4 ms·
My personal theory of how this will play out is that Mars will be a shallow gravity well industrial base for solar system development. We take for granted how i
by le-mark 8y ago
My personal theory of how this will play out is that Mars will be a shallow gravity well industrial base for solar system development. We take for granted how integral gravity is to pretty much every thing we do when it comes to building stuff. It's not known if there will ever be large scale industrial activity in zero gravity. O'Neil cylinders are a solution, but expensive to start. If you can either mine Mars or process astroidal material there, it's a lot cheaper to get back into space from Mars than it is from the moon.
- jpatokal 8y agoThat only kicks the can down the road a bit: what are the "solar system development" needs that would financially justify a Mars colony?
- azernik 8y agoIt probably starts from near-earth work to maintain Earth-orbiting infrastructure - refueling satellites without lugging fuel up Earth's gravity well. Then probably manufacturing in-orbit for similar cost savings on launch. And once there's that little bit of industrial base, the most likely driver of larger-scale industrialization is mining of elements that are rare on Earth and industrially useful (osmium, rhenium, iridium, etc.).