Living On Mars? Not so fast!
Added 2023-05-01 16:34:42 +0000 UTCAnswering a question posted during my live stream, speaking off the cuff and from the heart - My Earth evolved 1G heart to be specific. Enjoy!
Comments
A majority of the arguments come down to "there are no resources" on moon / mars. Ok then we will go the the Asteroid belt them.
Allen Lorenz
2023-05-19 04:27:56 +0000 UTCFran, can combine your last two rants, "The Moon is a harsh mistress" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress
Allen Lorenz
2023-05-19 04:19:00 +0000 UTCAgree
Donald J Arndt
2023-05-02 23:26:24 +0000 UTCIf we are going to commit to living on the moon, or on Mars, there has to be something we want from those places. From all the rock samples they took from the moon, there was nothing of value we would want to go back to mine and retrieve. If Mars was plated in gold, well, then we'd build a huge infrastructure to colonize Mars to steal a rare resource we don't have enough of on Earth. Soil samples from the Mars unmanned craft have not revealed anything worth going over there to mine. The "prestige" of technically getting a human to the surface of Mars is still a frontier some think needs to be conquered. Once that is done, God forbid, then we would probably not go back. If there is nothing we can consume from the moon or Mars, there is no financial incentive to set up a colony on either of them. The limits of human physiology is as unbending, as you described. Even on Earth, modern fighter aircraft can withstand G levels and other elements that are past what humans can endure. The military is already accepting the fact the unmanned fighters can outperform the human-piloted fighters since keeping the infrastructure to maintain a human takes up weight, is hard to maintain and we lose consciousness somewhere near 8 Gs. You can't "dogfight" at Mach 3. Fire and forget intelligent missiles are where things stand now. The first Aliens movie had it right. The Nostromo was a freighter that apparently had a refinement plant that was operational when the crew was in hibernation. So whatever the Nostromo was carrying, it was something humans could not get in the immediate solar system and it was worth the cost to build freighters to move bulk materials from distant planets or asteroids. We don't know of any asteroids made of gold or diamonds that I'm aware of. Silent Running in 1972 showed a fleet of American Airlines Space Freighters keeping the last of Earth's plant life alive all the way to Saturn. When the guy in charge told the freighter crews to jettison and destroy all of the forests and return their ships to "commercial services" they never really state what those are. But for an airline to build a fleet of space freighters, there must be lunar and interplanetary cargo needs. Again, there must have been something profitable as hell to enable us to get airlines to build cargo ships. If someone wants to commit suicide by dying on Mars, well then I guess that's their decision. When you mentioned kids being born on the moon it brought up a lot of ethical issues since the child did not agree to be brought up in a near no-gravity world where going back to Earth would be physically traumatic. We've built some wonderful probes, rovers and telescopes that do an incredibly good job without a human next them to turn a wrench. Let's clean up the mess on Earth first before we start dumping raw sewage on Mars.
Matt Wietlispach
2023-05-02 05:01:34 +0000 UTCThat was it that's what I read and I seem to remember that the magnetic field was weakened because the core cooled an solidified.
Dr Andy Hill
2023-05-01 21:01:40 +0000 UTCIt's a pity Ray Bradbury's Mars isn't real, I think I could live there.
David Peaker
2023-05-01 20:55:45 +0000 UTCMars lost its atmosphere to the solar winds because unlike Earth it lacks a robust magnetic field, which is also why it has the radiation issues.
Fran Blanche
2023-05-01 20:35:06 +0000 UTCDefinitely not if Elon is controlling the air supply.
David Peaker
2023-05-01 17:55:31 +0000 UTCJust another planet we'll fuck up!
LarrytheComputerGuy
2023-05-01 17:48:28 +0000 UTCI heard from a reliable source that we don't yet have the technology to colonise Mars and are unlikely to have it in the foreseeable future. My understanding is that Mars lost its atmosphere because the core cooled and solidified. Plus everything that Fran said here! Perhaps we should spend our time and money to reverse the damage we have done to this planet to keep it inhabitable. There is no Planet B!
Dr Andy Hill
2023-05-01 17:24:10 +0000 UTCVery thought provoking topics Fran.
Ian Taylor
2023-05-01 16:58:09 +0000 UTCBoy, that's how I look at it. Penal Colony!
Fran Blanche
2023-05-01 16:45:52 +0000 UTCVisiting Mars sounds horrible--the long trip, the terrible living conditions. Living on Mars? Hellish--a life prison sentence.
Travis Hartnett
2023-05-01 16:37:37 +0000 UTC
