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They're not viable candidates as backup plans for humanity because they have the same vulnerabilities to comet strikes, global nuclear war and pandemic as the r
by bryanlarsen 2y ago
They're not viable candidates as backup plans for humanity because they have the same vulnerabilities to comet strikes, global nuclear war and pandemic as the rest of the Earth.
OTOH, if one of those took out human life on Earth, people living on Mars could re-colonize Earth.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoEarth after a global nuclear war or comet strike is still more hospitable than Mars. It's hard to imagine anything that would make Mars a better place to live than simply staying on earth.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoYes it would be. But that doesn't matter if no humans make it through the apocalypse in the first place.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoThe moon would do the job at a lot cheaper price.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoNope. Because of aero braking, Mars takes less delta v to get to and land on than the moon does.
- amanaplanacanal 2y agoNow I'm wondering why the Apollo program went to the moon if doing Mars is so much cheaper.
- bryanlarsen 2y agoGoing is cheaper. Coming back is more expensive. And of course the 3-6 month travel time is a challenge.