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They 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
by ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
They 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.