I spell “Musk” this way: “Nuts!” Life there on a good day wouldn’t be pleasant. Living most of your time subsurface under a metal and plastic or glass bubble. When you leave the bubble, you’ll be wearing an uncomfortable space suit. Any breach of that suit will almost certainly kill you. Then there’s the low gravity. Sounds great, right? Wrong. It’s well established now that relatively low periods of low gravity are bad for a body evolved to live in Earth gravity. Long term life under low gravity will almost certainly have terrible effects on a human body. Humans may be exposed to vastly higher radiation exposure unless certain measures are taken that will not add to the colonists’ quality of life.
We don’t have a colony under the ocean or on the Moon. Maybe we should try those experiments first because they would be easier to back out of.
Astronauts at the space station have experienced deleterious effects, some of them seemingly permanent, and a Mars colonist will be exposed to them long term.
So far, experiments in simulating what happens when people are forced to live together in enclosed inescapable settings haven’t been encouraging. People who are forced to live together who don’t get along well pose an explosive and potentially disastrous situation.
As for terraforming, that could take a thousand years or more if it proves possible and Martian soil contains poisons, meaning that farming on a small scale in a hothouse kind of environment is far more feasible than planetwide terraforming.
Turns out, it’s been tried here on the planet we have evolved to survive in. It didn’t work too well.
When I first heard that Musk wanted people go to Mars I decided it was just a marketing stunt but turns out it was not. I think 2024 was one of the dates mentioned and people around the world even entered a selection process to go there. NASA talks about it too as if it is feasible. It is nothing like being on the ISS. It is a suicide mission. It cannot be colonized by humans and even if it was it would be worse than prison. If the flight did not drive them crazy (are we there yet?) then the landing most likely would. Yes, Lord of the space flies.
When I first heard that Musk wanted people go to Mars I decided it was just a marketing stunt but turns out it was not. I think 2024 was one of the dates mentioned and people around the world even entered a selection process to go there. NASA talks about it too as if it is feasible. It is nothing like being on the ISS. It is a suicide mission. It cannot be colonized by humans and even if it was it would be worse than prison. If the flight did not drive them crazy (are we there yet?) then the landing most likely would. Yes, Lord of the space flies.
Agreed. We should set up a colony in the Mariana Trench or on the Moon first and if we can make either one of those work, then think about colonizing Mars.
Hi! I object to the anti-Mars colony propaganda involved in this posting and discussed here also what difference does it make whether we die on Mars or on Earth?There’s no heaven on Mars for the dead anymore than there is on Earth we won’t gain a soul on Mars and no miracles will occur there just are ability to use the science as well as the technology to help us terraform Mars into a livable Earth like environment for us to prosper in too.
The fact is that it looks like it simply won’t work. We should try setting up a similar colony much more nearby first to see if it’s even feasible somewhere where it’ll be easier to pull the plug.
It would be great to visit Mars if it was not -80F most of the time or if it’s atmosphere was not made up of about 96% Carbon Dioxide with virtually no oxygen. The red sand and dust storms can be so severe that they have been seen from Earth with the naked eye, iirc. The temperature can vary by over -100F in one Martian day in the same location.
I would be happy to hear the practical science we could carry out to terraform it. I do not think it is in any way viable.
I am all in for colonizing Mars if Musk goes there first. Impractical colonization dreams are not required to pursue space exploration and invention. His self-driving cars are like half a decade late. Maybe STFU and work on that, Musk.
Thanks Davis, the video was very informative and I realize that it is easier to accomplish than I had thought it would be. The radiation umbrella was a clever idea 🙂
Thanks Davis, the video was very informative and I realize that it is easier to accomplish than I had thought it would be. The radiation umbrella was a clever idea 🙂
Wow. I mean, like WOW! And there’s Spice there, too!
Hi! I object to the anti-Mars colony propaganda involved in this posting and discussed here also what difference does it make whether we die on Mars or on Earth?
The big money guys and some politicians are itching to try out Mars, which could be construed as propaganda, but I think it’s more about differing opinions than propaganda anyway. All the money going into it is still making other good things happen along the way, too, e.g. I’ve always believed that sending robots is a much faster and cheaper way to expand the frontier, at least for a couple more decades.
The fact is that it looks like it simply won’t work. We should try setting up a similar colony much more nearby first to see if it’s even feasible somewhere where it’ll be easier to pull the plug.
As for building remote bases that can support a sizable number of people, it sure seems to me that we could learn how to do that a whole lot faster and on a larger scale for the same cost on the moon, at first. But I’d qualify “the fact is…” statement to something like “won’t work for a long time, like perhaps several decades”. Not in my lifetime, anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me if Elon’s Starship design forks off to support a lunar community, first.
As for building remote bases that can support a sizable number of people, it sure seems to me that we could learn how to do that a whole lot faster and on a larger scale for the same cost on the moon, at first. But I’d qualify “the fact is…” statement to something like “won’t work for a long time, like perhaps several decades”. Not in my lifetime, anyway. It wouldn’t surprise me if Elon’s Starship design forks off to support a lunar community, first.
I think under the ocean might be better than on the moon because of the relative ease and rapidity of extracting the “astronauts” in case of an emergency.
True, but for the major logistical differences in time and space. Frontiers of “inner space” do have other potential benefits in terms of working to fix our own planet. We don’t even have to go to deep water for that. While also designing and deploying robots.
