
post #4
post #2

"will never" is probably an overstatement, but the article does discuss some interesting points, gestation in lower gravity environment, for example.

Gestation can be solved with the use of spin gravity creating earth normal.

But is it really an issue? Were there experiments in low and microgravity on animals? Even then, a third of G is nowhere near as much of a problem as say microgravity or even lunar one sixth.

I'd expect this specific thing to not be a problem - birth may need some assistance which we already know how to do.

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