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> the best opportunity for mankind is Moon or Mars colonisation. Mars and the Moon are not suitable for long-term colonization. Maybe research bases, like Ant
by Amezarak 11y ago
> the best opportunity for mankind is Moon or Mars colonisation.
Mars and the Moon are not suitable for long-term colonization. Maybe research bases, like Antarctica. But it's hard to see why anyone would want to live in a near vaccuum (average pressure on Mars is 0.6% of Earth's average) in a low-gravity environment (38% of Earth and 16% of Earth, respectively) for their whole life.
We may be able to engineer successful Moon and Martian bases in the near future. But live there? You'd always either be underground or in a heavily shielded dome, never able to go outside, and the compromise of which would mean almost certain death. Further, low gravities have negative long-term health effects, and even if we ignore those, if you spend your whole life on Mars, going to Earth is going to be hellish torture.
I'm all for space colonization, but I think if we're going to look at colonizing an extraterrestial body, which should at least be looking for something that has approximately Earth gravity and a real atmosphere. In our solar system, that just leaves Venus, which obviously comes with huge problems of its own, but perhaps they can be resolved with some kind of terraforming technology and a lot of time. (Bacteria to convert CO2 to oxygen to cool the atmosphere and make it breathable?) Probably we'd be better off looking for extrasolar planets that fit our criteria and developing the necessary engine technology and maybe cryogenics - keep relativistic effects in mind.
Or we could just invent artificial gravity. That solves a lot of problems. :)
I think we're best off looking after the Earth, for which we are tailor made.
- d_theorist 11y agoArtificial gravity is easy. Just spin around.
- novalis78 11y agoMaybe not large scale colonization - but once the Martians start having kids (if possible) and produce them in large numbers, imports from Mars (specialized, high tech manufacturing equipment) will increase. The Martians born there will not care living under harsh circumstances - they won't know any better. They will just keep working to make their lives a bit more comfortable, one generation at a time.
- aninhumer 11y ago>The Martians born there will not care living under harsh circumstances - they won't know any better. They'll be used to it, but they'll still be seeing photos and videos from Earth, and probably resent their parents for denying them that life.
- evgen 11y agoWhat product do you imagine can be created on Mars that cannot be created and delivered to a customer on Earth from some other place on the planet or from orbit? Mars has nothing we need or want and is too far away to make shipment worthwhile.
- Grishnakh 11y ago>Mars has nothing we need or want and is too far away to make shipment worthwhile. They might have some rock there which would make for some really unique countertops or jewelry. Considering how much money people spend on diamonds, which are really quite worthless because they're so commonplace, I could see people spending tons of money on jewelry made with Martian rocks.
- zardo 11y ago>imports from Mars (specialized, high tech manufacturing equipment) will increase The only thing Mars can export will be Martian rocks and information. The market for extremely expensive Martian basalt counter tops is going to be limited. The only really valuable thing they would have to export is partial g sports.
- visarga 11y agoNah. We need to colonize and mine asteroids. There are lots of them. I read somewhere that a trillion people could live off the asteroid belt. The low gravity problem can be solved with rotation.
- Amezarak 11y ago> The low gravity problem can be solved with rotation. If you rotate an asteroid very quickly, you will just fly off the surface. Rotation may be practical for spaceships but it would be enormously energy-expensive for any asteroid large enough for it to be worth it - can't make it too small or the difference in g-forces would be extremely uncomfortable or impractical for whatever industrial work you plan on doing - I assume mining the asteroids.
- taneq 11y ago> I think we're best off looking after the Earth, for which we are tailor made. It would certainly be convenient for us if Earth remained nicely habitable. We still need to establish a long-term, individually viable presence somewhere outside of Earth's biosphere if we want to ensure our species' survival, though. In the long run, something nasty is statistically certain to happen to our little blue marble.