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Right now Mars doesn't have any resource with crave enough to justify this enormous cost. If suddenly we discover that there is something we can get money from,
by sametmax 9y ago
Right now Mars doesn't have any resource with crave enough to justify this enormous cost. If suddenly we discover that there is something we can get money from, and not just knowledge, you'll get investers.
- maze-le 9y agoMartian soil contains non-neglible amounts of phosphates[0]. Phosphorus is highly important for the production of fertilizers and gets increasingly rare here on earth[1]. It wouldn't suprise me if 150 years from now, phosphates are imported from martian soil. [0]: https://phys.org/news/2013-09-phosphate-soluble-mars.html https://phys.org/news/2013-09-phosphate-soluble-mars.html [1]: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.4650/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.4650/full
- seanalltogether 9y agoSurely it must be more economical to recover/recycle it from waste?
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoThe phosphates are washed off by rainwater and diluted into the watershed (eventually the oceans). In the ocean, it is very slowly converted by bacteria and eventually brought back by geologic processes uplifting sediment. For a while, we could mine the deep ocean floor...which might be comparable to mining on Mars.
- maxerickson 9y agoThe easily available deposits on Earth are expected to last longer than 150 years. It's unlikely to be worth the delta-v to bring it here from Mars before known deposits are exhausted. Even after that I expect deep sea mining or direct extraction from seawater to be more viable than interplanetary shipping.
- bluGill 9y agoI expect that sewage treatment to fertilizer will solve the problem before we reach that. Our current time where we are not putting manure on all fields is an anomaly in time.
- honestoHeminway 9y agoIts because mars has twice the gravity-well lifting costs against it. Asteroid/ Moonmining does not have that against it.
- eduren 9y agoOne "resource" that might justify a human presence on Mars is its relatively weak gravity well. Combine that with fuel production, and you are looking at Mars being the gas station to the solar system. There are certainly places in the solar system that do have valuable resources and the fuel to trawl around the asteroid belt would be a lot cheaper if it could be lifted from Mars rather than Earth. Not saying it will happen anytime soon, but that may be what the future holds.
- arethuza 9y agoSo Mars might be the Saudi Arabia of the 22nd century?
- fancy_pantser 9y agoArrakis might be a more direct comparison!
- arethuza 9y agoWho controls Mars controls the Solar System?
- bdamm 9y agoThere are near earth asteroids that are better fuel stops than Mars. That's the better mission IMHO.