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Ask HN: What event on Earth would make you seriously consider moving to Mars?

2 points by amichail 5y ago

And vice versa?

gregjor 5y ago
Moving to Mars is a fantasy now and for the foreseeable future, so it would have to be a fantasy event, like Sauron rising again to rule over the earth.
smt88 5y ago
How can we answer that without knowing what Mars is like? Is it cold and boring, like an Antarctic research station? Is it terraformed? Can I take my family? Can I communicate with Earth?
- gregjor 5y ago
  Uh, we do know what Mars is like. Humans have been sending probes to Mars for decades. It’s cold, toxic, showered with radiation, and devoid of most things needed to support life, at least life as we know it on this planet. The probes communicate with Earth, that’s how we know what they discovered.
  - smt88 5y ago
    > Uh, we do know what Mars is like. Humans have been sending probes to Mars for decades. It’s cold, toxic, showered with radiation, and devoid of most things needed to support life, at least life as we know it on this planet. I assumed OP's question was: what would motivate you to move to a habitable Mars? Instead, it seems you interpreted it as: what would motivate you to commit the most expensive suicide in history by traveling to an uninhabitable Mars? More seriously: for the question to make any sense at all, there has to be a degree of habitability when reaching Mars. It's not today's habitability (which is "not at all") so it must be some time in a fictional future. OP didn't specify what future they were imagining, so the question is nonsense and up for wild interpretation.
    - gregjor 5y ago
      Exactly. The question is phrased as if moving to Mars is a real option, or will be soon. If one believes the wild predictions from Elon Musk, and that he can work around some massive issues with physics and biology and logistics, and that "terraforming" is a real thing humans can do, then that future habitable Mars might seem like a possibility in the lifetimes of people alive today. It's probably not.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Barrin92 5y ago
None. I never really understood the logic of thinking you can escape Earth's problems by going to Mars. If travel is easy enough to sustain life there, it's easy enough to bring anyone's problem up there as well. I've always wondered why people who believe that stuff not simply try to build an Antarctic underground base or something. At least there's air
potiuper 5y ago
Nothing. Venus is more preferable than Mars and Titan is more preferable than Venus. What event on Mars would make you seriously consider moving to Earth? Anything.
techdragon 5y ago
Surprised no one mentioned nuclear war. If we have any major use if nuclear forces. Be it limited or full scale, there’s the real potential to have radioactive fallout push long term radiation risks for large patches of the planet past the risks of a mars journey. I’d consider it then.
- gregjor 5y ago
  Because Mars is more hospitable than a post nuclear war Earth? It’s not. Mars already has high radiation risks and a toxic atmosphere. Even if the wildest dreams come true and we make Mars somewhat inhabitable, do you suppose that anyone will be sending spaceships to Mars after a nuclear war? The US and other countries imposed severe travel restrictions after 9/11, to say nothing of the restrictions imposed during WWII.
  - techdragon 5y ago
    The point was “what would make me consider it?” I’m not saying it would be safer, I’m just saying that if earth was significantly more dangerous by way of fallout related lifetime cancer risks I’d seriously consider it if it was an option. I’m not naïve, it’s ludicrous to imagine large scale coordination of anything beyond basic recovery effort for years after such a conflict. But it’s not ridiculous to think the bunker millionaires/billionaires, the remaining technical capacity of mankind, and whatever governments are left seriously considering, maybe, just maybe it would be good to have a backup … just in case … because look what we just did to ourselves. So if in the unlikely event I survived and was healthy enough and so on and so on, I’d seriously consider it. This seems like a perfectly sensible attitude to me. Trading one set of hardships for another, just like many humans have done before for thousands of years.
    - gregjor 5y ago
      If Mars was habitable, sure, some people might have that option. My point is that Mars is not now habitable, will not be habitable in the lifetime of anyone alive today, and is a terrible candidate for future human habitation even if we knew how to address the huge problems with physics, logistics, and biology that make it a bad candidate today. Speculating about moving to Mars is like speculating about going back in time before the nukes, or moving to Middle Earth. It's a sci-fi fantasy and will almost certainly remain so.
ohiovr 5y ago
A visit from my good ole buddy Quaid. twoweeks.live

2 points by amichail 5y ago

And vice versa?

Moving to Mars is a fantasy now and for the foreseeable future, so it would have to be a fantasy event, like Sauron rising again to rule over the earth.

smt88 5y ago

How can we answer that without knowing what Mars is like? Is it cold and boring, like an Antarctic research station? Is it terraformed? Can I take my family? Can I communicate with Earth?

gregjor 5y ago
Uh, we do know what Mars is like. Humans have been sending probes to Mars for decades. It’s cold, toxic, showered with radiation, and devoid of most things needed to support life, at least life as we know it on this planet. The probes communicate with Earth, that’s how we know what they discovered.
- smt88 5y ago
  > Uh, we do know what Mars is like. Humans have been sending probes to Mars for decades. It’s cold, toxic, showered with radiation, and devoid of most things needed to support life, at least life as we know it on this planet. I assumed OP's question was: what would motivate you to move to a habitable Mars? Instead, it seems you interpreted it as: what would motivate you to commit the most expensive suicide in history by traveling to an uninhabitable Mars? More seriously: for the question to make any sense at all, there has to be a degree of habitability when reaching Mars. It's not today's habitability (which is "not at all") so it must be some time in a fictional future. OP didn't specify what future they were imagining, so the question is nonsense and up for wild interpretation.
  - gregjor 5y ago
    Exactly. The question is phrased as if moving to Mars is a real option, or will be soon. If one believes the wild predictions from Elon Musk, and that he can work around some massive issues with physics and biology and logistics, and that "terraforming" is a real thing humans can do, then that future habitable Mars might seem like a possibility in the lifetimes of people alive today. It's probably not.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Barrin92 5y ago

None. I never really understood the logic of thinking you can escape Earth's problems by going to Mars. If travel is easy enough to sustain life there, it's easy enough to bring anyone's problem up there as well. I've always wondered why people who believe that stuff not simply try to build an Antarctic underground base or something. At least there's air

potiuper 5y ago

Nothing. Venus is more preferable than Mars and Titan is more preferable than Venus. What event on Mars would make you seriously consider moving to Earth? Anything.

techdragon 5y ago

Surprised no one mentioned nuclear war. If we have any major use if nuclear forces. Be it limited or full scale, there’s the real potential to have radioactive fallout push long term radiation risks for large patches of the planet past the risks of a mars journey. I’d consider it then.

gregjor 5y ago
Because Mars is more hospitable than a post nuclear war Earth? It’s not. Mars already has high radiation risks and a toxic atmosphere. Even if the wildest dreams come true and we make Mars somewhat inhabitable, do you suppose that anyone will be sending spaceships to Mars after a nuclear war? The US and other countries imposed severe travel restrictions after 9/11, to say nothing of the restrictions imposed during WWII.
- techdragon 5y ago
  The point was “what would make me consider it?” I’m not saying it would be safer, I’m just saying that if earth was significantly more dangerous by way of fallout related lifetime cancer risks I’d seriously consider it if it was an option. I’m not naïve, it’s ludicrous to imagine large scale coordination of anything beyond basic recovery effort for years after such a conflict. But it’s not ridiculous to think the bunker millionaires/billionaires, the remaining technical capacity of mankind, and whatever governments are left seriously considering, maybe, just maybe it would be good to have a backup … just in case … because look what we just did to ourselves. So if in the unlikely event I survived and was healthy enough and so on and so on, I’d seriously consider it. This seems like a perfectly sensible attitude to me. Trading one set of hardships for another, just like many humans have done before for thousands of years.
  - gregjor 5y ago
    If Mars was habitable, sure, some people might have that option. My point is that Mars is not now habitable, will not be habitable in the lifetime of anyone alive today, and is a terrible candidate for future human habitation even if we knew how to address the huge problems with physics, logistics, and biology that make it a bad candidate today. Speculating about moving to Mars is like speculating about going back in time before the nukes, or moving to Middle Earth. It's a sci-fi fantasy and will almost certainly remain so.

ohiovr 5y ago

A visit from my good ole buddy Quaid. twoweeks.live