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All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

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Re: All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

#61

Post by andyjohnson0 »

nickff wrote: post #29
pbh101 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To this day astronauts need to spend good amounts of time exercising during long stints in zero-g aboard ISS to avoid significant bone loss. Of course, maybe if you never leave Mars, you would be just fine with the bone density/strength you have.

Citing specific problems can be instructive, and I would agree that bone and muscle mass loss could prove very bad. My issue is with nebulous claims that 'anything could happen'. I would add that the bone and muscle problems are very well known to just about everyone who has done as much as read a science fiction book. Heinlein went into the subject in detail in his 1966 novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", and more…

It is worth remembering that Heinlein and KSR are writers of fiction, which tends to gloss-over difficult problems in favour of pleasing stories. Neither were/are scientists, although Heinlein had an engineering degree, and it would be inadvisable to rely on their work.

In 1966 the space endurance record was just under 14 days (Gemini 7) and very little was known about the long-term effects of low gravity environments at that time.

Re: All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

#62

Post by twelfthnight »

pbh101 wrote: post #25
nickff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of argument was made early and often in the late 1950s, with respect to zero gravity, and it proved to be fear-mongering. Without evidence for this sort of proposition, it is simply pessimistic speculation. This piece was not well researched, please do not invest too much credence in it.

To this day astronauts need to spend good amounts of time exercising during long stints in zero-g aboard ISS to avoid significant bone loss. Of course, maybe if you never leave Mars, you would be just fine with the bone density/strength you have.

That's a good point. I always associate the astronauts in the ISS with having very severe health effects from the zero-g, but if they never came back, perhaps they would be okay!

Re: All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

#63

Post by lnanek2 »

bakhy wrote: post #46

Aside from all the serious problems, their puny budget being probably the biggest, what always bugged me was the reality show aspect... What an ugly way to even think about achieving such a great feat. Are they picking their candidates like Big Brother does, with the egos and sex appeal? Will there be fighting? Sex? I mean, if the viewers get bored, and this will be a pretty long show with a pretty small cast, what h…

It's nice to be an idealist like that, but like the capitalism vs. communism argument - when they made water free in Cuba, people just left the taps running. In reality, media like movies, games, and reality TV make massive amounts of money. If that money is spend on improving space technology instead of just sending people to a remote island to watch them suffer, it is a clear win, and doesn't take trying to force people to match your idealist image.

Re: All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

#64

Post by kalms »

a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #48
Osmium wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about, before all that, we try and inhabit, say, deserts on Earth first? Make that psychologically and economically feasible first. To my knowledge, we are yet to successfully demonstrate that we can maintain a viable, materially-closed ecosystem, without having to worry about extra things we'd encounter on Mars like pressure and temperature differentials and excess radiation. I am all for Mars, 100%. The sooner…

> I am all for Mars, 100% I recall a pretty good article shared here a while ago about how Mars makes no sense as a target compared to Mercury. You can put people on the dark/light edge of Mercury and find a pretty good temperature. A tiny solar panel can generate gobs of power. There are minerals worth mining on Mercury. Because Mars has no magnetosphere all habitable structures will have to be well underground to p…

"Because it has almost no atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface experiences the greatest temperature variation of all the planets, ranging from 100 K (−173 °C; −280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day at some equatorial regions." — From Wikipedia.

That doesn't really sound like pleasent temperature fluctuations or something that is easy to work with?

Re: All Dressed Up for Mars and Nowhere to Go

#65

Post by a8da6b0c91d »

kalms wrote: post #64
a8da6b0c91d wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am all for Mars, 100% I recall a pretty good article shared here a while ago about how Mars makes no sense as a target compared to Mercury. You can put people on the dark/light edge of Mercury and find a pretty good temperature. A tiny solar panel can generate gobs of power. There are minerals worth mining on Mercury. Because Mars has no magnetosphere all habitable structures will have to be well underground to p…

"Because it has almost no atmosphere to retain heat, Mercury's surface experiences the greatest temperature variation of all the planets, ranging from 100 K (−173 °C; −280 °F) at night to 700 K (427 °C; 800 °F) during the day at some equatorial regions." — From Wikipedia. That doesn't really sound like pleasent temperature fluctuations or something that is easy to work with?

You can set up on the poles where it's steady.
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