Does humanity actually need Mars colonization?

[bearnard1609]

16 hours ago, Archmonoth said:

I agree, yet pioneers and explorers are still compelled, regardless of the danger.

Personally, would take a 1-way trip to Mars, then happily throw my corpse on it's dusty shoreline. 

Actually, we can now explore the red planet with the help of uncrewed missions like the Perseverance Mars rover. This type of mission is more secure and cheaper and as we can see it's quite successful

[goldminor]

On 7/1/2021 at 9:11 AM, Archmonoth said:

I agree, yet pioneers and explorers are still compelled, regardless of the danger.

Personally, would take a 1-way trip to Mars, then happily throw my corpse on it's dusty shoreline. 

I would also go in a heartbeat if the opportunity was there. One day that choice will become available for our planet. It may well take  another century before our technology gears up to that level of space flight where the trip to Mars is only several weeks away through space. By that time the cost of getting materials into space should be greatly reduced. All of that has to happen before Mars truly becomes a viable option.

[jtripp6]

conspiracy stories abound. that's what they think about all day long. doesn't matter if it's true or not. whether the crust slips or the sun novas, i'll be safe on mars!  they see the writing on the wall. i see the holocene coming to an end soon myself. don't think mars will be spared any less for being a little further away either. it looks like that for a reason. 

Edited July 21, 2021 by jtripp6

[Scruffy-Looking]

On 6/28/2021 at 1:33 AM, Christopher S. said:

This is wildly off-track for what is a base-level criticism of something you said - if you won't take it for what it is, then I can't very well rationalize your follow-up comments.

What I said has nothing to do with the depth of your comment, nor have I berated you. I suggest not pulling a victim card any time there's a disagreement with you, as it shuts doors and burns bridges needlessly. 

With that out of the way, let's focus on the substance of your comment. Do you think that the idea of finding a miracle cure for diseases on Mars is not naive or optimistic? Furthermore, do you have anything to say about my addendum to your comment? I intended to expand the narrative here, not cause you to shut down - you established the premise of "why humans explore/go the distance to colonize" in a nice, compact comment, so I gave you a nice, compact response. We can continue that convention of short replies, if you wish.

Wow, you really have no idea how condescending you are. 

With that out of the way, bye... 

 

   

[bearnard1609]

Some interesting pieces of news must be mentioned. There is one theory about Proxima B :). I have heard some interesting ideas about Proxima B and some scientists are convinced that this exoplanet might be the second Earth. What do you think about that?

[bearnard1609]

However, some people assume that Proxima B might have the same Environment as Earth. I guess we will have more detailed information when the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched

[Chris Ramirez]

I think mars is only one out of a few of the choices in space we have. Another being Titan (moon?) . Of course these planets would need substantial terraforming, if we have the technology to change a planet to earth , why cant we turn earth into earth . As for housing , we have so many empty homes, we could erase the homeless.  But who's going to give up the house they want to sell to a homeless family for free ? Show of hands ? I think if we could move a bunch of our water to a different planet , it might stop the ice caps from flooding the continents when they eventually melt . That's unfortunately a disaster we cannot stop at this point. Possibly slow down. But cant stop. 

[Isatsuki San]

On 7/31/2021 at 10:23 AM, bearnard1609 said:

However, some people assume that Proxima B might have the same Environment as Earth. I guess we will have more detailed information when the James Webb Space Telescope will be launched

It is heard that the Proxima B, its star gave a solar flare class x 100,000 or something like that I do not know

[Archmonoth]

On 8/2/2021 at 8:54 PM, Chris Ramirez said:

 As for housing , we have so many empty homes, we could erase the homeless.  

 

You are assuming the homeless want homes.

 

Perhaps people won't live on other planets because they can. Perhaps they will live on planets/moons if the social conditions are preferred? Maybe Seltris 3 has really good drugs. 

 

Which location has worse storms? Comparing worse locations, or comparing ideal conditions are common evaluation techniques for immigration. Also I would guess for planetary travel you would need a lot of vaccines. 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Archmonoth

[bearnard1609]

Recent news about the colonization of another planet in the Solar system. NASA wants to start colonizing campaign of Venus with the help of floating platforms. Personally, I consider the colonization of Venus a useless idea. Who wants to live in a flotilla above a totally inhospitable environment? I mean if it were the only option for survival then yes, otherwise not worth it. Also completely unworkable from a colonization perspective. To be a colony it needs to have a significant if not total ability to be independent. There is no way that some flotilla in the atmosphere of Venus can supply its own raw material needs for manufacturing as mining the surface of Venus would be well beyond what a flotilla environment could manage. Perhaps might be feasible and reasonable for NASA or the like to put a floating research station there with rotating crews and regular supply runs, but that would be about it. IMO NASA puts out silly things like this just to keep the public's interest in space so they can continue to get funding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7A0O_4J5LE

[Quilloz]

I'd argue that we definitely need to look into colonizing outside of Earth, but Mars? I mean it's the closest neighbor, but we still know almost nothing about it right now to really make any informed decisions on it. And even if we did, we're still decades away from even thinking about colonizing anything that isn't the Earth, much less Mars. We're already learning more about the Sun and asteroids that we should have learned years ago, but haven't until recently. Plotting to colonize another planet should be on the backburner until we can get all the variables, and more knowledge from potential space hazards, out of the way first.

[Archmonoth]

On 8/25/2021 at 12:17 AM, bearnard1609 said:

Recent news about the colonization of another planet in the Solar system. NASA wants to start colonizing campaign of Venus with the help of floating platforms. Personally, I consider the colonization of Venus a useless idea. Who wants to live in a flotilla above a totally inhospitable environment? I mean if it were the only option for survival then yes, otherwise not worth it. Also completely unworkable from a colonization perspective. To be a colony it needs to have a significant if not total ability to be independent. There is no way that some flotilla in the atmosphere of Venus can supply its own raw material needs for manufacturing as mining the surface of Venus would be well beyond what a flotilla environment could manage. Perhaps might be feasible and reasonable for NASA or the like to put a floating research station there with rotating crews and regular supply runs, but that would be about it. IMO NASA puts out silly things like this just to keep the public's interest in space so they can continue to get funding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7A0O_4J5LE

 

Well, Carl Sagan had the idea to transform Venus with sulfur breathing bacteria. I'm all for it, any exploration and beginning steps into another world sounds amazing. Venus is really close, a lot closer than Mars or Jupiter's moons. Lets get weird, and perhaps the technology from it will help with pollution on Earth.

 

Yes, I think funding for NASA is awesome, and if you want to help hungry people, donate to those charities. Remember the strongest nation is donation. I wish there was more public interest in space weather, and space exploration. 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Archmonoth

[Buster]

"Need" and "want" are two different things. Mankind has always wanted to explore new frontiers and we won't know if our species "needs" Mars until it's too late. I like the idea that the millions of years of human evolution that allowed our race to contemplate questions like this could conceivably survive if a large asteroid wiped out life on  Earth.  Who knows where our ancestors might be and what they might be doing 100,000 years from now. Even a small self-sustaining colony of 100 people could ensure the survival of the only known intelligent life if an asteroid decimated Earth. Sure, it will take decades, at a minimum, to achieve that but that's not a good reason not to do it. 

Terra-forming Mars is such an interesting experiment that could teach us a lot about so many things including the climate right here at home. Space travel has always driven human ingenuity and innovation which has many spin-off benefits for the private sector. I'm not at all concerned about how much money it might cost, that is being paid for by billionaires which is a better way to use the money than to hand it down in the family and create more billionaire dynasties. 

I also don't see it as a question of improving life on earth OR colonizing Mars. We can do both and, barring a catastrophe from an asteroid, Earth will probably be the better place to live for thousands of years if not forever. But that's not a good reason to not explore and learn about the amazing universe we find ourselves in.

[David Silver]

A big rock is coming, not if but when. Remember the dinosaurs?

Yes, humanity needs to become a multi-planetary species. We have no choice. I would say it’s our responsibility to improve the odds of preserving the precious spark of higher consciousness.

Space X has spent 20 years revolutionizing rocket technology; Solving the biggest problems of driving costs down, making it much safer for astronauts, and creating a reusable launch infrastructure. SpaceX is now integrated into NASA significantly, and together they will put a permanent base on the moon beginning in 2024. After that they together intend to put a permanent staging space station around the moon, and use it for Mars missions. This is happening.

I recommend MARS on Netflix, unique part documentary / part sci fi, very well done.

Edited October 11, 2021 by David Silver