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I'm not sure if you're being serious or snide; either is fine with me, because there's a lot of truth to what you said. It might be interesting to actually bre

I'm not sure if you're being serious or snide; either is fine with me, because there's a lot of truth to what you said. It might be interesting to actually break that comparison down a bit. I won't attempt to do that, but a couple of things jump to mind. 1. The 'cost per kilo' to Everest is probably a lot lower. 2. The chance of mortality per trip is impossible to know for Mars, but we can just assume it's about the same as for Everest. 3. Everest has a lot more atmosphere than any location on Mars. 4. I'm not certain, but I believe there are locations on Mars that are warmer on average than Everest. 5. Mars lacks an effective planetary radiation shield. 6. A somewhat educated guess on my part: because the atmosphere is so thin on Mars, the wind at its worst can't cause anything like the damage it can on Everest. One of the few intentional unscientific things in The Martian was how much force wind on Mars has. 7. I think the big Mars win, compare to Everest, is how much flat land you there is available. This is a kind of whimsical thought process, but it belies a deeper mental struggle on my part. There are few people more excited about the prospect of humans forming living on Mars. It just makes me giddy and warm all over thinking about it. But at the same time, there are countless enormous and serious problems here on earth that could be attacked with the huge sums of money and resources required to setup shop on Mars. So what it is all about? Musk says that we need to make humans a multi-planetary species. Ok, fair enough. But consider the timeframe and odds of an event on earth that would make human life here impossible. Sure, we could have a total nuclear war after 10x worst case climate change after etc etc etc. But I think that will leave more people alive and more or less functional in the long term than we could put on Mars in a hundred years. So what is it about? One of my dark guesses is this: Musk, looking into the future, sees humanity tearing itself apart for various reasons. And that those death spasms, over the course of years and decades, will likely destroy any extreme, 'mars replacement' outposts we make here on earth. Millions of miles away, a few thousand people on Mars might be immune to such events. This is an emotionally driven analysis on my part, but it does cross my mind from time to time. In the meantime, I look forward to this Saturday's SpaceX launch and return! And even more keenly I look forward to next month's Mars Architecture presentation.

dogma1138 10y ago
Mars is a radiation bath because there is no magnetic field. Mars is a dead planet it is not geologically active which means it has a solid core that does not provide a dynamo effect. We still don't know why, one of the theories is that it lacks a large moon which might have an important impact on the longevity of the planet. The other suspect is nuclear elements that decay and produce heat but it is not known if it's enoguh to keep the plant cool. The other 2 planets that are still active are Venus and Pluto. Pluto has a very large moon (relative to its size) but Venus doesn't, however it could be that the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus is enoguh to keep the planet not only warm but in overdrive because the atmosphere is thick and heavy it puts a lot of pressure on Venus which might be enough to keep it going.

dogma1138 10y ago

Mars is a radiation bath because there is no magnetic field. Mars is a dead planet it is not geologically active which means it has a solid core that does not provide a dynamo effect. We still don't know why, one of the theories is that it lacks a large moon which might have an important impact on the longevity of the planet. The other suspect is nuclear elements that decay and produce heat but it is not known if it's enoguh to keep the plant cool. The other 2 planets that are still active are Venus and Pluto. Pluto has a very large moon (relative to its size) but Venus doesn't, however it could be that the runaway greenhouse effect on Venus is enoguh to keep the planet not only warm but in overdrive because the atmosphere is thick and heavy it puts a lot of pressure on Venus which might be enough to keep it going.