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Colonizing the sea floor (continental shelf, really) has the overwhelming advantage over Mars that it should be possible, in principle.
by ncmncm 4y ago
Colonizing the sea floor (continental shelf, really) has the overwhelming advantage over Mars that it should be possible, in principle.
- ceejayoz 4y agoWe have an easier time keeping folks alive on the ISS than on the ocean floor. The pressure differential between vacuum and human-friendly conditions is one atmosphere. In the water, every ten meters down is another atmosphere of pressure. Leaks on a submarine become quickly catastrophic; small leaks in space can be fixed over months. (https://www.space.com/cosmonauts-seal-space-station-air-leak-cracks https://www.space.com/cosmonauts-seal-space-station-air-leak...)
- ncmncm 4y agoYet, anything in the water is no more than a few hours away, and any mass of equipment or supplies can be moved there in that time, anytime you like. Mars is always at best 9 months away. (Not 6 as Elon likes to lie.) Usually it would take much longer. And, how much stuff you can move at once is drastically limited. There is no need to go below just a few atmospheres worth of pressure, in any case. Little that happens at the surface penetrates very deep.
- dwaltrip 4y agoIt has the overwhelming disadvantage that no one wants to do it. It’s not that interesting or exciting.
- luxuryballs 4y agoAbsolutely nobody is going to want to make a life on Mars. Being exciting is all it has going for it. Bottom of the sea would be a much more viable place if we needed to escape from some kind of extreme weather. It must be so unfathomably cheaper than Mars.