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Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

blogs.scientificamerican.com

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Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#3
Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely.

This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ignoring the fact that your hands are uncontrollably stabbing your legs with safety pins.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#4

Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely. This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ign…

Why not do both?

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#5
post #2

terraform venus. it's much closer, has a nice .9g and maybe a viable long-term project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terraforming_of_Venus

It is theorized that Venus once had an Earth like atmosphere. Venus has virtually no magnetic field unlike Earth. Without the protection of something like the Van Allen radiation belt the Sun would have easily blown off any thin high density atmosphere and eventually cook off any surface level hydrocarbons into a thick hazy atmosphere with a super greenhouse effect. Any terraforming effort would have to take that into account and capture atmospheric sulfur.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#6

Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely. This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ign…

Why not do both?

Because limited resources are a thing that exists? I think if you were to take a poll, most people would agree that throwing all our economic might behind preserving the one bastion of life we know of in the universe is a better course of action than spending our time and money on what for the foreseeable future remains a pipe dream to be smoked by the very few. In all likelihood, we will need the technologies developed in a green revolution to even have a fighting chance of success at colonizing other worlds.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not do both?

Because limited resources are a thing that exists? I think if you were to take a poll, most people would agree that throwing all our economic might behind preserving the one bastion of life we know of in the universe is a better course of action than spending our time and money on what for the foreseeable future remains a pipe dream to be smoked by the very few. In all likelihood, we will need the technologies develo…

I wouldn’t leave that decision in the hands of an internet poll.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because limited resources are a thing that exists? I think if you were to take a poll, most people would agree that throwing all our economic might behind preserving the one bastion of life we know of in the universe is a better course of action than spending our time and money on what for the foreseeable future remains a pipe dream to be smoked by the very few. In all likelihood, we will need the technologies develo…

I wouldn’t leave that decision in the hands of an internet poll.

You have trillions to spend? I say go for it.

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#9
Let’s colonize Mercury. It’s not actually hot at the poles - it’s shaded enough from the consistent low angle to the sun that there’s even water ice. And the planet is full of useful metals (more than earth), and as much solar energy as you can handle. The article dismisses Mercury out of hand as “too hot” but I think it’s our best bet. https://www.universetoday.com/130109/how-do-we-colonize-merc...

Re: Saturn's largest moon may be the only place beyond Earth where humans could live

#10

Let's first ensure we do all possible things as a species and a collection of communities to restabilise Earth and give ourselves a 99.5% chance of healthful survival for the next 200 years, which is probably the reasonable timeline until we can establish more or less independent non-Earth habitats that can survive without Earth indefinitely. This is like expressing the wish of wanting to run while simultaneously ign…

Why not do both?

If there is one thing I’ve learned, from many posters on HN in many different topic, it’s that human civilisation is apparently incapable of achieving more than one goal at a time.
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