Mars is only about twice the size of the moon. Its not vastly bigger. Its also much smaller than the Earth.
This is true, but it's the only feasible planet in the solar system to colonize. You could still fit a million or so people on the plante and set up a mining colony.
AFAIK there's nothing in particular in the martian geology that you can't get on earth. So, doubtful until we have easy space elevators to transport the rock back to earth all cheap like. Makes little economical sense otherwise.
Oh, and does anyone know the name of that plan that some crazy architect came up with years ago to basically dismantle the earth and build it into this massive open structure with loads more internal space for habitats?
does anyone even stop to consider how important gravity is
listen martian colonization isn't going to happen without either artificial gravity of some sort, or genetic engineering and/or cybernetics that turn us into stick people who are better suited to martian gravity
because dude it is way less than Earth's
Venus has a gravity like Earth's, but it's got an atmospheric pressure comparable to the bottom of the ocean, it is thoroughly and massively soaked in radiation and heat, and using current technology Venus is actually a huge pain in the ass to get to
Reaching escape velocity is expensive and dangerous.
Once you're in orbit it's pretty easy to get where you need to go (there's even a theoretical system where you can get moved around by LaGrange points around planets, just shifting from one point to another when they come close together. It'd take decades, but you can get from one side of the solar system to the other basically for free.
You'd be irradiated to shit and stick thin by the end of it though.
it's just getting everything there and keeping it resupplied etc. etc
A self sufficient Moonbase would be kickass. All mining minerals to replicate replacement parts, harvesting helium-3 or something for it's fusion generators.
But admittedly the initial capital expenditure to get everything up there to get started would be gigantic.
it's just getting everything there and keeping it resupplied etc. etc
A self sufficient Moonbase would be kickass. All mining minerals to replicate replacement parts, harvesting helium-3 or something for it's fusion generators.
But admittedly the initial capital expenditure to get everything up there to get started would be gigantic.
If there's decent quantities of Helium-3 up there I can see it being viable economically, supply and demand and all that. Otherwise there'd be little point - we've got plenty of silicon after all.
it's just getting everything there and keeping it resupplied etc. etc
A self sufficient Moonbase would be kickass. All mining minerals to replicate replacement parts, harvesting helium-3 or something for it's fusion generators.
But admittedly the initial capital expenditure to get everything up there to get started would be gigantic.
Correct and correct. A base on an otherwise-uninhabitable planet isn't going to be self-sufficient unless you transport a small country up there. You need good soil to grow crops. You need a crap load of water. Then you need to protect everything from that unfriendly radiation in space. We'd be living in an enormous (enormous) radiation-proof green house. Then if we wanted to expand our living space we'd have to build an adjacent greenhouse. I doubt that would ever be cost-effective.
As for staying here... Expansion is the only way. We'll eventually just run out of resources. If we achieve faster than light travel, then 'an ocean' is exactly what space will become. Check out Alpha Centauri? Oh well nothing there, tick it off the list and we'll try the next one.
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AFAIK there's nothing in particular in the martian geology that you can't get on earth. So, doubtful until we have easy space elevators to transport the rock back to earth all cheap like. Makes little economical sense otherwise.
Oh, and does anyone know the name of that plan that some crazy architect came up with years ago to basically dismantle the earth and build it into this massive open structure with loads more internal space for habitats?
Ahah! Found it: Globus Cassus
Well, we better get at it.
in fact
nothing we have seriously studied within our solar system does or we'd be all over that shit like a fat kid on cake
doesn't mean it's worthless to go there, all kinds of crazy scientific discoveries can be made especially on mars
but space exploration should be about scientific discovery and research
not apartment shopping you fags
Fuck you pony, I want my Moonhouse and my goddamn rocketpack.
listen martian colonization isn't going to happen without either artificial gravity of some sort, or genetic engineering and/or cybernetics that turn us into stick people who are better suited to martian gravity
because dude it is way less than Earth's
Venus has a gravity like Earth's, but it's got an atmospheric pressure comparable to the bottom of the ocean, it is thoroughly and massively soaked in radiation and heat, and using current technology Venus is actually a huge pain in the ass to get to
prime real estate
well
space travel
getting there
once you're there, not so bad
pretty easy to build a moonbase n shit
it's just getting everything there and keeping it resupplied etc. etc
Reaching escape velocity is expensive and dangerous.
Once you're in orbit it's pretty easy to get where you need to go (there's even a theoretical system where you can get moved around by LaGrange points around planets, just shifting from one point to another when they come close together. It'd take decades, but you can get from one side of the solar system to the other basically for free.
You'd be irradiated to shit and stick thin by the end of it though.
A self sufficient Moonbase would be kickass. All mining minerals to replicate replacement parts, harvesting helium-3 or something for it's fusion generators.
But admittedly the initial capital expenditure to get everything up there to get started would be gigantic.
If there's decent quantities of Helium-3 up there I can see it being viable economically, supply and demand and all that. Otherwise there'd be little point - we've got plenty of silicon after all.
Correct and correct. A base on an otherwise-uninhabitable planet isn't going to be self-sufficient unless you transport a small country up there. You need good soil to grow crops. You need a crap load of water. Then you need to protect everything from that unfriendly radiation in space. We'd be living in an enormous (enormous) radiation-proof green house. Then if we wanted to expand our living space we'd have to build an adjacent greenhouse. I doubt that would ever be cost-effective.
As for staying here... Expansion is the only way. We'll eventually just run out of resources. If we achieve faster than light travel, then 'an ocean' is exactly what space will become. Check out Alpha Centauri? Oh well nothing there, tick it off the list and we'll try the next one.