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Not only that but I guess they will accept they won't be able to live for long there too. Radiation and muscle wasting due to low gravity being the top two prob
by jahnu 11y ago
Not only that but I guess they will accept they won't be able to live for long there too. Radiation and muscle wasting due to low gravity being the top two problems and growing food. Not much chance of overcoming those obstacles in even the medium term, if ever.
- vollmond 11y agoIs muscle wasting a significant issue? Mars does have gravity, the people will no doubt be doing some physical work, so it won't be as bad as in orbit. On top of that, if they have no plans for ever coming back to Earth, then is there a significant downside to at least some atrophy?
- jahnu 11y agoIt's true that exercise does limit the loss and I guess you are right that it won't matter if you stay there. I suppose we just don't have enough data to say one way or the other. Edit: an old Nasa article on the topic... http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast02aug_1/ http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/as...
- jerf 11y agoCorrect. We know some things about how bad zero gravity is, we do not know how bad microgravity is. Given that it's probably a range (one presumes that .98G is probably medically indistinguishable from 1G, one presumes .02G is very like 0G though perhaps not quite indistinguishable), it's probably fair to say we are comprehensively ignorant.
- devit 11y agoI don't think seeing people deteriorate and die on Mars on TV/YouTube will be great advertising for Mars colonization efforts, so hopefully they will wait until surviving and returning is possible.