4 ms·
There could be substantial benefits in the long term, if we can get a self-sufficient colony going. In the short term, it's mostly working out the technology a
by elihu 6y ago
There could be substantial benefits in the long term, if we can get a self-sufficient colony going. In the short term, it's mostly working out the technology and being able to learn more about planetary science by studying something up close that isn't the Earth.
In the long term, Mars is a great refueling station because it has carbon dioxide and water that can be used to make methane, and it has much weaker gravity than Earth. That would make it much easier to access the asteroid belt, which may have a lot of valuable minerals.
There may also be some not-so-obvious benefits to living on Mars. For instance, people with mobility issues may be stuck in a wheelchair on Earth but be able to walk on Mars. (The optics of shipping all our old people to Mars isn't great, but it might actually be a pretty awesome spot for an old folks home.)
Another reason people have for going to Mars is the same as people who migrated from Europe to the Americas: to get away from a political situation they don't like and start a new life. If the optics of sending old people to Mars is bad, the optics of sending, say, Syrian refugees to Mars is even worse, but if someone wants a fresh start that's one way to do it. At least until Mars becomes as dysfunctionally political and tribal as Earth.
In the very short term, sending people to Mars may have a big impact on children being interested in science. I don't know if it's still the case that if you ask an elementary-aged child what they want to be when they grow up, it'll probably either be "an astronaut" or "president of the United States", but I think it was when I was that age.
- sterlind 6y agoas someone who occasionally needs a wheelchair, I'd miss my friends if I got shipped off to Mars! I'm also pretty sure that the gees wouldn't be good for my condition. there's also the small matter of radiation exposure, since Mars doesn't have much of an ionosphere. I'm waiting on powered exoskeletons as my sci-fi mobility aid of choice.
- elihu 6y agoYeah, shipping off to Mars would be a hard sell for most people in that situation. I find it easier to imagine older couples or groups of friends who are all facing similar mobility issues going together rather than a solitary person going by themselves and leaving everyone they know behind. It would also be a long, rough trip. Which implies that maybe having a senior center on the moon or even in a rotating space station orbiting the Earth is a more attractive option.
- kaba0 6y agoI would prefer fixing our own planet before.
- elihu 6y agoWe absolutely should be doing a lot more about climate change, but this is something we can do in parallel. (There is some climate cost to rocket launches, but compared to our total economy it's very small.)
- mensetmanusman 6y agoBased on the history of humanity, is there evidence we can fix our planet?
- walleeee 6y agoFollowing this logic, let's assume we can't. Then what are the chances we can plant a self-sufficient colony on a barren lifeless planet, all from a dying civilization on our still infinitely more hospitable homeworld?
- mensetmanusman 6y agoDepends on whether the explorers self select for survival traits.
- kaba0 6y agoYou mean like self selecting billionaires?
- walleeee 6y agoHow can one be so deeply pessimistic about survival on a planet whose atmosphere we can safely breath and whose climate will likely be more amenable to us than Mars' even in a worst-case global heating scenario, and yet remain optimistic about an independently viable Mars colony?
- dwaltrip 6y ago