4 ms·
> We have the technology to live on Mars (not to terraform it, just to survive on it). I'm not convinced this is true intergenerationally without a maternity w
by blotter_paper 7y ago
> We have the technology to live on Mars (not to terraform it, just to survive on it).
I'm not convinced this is true intergenerationally without a maternity ward in a centrifuge; the low gravity mouse embryo experiments don't look promising. Maybe 1/3rd earth gravity is enough, but I'm doubtful. If we're granting centrifugal habitats as something doable with current technology, an Orion/Daedalus style nuke-propelled spacecraft seems in the same ballpark. It's been sketched out and tested with models, it's clearly possible, but nobody has really made one yet and it's a hell of an engineering problem still.
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoWe should be colonizing the moon first, then Phobos or Deimos. Then, once established, we can conquer the martian gravity well with local resources.
- blotter_paper 7y agoI like Musk's plan of using Mars as a fuel-planet, I just don't expect a self-sufficient colony for some time. Mars is like an oil rig or a mineshaft; no place for children.
- jacobush 7y agoIn fact it's cold as hell. And there's no one there to raise them if you did.
- JauntTrooper 7y agoPhobos and Deimos are very, very tiny. The diameter of the Moon is 2,160 miles. The diameter of Phobos is 14 miles. Deimos is 8 miles. (For scale, Mars' diameter is 4,200 miles).
- kevin_thibedeau 7y agoThat is the point. It's easy to land and get off a tiny moon and there is material to make a habitat out of rather than sending it all from Earth.
- abledon 7y agomouse embyro zero-G experiments being referred to: https://www.wired.com/2009/08/spacebabies/ https://www.wired.com/2009/08/spacebabies/