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One thing I never understand with these terraforming startups is: instead of terraforming Mars, isn't it much more economically valuable to terraform chunks of
by lpapez 2y ago
One thing I never understand with these terraforming startups is: instead of terraforming Mars, isn't it much more economically valuable to terraform chunks of Earth?
At the end all of this boils down to economics, and instead of spending trillions to terafform Mars, you can buy large swathes of unproductive land on Earth and try to develop that...
- carabiner 2y agoIt's nothing to do with economics. Was landing people on the moon economics? Why climb a mountain?
- tete 2y ago> Was landing people on the moon economics? No it was an investment. Military and civil research (in so many fields), as well as propaganda (to USSR, US and the world). It was the cold war. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Aeronautics_and_Space_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Aeronautics_and_Space... > Why climb a mountain? Sports, hobby, in some cases I am sure also inferiority complex. Neither were done by companies though, so the question still holds, when there appear to be more viable options. I am not going to judge what makes economic sense, but these questions really don't seem related.
- ianburrell 2y agoThere is a difference between climbing a mountain and living on top of a mountain. Going to Mars and exploring it is a good goal. Colonizing Mars is a bad idea because it is so hard.
- tim333 2y agoI'm not sure there's much of an economic case for terraforming Mars so much as it seeming kind of cool to be multiplanetary. I'm not sure what the startups are selling. That said I think I'd prefer they kept it more as national park / site of special scientific interest rather than a construction site.
- ketzo 2y agoThe author of this blog is also very into terraforming Earth! https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/10/26/we-can-terraform-the-american-west/ https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/10/26/we-can-terrafo...