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Yep! I thought this clip was cool - What Is The Business Model For Mars? Elon Musk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4

Yep! I thought this clip was cool - What Is The Business Model For Mars? Elon Musk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A

worldsayshi 14y ago
"I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach." - [Bruce Sterling](http://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html http://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html) I don't see how people can believe in a long time prospect of Mars colonization as long as we shun deserts and polar regions. Seriously. Sure Mars would be fun to visit (at this point). But live there, with our current technological advancements in mind?
- MichaelAO 14y ago
  That quote is pretty spot on. However, the whole point is to "back up the biosphere" in order to protect human consciousness from an earth shattering event (pun intended). At some point in the future, we're going to have to get off this planet.
  - rwmj 14y ago
    That would be a useful outcome, but it's not a motivation for the people who have to live in what is in reality a freezing, extremely remote desert.
    - worldsayshi 14y ago
      Then we will have to find ways to make it enjoyable, or give up the prospect all together.
  - mkr-hn 14y ago
    It's easier to build a sustainable bubble city on Earth than to build a simple survivable habitat on Mars.
- theklub 14y ago
  Why would anyone waste their time trying to live in the Gobi desert? The point is to get humanity into space.
  - worldsayshi 14y ago
    The fact that we don't choose to live in deserts shows that it's highly likely that living in deserts - and all the more in even less hospitable environments - is not sustainable given our current way of living. Unless we can show that we can have a working ecosystem in the least hospitable environments here on earth we aren't going to be able to set one up 4 light minutes away on a desert planet without an atmosphere. We are going to send those colonizers to a slow death.
    - Dylan16807 14y ago
      What do you mean by sustainable? Plenty of things are capable of being done, but people happen to prefer alternatives. An example might be constructing every building in the US on stilts. It's more expensive and wastes some resources but you can still manage to run farms and cities that way.
      - worldsayshi 14y ago
        Can we sustain a ecosystem capable of sustaining human life in a desert without atmosphere or other protection from background radiation yet then? It seems like figuring this out should be the first step. Then again, sustainable colonies on the moon might be the most efficient way to establish that.
- GavinB 14y ago
  There are entire cities in the Gobi desert. The population is one person per square km: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236545/Gobi/47958/People-and-economy http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236545/Gobi/47958/... In the cities, you have to stay in a hotel because you're not allowed to pitch a tent: http://www.travelmarket.com/Gobi%20Desert/a-GOBI_DESERT/travelguide.htm http://www.travelmarket.com/Gobi%20Desert/a-GOBI_DESERT/trav... Colonies on Mars probably don't make economical sense currently, but the thing to keep in mind is that there are resources on Mars that no human or animal population is using. On Earth, it seems like anywhere you start digging you ruin someone's life. With eventual terraforming of Mars, we don't have to worry about accidentally de-terraforming China and Mongolia. We would have a free hand to change the atmosphere, melt the poles, etc. But ultimately Sterling's point on terraforming is probably true. We'll probably beat desertification long before we have the ability to terraform Mars.
- danielweber 14y ago
  Separate the marginal from the average. Most people will not choose to go to Mars. This is not a problem for settling Mars. Settling always happens via a very small fraction of the originating population. The people who will settle Mars will do it because they want to settle Mars.

Yep! I thought this clip was cool - What Is The Business Model For Mars? Elon Musk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fS1FxBq64A

worldsayshi 14y ago

"I'll believe in people settling Mars at about the same time I see people settling the Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert is about a thousand times as hospitable as Mars and five hundred times cheaper and easier to reach." - [Bruce Sterling](http://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html http://boingboing.net/2004/01/08/sterling-ill-believe.html) I don't see how people can believe in a long time prospect of Mars colonization as long as we shun deserts and polar regions. Seriously. Sure Mars would be fun to visit (at this point). But live there, with our current technological advancements in mind?

MichaelAO 14y ago
That quote is pretty spot on. However, the whole point is to "back up the biosphere" in order to protect human consciousness from an earth shattering event (pun intended). At some point in the future, we're going to have to get off this planet.
- rwmj 14y ago
  That would be a useful outcome, but it's not a motivation for the people who have to live in what is in reality a freezing, extremely remote desert.
  - worldsayshi 14y ago
    Then we will have to find ways to make it enjoyable, or give up the prospect all together.
- mkr-hn 14y ago
  It's easier to build a sustainable bubble city on Earth than to build a simple survivable habitat on Mars.
theklub 14y ago
Why would anyone waste their time trying to live in the Gobi desert? The point is to get humanity into space.
- worldsayshi 14y ago
  The fact that we don't choose to live in deserts shows that it's highly likely that living in deserts - and all the more in even less hospitable environments - is not sustainable given our current way of living. Unless we can show that we can have a working ecosystem in the least hospitable environments here on earth we aren't going to be able to set one up 4 light minutes away on a desert planet without an atmosphere. We are going to send those colonizers to a slow death.
  - Dylan16807 14y ago
    What do you mean by sustainable? Plenty of things are capable of being done, but people happen to prefer alternatives. An example might be constructing every building in the US on stilts. It's more expensive and wastes some resources but you can still manage to run farms and cities that way.
    - worldsayshi 14y ago
      Can we sustain a ecosystem capable of sustaining human life in a desert without atmosphere or other protection from background radiation yet then? It seems like figuring this out should be the first step. Then again, sustainable colonies on the moon might be the most efficient way to establish that.
GavinB 14y ago
There are entire cities in the Gobi desert. The population is one person per square km: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236545/Gobi/47958/People-and-economy http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236545/Gobi/47958/... In the cities, you have to stay in a hotel because you're not allowed to pitch a tent: http://www.travelmarket.com/Gobi%20Desert/a-GOBI_DESERT/travelguide.htm http://www.travelmarket.com/Gobi%20Desert/a-GOBI_DESERT/trav... Colonies on Mars probably don't make economical sense currently, but the thing to keep in mind is that there are resources on Mars that no human or animal population is using. On Earth, it seems like anywhere you start digging you ruin someone's life. With eventual terraforming of Mars, we don't have to worry about accidentally de-terraforming China and Mongolia. We would have a free hand to change the atmosphere, melt the poles, etc. But ultimately Sterling's point on terraforming is probably true. We'll probably beat desertification long before we have the ability to terraform Mars.
danielweber 14y ago
Separate the marginal from the average. Most people will not choose to go to Mars. This is not a problem for settling Mars. Settling always happens via a very small fraction of the originating population. The people who will settle Mars will do it because they want to settle Mars.