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Without magnetic shielding I'm not sure how far large scale terraforming is going to get us. Any atmosphere we try to build up will just blow off into space. Bu

Without magnetic shielding I'm not sure how far large scale terraforming is going to get us. Any atmosphere we try to build up will just blow off into space. But I agree, put the dome on the moon.

specialist 14y ago
As a life-long of reader "hard" sci-fi, making me a renown expert, IMHO: How will humans survive the radiation? How will humans remain mentally healthy? I don't think we can feasibly become space faring until those challenges, and probably some others, are addressed. Edit: Oh, I just had an idea. How do people with Asperger's deal with isolation, boredom, continuous contact with a handful of other people? Maybe there's a subgroup of people who are mentally perfectly adapted for space travel.
- mburns 14y ago
  You read hard sci fi and you don't have answers to these questions? Q: How will humanity survive the radiation? A: Build igloos or inhabit caves or just plain dig into the ground. Problem solved. Q: How will humans remain mentally healthy? A: The Internet and social interaction with other colonists. Also, there is a lot of work to be done growing plants, managing systems, exploring robots, documenting and cataloging all that we find. People, today, already live in extreme isolation for extended periods of time by choice. Those aren't even the hard problems to solve.
  - specialist 14y ago
    I'm projecting. As an extrovert, I'd go nuts. So clearly I'm not making the trip. I'm more worried about the time in transit. For sanity, my assumption is that humans will need the ability to easily increase / decrease metabolism. So that 6 month, year, century trip would seem like a few days. For radiation, I think space faring humans will need to be radiation hardened somehow.
- Monotoko 14y ago
  I have Aspergers, and I can attest to this... I spend most of my time on my PC connecting to the world. I work from home as a programmer and I have maybe 4-5 friends that I see often (once every few weeks, I go for a walk to the store with one every day) but I spend the majority of time in my space, designing, building and deploying things online and reading to try to gain more knowledge of the world. Now, the question is, how would a personal space on Mars be any different from a personal space here? (I wouldn't go unless it was feasible and viable, and I could return within 10 years - just to be one of the first humans on another planet - I'm pretty comfy on Earth as it is, but I see the point you're trying to make here)
- toemetoch 14y ago
  Fast-forward to the point of actual space colonization. Should mental stability be a factor in survival in space I can imagine that it'll introduce a rather strong darwinistic filter. It's difficult to fathom but realistic that folks with a short fuse have a severe disadvantage. Would it be required to undergo a psychiatric test before you can buy a ticket to an off-world colony and settle? Will people with a genetic predisposition be advised not to have kids? Will earth be a safe-haven for loonies?
tocomment 14y ago
I remember reading that it would take 1000s of years for the atmosphere to blow off.
- legutierr 14y ago
  Ah, yes. Just long enough for the population of the colony to reach hundreds of thousands before they all face miserable death by slow suffocation or radiation poisoning.
  - molmalo 14y ago
    If you had an advanced civilization living there for thousands of years, without continuing the labors of terraforming, doing absolutely nothing to prevent that from happening (even when they know what will happen, while measuring the atmospheric levels slowly dropping)... maybe they'd deserve to die. I mean, that could only mean that they actually wanted to die!

Without magnetic shielding I'm not sure how far large scale terraforming is going to get us. Any atmosphere we try to build up will just blow off into space. But I agree, put the dome on the moon.

specialist 14y ago

As a life-long of reader "hard" sci-fi, making me a renown expert, IMHO: How will humans survive the radiation? How will humans remain mentally healthy? I don't think we can feasibly become space faring until those challenges, and probably some others, are addressed. Edit: Oh, I just had an idea. How do people with Asperger's deal with isolation, boredom, continuous contact with a handful of other people? Maybe there's a subgroup of people who are mentally perfectly adapted for space travel.

mburns 14y ago
You read hard sci fi and you don't have answers to these questions? Q: How will humanity survive the radiation? A: Build igloos or inhabit caves or just plain dig into the ground. Problem solved. Q: How will humans remain mentally healthy? A: The Internet and social interaction with other colonists. Also, there is a lot of work to be done growing plants, managing systems, exploring robots, documenting and cataloging all that we find. People, today, already live in extreme isolation for extended periods of time by choice. Those aren't even the hard problems to solve.
- specialist 14y ago
  I'm projecting. As an extrovert, I'd go nuts. So clearly I'm not making the trip. I'm more worried about the time in transit. For sanity, my assumption is that humans will need the ability to easily increase / decrease metabolism. So that 6 month, year, century trip would seem like a few days. For radiation, I think space faring humans will need to be radiation hardened somehow.
Monotoko 14y ago
I have Aspergers, and I can attest to this... I spend most of my time on my PC connecting to the world. I work from home as a programmer and I have maybe 4-5 friends that I see often (once every few weeks, I go for a walk to the store with one every day) but I spend the majority of time in my space, designing, building and deploying things online and reading to try to gain more knowledge of the world. Now, the question is, how would a personal space on Mars be any different from a personal space here? (I wouldn't go unless it was feasible and viable, and I could return within 10 years - just to be one of the first humans on another planet - I'm pretty comfy on Earth as it is, but I see the point you're trying to make here)
toemetoch 14y ago
Fast-forward to the point of actual space colonization. Should mental stability be a factor in survival in space I can imagine that it'll introduce a rather strong darwinistic filter. It's difficult to fathom but realistic that folks with a short fuse have a severe disadvantage. Would it be required to undergo a psychiatric test before you can buy a ticket to an off-world colony and settle? Will people with a genetic predisposition be advised not to have kids? Will earth be a safe-haven for loonies?

tocomment 14y ago

I remember reading that it would take 1000s of years for the atmosphere to blow off.

legutierr 14y ago
Ah, yes. Just long enough for the population of the colony to reach hundreds of thousands before they all face miserable death by slow suffocation or radiation poisoning.
- molmalo 14y ago
  If you had an advanced civilization living there for thousands of years, without continuing the labors of terraforming, doing absolutely nothing to prevent that from happening (even when they know what will happen, while measuring the atmospheric levels slowly dropping)... maybe they'd deserve to die. I mean, that could only mean that they actually wanted to die!