Big Phoenix
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The Astronomy Thread
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LachiusTZ
Rogue Deathwalker Box
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Has half of the impact on the body long term as far as bone loss?
Allows you the potential to get boots on the ground for research / etc?
Permanent settlement is the first step towards humanity not being wiped out by a single large rock?
Gives us 50% more land mass to expand with our increasing population?
Is the first step towards colonizing other systems?
Because we can?
Incentive for terra forming tech and application?
Non barren worlds seem rare in our solar system?
Non barren worlds outside our solar system are really fucking far?
Creates pressure to innovate and perfect technology, which drives our progress as a civilization?
I'm not sure what you are asking here Tuco.
Allows you the potential to get boots on the ground for research / etc?
Permanent settlement is the first step towards humanity not being wiped out by a single large rock?
Gives us 50% more land mass to expand with our increasing population?
Is the first step towards colonizing other systems?
Because we can?
Incentive for terra forming tech and application?
Non barren worlds seem rare in our solar system?
Non barren worlds outside our solar system are really fucking far?
Creates pressure to innovate and perfect technology, which drives our progress as a civilization?
I'm not sure what you are asking here Tuco.
there's the cool factor; people fantasize about going to live on another planet for a few years...
but I've always wondered why they don't start here with deep sea colonies?
Cad
scientia potentia est
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Mars is just a shitty candidate due to basically no atmosphere. It'll perpetually be like living on the moon with a little more gravity.
Venus is also a shitty candidate due to holy shit Venus.
Work on motherfucking propulsion guys, not bullshit expensive colonies that won't do much.
Venus is also a shitty candidate due to holy shit Venus.
Work on motherfucking propulsion guys, not bullshit expensive colonies that won't do much.
Mars is on theveryouter edge of the Goldilocks zone, which means it could be terraformed to something halfway habitable with current tech and a fuckload of money and time - basically by causing a greenhouse effect to melt both polar ice caps and then lobbing some big/lots of small comets at it. Preferably ammonia ice comets because a) it's a better greenhouse gas than CO2, and b) you'dreallyneed the nitrogen anyway.
Melting the ice gets it to "peak of Mt Everest" atmospheric pressure or thereabouts and anything more is gravy - no, you wouldn't be able to breath the "air" but you'd just need an oxygen mask to survive rather than a spacesuit.
Melting the ice gets it to "peak of Mt Everest" atmospheric pressure or thereabouts and anything more is gravy - no, you wouldn't be able to breath the "air" but you'd just need an oxygen mask to survive rather than a spacesuit.
I wonder if anyone is working on ways to generate planetary magnetic fields? Either that or figure out a way to restart or fix or fire up a dead planetary mag field. I think mars maybe used to have one but the core cooled?
Abefroman
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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From my limited understanding yes the core cooled and the rotation of the core of a planet is what produces the magnetic field. Now tunneling into the planet on Mars sounds like the best way to go to protect against radiation and really keep construction costs down. Problem is getting equipment to tunnel there and power it.
Nuclear power seems the best bet but I can't even imagine the nightmare of getting everything to mars to build a fucking nuclear power plant.
Cad is right, work on propulsion.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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. You expecting people to stay on Mars for many years?
. What's the specific value of that? What will we learn that we don't know already?
. Is it really? Or is it a boondoggle where rushing it before there's merit just be an obstacle that will prevent us from going when there is a reason?
. What are we going to do with that 50% more land mass?
. IsSame as #3.
. So?
. Why is it an incentive?
. So?
. So?
. Does it?
Everytime it comes up and I ask the question I feel like the people who argue the point start from the position that space exploration is cool, and anything we do toward space exploration is a great idea and just work backward to find reasons to do it. It's like a highschooler trying to argue why Twilight is a great series because he thinks there's some nookie for him at the end of a movie with a gaggle of girls.
Much like how Mars will be a barren, inhospitable wasteland before and after we spend billions putting a colony there, those girls will have nothing but the friend zone for him.
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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Tuco, the director of the NASA Planetary Science Division was on startalkradio a few episodes ago. They talk about going to Mars quite a bit and cover a decent chunk of ground of why we should put humans there. They aren't talking about colonizing (yet) but do give a lot of compelling reasons on why we could really benefit from some boots on the ground there.
Tripamang
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Reasons to colonize Mars~
- The gravity is a lot lower than earth's with a lot of similar resources. It'd be a much better place to mine and launch large space craft/space modules.
- No life to destroy, do as you please. Strip mine that fucker till there is nothing left, no crying hippies bitching about dead animals and pollution
- Nobody really owns it, leaving you with nobody to pay for resource extraction or pay taxes to (this really goes for space in general not just mars)
- Potential tourism
- One more rock that has to be destroyed before humanity can be wiped out of existence
- The gravity is a lot lower than earth's with a lot of similar resources. It'd be a much better place to mine and launch large space craft/space modules.
- No life to destroy, do as you please. Strip mine that fucker till there is nothing left, no crying hippies bitching about dead animals and pollution
- Nobody really owns it, leaving you with nobody to pay for resource extraction or pay taxes to (this really goes for space in general not just mars)
- Potential tourism
- One more rock that has to be destroyed before humanity can be wiped out of existence
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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We don't know this yet. With the discoveries of liquid water (coming to the surface) plus methane gases there is potential for life to be there.
You can think of mars as a stepping stone, but we do badly need better tech like propulsion without propellant, some way to mitigate high G forces, and some kind of shielding to protect a ship at speed from dust grains and such.
I used to despair at the time requirements for really distant travel, but with length contraction it isn't so bad assuming the math I've been looking at is correct. If something is x light years from the point of view on earth, you can get there in less than x years from the ship's pov(though many x will pass on earth).
I used to despair at the time requirements for really distant travel, but with length contraction it isn't so bad assuming the math I've been looking at is correct. If something is x light years from the point of view on earth, you can get there in less than x years from the ship's pov(though many x will pass on earth).
Zaara
I'm With HER ♀
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We're starting to terraform our planet into Venusby mistake- weknowhow to cause global warming.
Cad
scientia potentia est
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I think the issue is that Mars lacks a magnetic field and doesn't have the gravity to hold on to a thick atmosphere. Even if we were to spend the energy to somehow create one it would get peeled off I think.
Abefroman
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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The lack of a magnetic field is what strips the atmosphere away, the lower gravity would just increase the amount of pressure needed.
Terraforming of Mars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Terraforming of Mars - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
opiate82
Bronze Squire
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According to NDT even if we burnallthe fossil fuels in the ground, we won't get a runaway greenhouse effect like Venus. All those gases were once in the atmosphere at one point when the Dinosaurs roamed. Now if we did that the ocean level would be up to the nose of the Statue of Liberty among a host of other issues, but we won't become Venus. I think Venus' plate tectonics stopped working which contributed to its current state.
Yeah, it won't stay in the long term but that particular "long term" is measured in geological time.
It was hyperbole for effect.
e: Google to the rescue!Venus??T crust heals too fast for plate tectonics | Ars Technica
tl;dr - tectonic plate boundaries are basically the remnants of geological scar tissue (damaged and weakened rock) which allowed the Earth's crust to separate out into plates. Venus' crust OTOH repairs itself too fast to permit plates to form so instead it resurfaces itself with global eruptions every few hundreds of millions of years or so instead.