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I often think of this observation by Bruce Sterling: > I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people setting the Gobi Desert. The Go
by jonathankoren 5y ago
I often think of this observation by Bruce Sterling:
> I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the
same time I see people setting the Gobi Desert.
The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times
as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times
cheaper and easier to reach. Nobody ever
writes "Gobi Desert Opera" because, well,
it's just kind of plonkingly obvious that there's
no good reason to go there and live. It's ugly,
it's inhospitable and there's no way to
make it pay. Mars is just the same, really.
We just romanticize it because it's so hard to reach.
https://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html https://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html
- marktangotango 5y agoGobi desert doesn't have 1/3 earth gravity.
- wildermuthn 5y agoWhat are the economic benefits of low gravity? If so, would the moon be more economically valuable than Mars? I’m genuinely curious about the economics of doing more in space than putting up satellites.
- marktangotango 5y agoFor a spacefaring civilization reliant upon chemical rockets, less gravity is better. Point being Mars is a better place for such a civilization, not earth.
- Sammi 5y agoI mean obviously you need less energy to move things around. We spend an enormous amount of energy to move things around on earth.
- nine_k 5y ago1/6th of Earth gravity is even better. Short term: a wonderful tourist attraction. You can nearly fly. Long term: people with muscular / bone disabilities who cannot withstand Earth gravity. An interesting retiring home (for a narrow wealthy set, of course).
- jonathankoren 5y agoWho is going to pay to fly these sickly retirees to the moon, and then continuous supply them with resources that are literally free on Earth (ie air)? Medicare?
- greedo 5y agoThough both are probably apocryphal: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers," and: "640K ought to be enough for anybody." We're really bad at predicting how things will change. Who would have thought that Tim Berners-Lee would be a link in a chain to Donald Trump's election?