4 ms·
why not just drill down once we get there and put a roof on the hole?
by jlebrech 9y ago
why not just drill down once we get there and put a roof on the hole?
- ghostbrainalpha 9y agoThey are talking about mining for water not precious metals, which there may not be enough of on Mars to sustain the colonies. But I think you are right about what they colonies will look like. Subterranean for the most part with some farming glass domes on the surface.
- bergoid 9y agoWhat advantage does living in the Martian underground have compared to living in a free flying space colony somewhere in the asteroid belt? With the latter arrangement you have lots of minable resources at hand, only a small delta-v away from you. Ik you are ok with long delivery times, transporting them around doesn't cost you much energy. Whereas on Mars, everything is much more energy-intensive, both mining raw materials and moving them through your industrial processing chain. Space-based manufacturing is still an alien concept to us and while it comes with its own challenges, the vacuum and zero-gravity of space offers a lot of advantages too: http://www.permanent.com/space-industry-environment.html http://www.permanent.com/space-industry-environment.html
- blacksmith_tb 9y agoI agree overall, but living in a hole on Mars does offer at least somewhat better shielding against radiation, and people are strangely fondly of gravity, too... (not that you couldn't tackle those both in your hollowed-out asteroid).
- jlebrech 9y agoi'm sure mining including refining would be easier to do on mars. Ok, I just read that link. they need to make a space forge that'll fit on a falcon 9.