Let's talk about Mars.

Lately I've been founding myself looking at a lot of Mars related topics and the possibility of travel to this mysterious red planet. Some companies plan to be able to send humans there in the mid 2020's, while NASA plans to send humans there in the mid 2030's as anytime sooner seem very unlikely due to the costs and skill needed for such a mission. In your view, when would be the soonest you would see humans landing on Mars and, if you had a chance, would be go aboard a no return trip to the red planet?

Also interesting is the topics regarding bone loss during space travel and the fact that future Martian generations would not be able to handle Earth's stronger gravity!

-Alex

Hmmm. I certainly would be terrified of not coming back. So many things could go wrong. I feel NASA doesn't quite have all the technology down yet, or even by the year 2030. I mean there is just so much, from launching at perfect times to where the travelers will get food for the rest of their lives. And how they will get oxygen too. Can a permanent ecosystem really be created? I don't know. Maybe. I wouldn't be one to go, but that's only because I'm not the kind of person that likes being alone.

Does anyone think that maybe the travelers should be a few married couples? It's a very complicated selection process for willing parties.

Future Mars generations would curse their fore bearers for leaving the garden of earth for a nasty cold nearly lifeless (probably, except for themselves) ball of red dust.

^Maybe haha! I personally wouldn't want to go on a one way trip, I'd get too lonely

-Alex

We love novelty, going to Mars would be the height of such for many of us, but once there for a period of years the diversity of life on Earth would make it far more novel to go to than that planet. I expect we will be able to go there in the future without so much trouble though, and come back too, won't be so expensive or difficult for us someday. Then going there would be great, you would not be stuck.

I suspect we are now approaching the point at which we reach a crossroads, and have a decision to make on how to preserve our species. That decision will likely be broken down to the choice of saving mother earth, or fleeing to another planet.

Unfortunately, as glorious as Capitalism may be, it will be our undoing if the elite in charge (that is the oil cartels, banking cartels and "shadow governments") don't wake up and realise we need a massive paradigm shift in how we live to ensure our survival. Although I'm skeptical of the "man made climate change" argument, you don't have to be a genius to know that industry is increasing faster than the rate of natural greenery and large areas of forest.

A very brave man spoke out against this and said in longer and more detail what I have said above, if you're interested look up Canadian UFO disclosure speech on YouTube. (Yes, it's relevant, and it's about how the NWO has evidence and is covering up what is believed to be means of clean, free energy, that if released would cause the collapse of the oil cartels).

Our air quality will continue to get worse and natural resources will continue to be exploited as long as the current system goes on along with war, espionage etc. If we are to survive this all has to change - not only that, but dragging this kind of political douchebaggery out into the wider solar system or even to another altogether would be incredibly shitty of us. One has to consider that we are in a world where many (all?) of the major world powers operate a policy of peace by MAD - mutually assured destruction. Basically the premise that if country A nukes country B, country B will have fired in retaliation and mutually destroyed that who fired upon it. How sad that we've come to this stage - and they say the cold war is over??

Do I have high hopes for Mars? Not in the near future, but as always I am willing to learn and be surprised. Looking quickly at some numbers it's bloody far away 228 million KM vs earth's 150million KM - the distance gap widens even more as you get to the gas giants. The atmosphere is not at all breathable, there's much less gravity than on Earth and it's quite a bit smaller. A martian day is similar to Earth's, and there's possible rumblings of the ice at the poles being useful (melt them all a la "Total Recall" to form an atmosphere??). But other than that there's absolutely nothing, and to say that the situation as a whole is tenuous is IMO being generous.

Currently I don't think there any alternatives other than to keep on plodding on as we are. I don't see any evidence that the masses are ready for change but I also don't think change is ready to happen yet. I mean, I'd happily drive an electric car (there's even an electric version of the one I currently own) but not until they come down in price and have regen systems that actually make them capable of doing big distance. I think that sets a precedent for the fact that we need to sort our affairs at home before trying to run the rest of the solar system.

None of you have mentioned the National Geographic tv series "Mars".

MARS - National Geographic Channel

steve001 said:

None of you have mentioned the National Geographic tv series "Mars".

MARS - National Geographic Channel

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No, I haven't even checked out that series, might need to do so. Now. I agree with trencheel, we need to figure out our problems here on Earth before trying to go to another planet!

-Alex

Landing a human on mars is an entirely political choice. I have no doubt it is possible to send a person to mars and return him to earth within 10 years or so, given enough funding.

Then again that funding will not be there as the cold war and space race are over and almost forgotten by now.

As for the question if humans could live on mars given enough resources thrown at it: probably. This would mean living in a greenhouse of sorts, like the one used in the biosphere experiments back in the 90s.

Downside is that this would be -very- expensive. Transporting a whole system like that to mars would be quite the endeavour. You talking about taking thousands of tonnes of weight to mars for settlement, as opposed to a few tonnes for a go-and-return mission like the moon landings.

For the survival of the human species i don't think it's a very viable option though. It would be more cost effective to build some underground structures with resources that allow some humans to live in them for hundreds or thousands of years.

Also a mass extiction event that could take out all humans on earth is not that likely at all: we have settled this planet from equator to both poles. We have also created long lasting food supplies that would be good for several generations if there were few people remaining.

If 99.999 percent of humans just died randomly right now, we would not even be an endagered species on earth. There would be about 70 thousand people still alive, outnumbering most animal species of similar body size.

^I still think we should first try to get ourselves setup with a Moon base before attempting to colonize another planet. Plus, after doing some research I do agree with some comments regarding some people who decide to go on the one way trip there, wanting to come back home, however this won't be possible

-Alex

Benm said:

Also a mass extiction event that could take out all humans on earth is not that likely at all: we have settled this planet from equator to both poles. We have also created long lasting food supplies that would be good for several generations if there were few people remaining.

If 99.999 percent of humans just died randomly right now, we would not even be an endagered species on earth. There would be about 70 thousand people still alive, outnumbering most animal species of similar body size.

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If that many people suddenly died you can be sure that many more will as well. Our society right now is dependent on numbers, we need skilled labourers preparing and distributing food, we need electricity and fuel for heat and transportation, we're basically useless alone. I don't think we have created long lasting food supplies as you say. At most some canned goods in store shelves can last maybe ten years. Starvation or cold will kill off the remaining few before long, in the case of a near-extinction event.

Grix said:

Our society right now is dependent on numbers, we need skilled labourers preparing and distributing food, we need electricity and fuel for heat and transportation, we're basically useless alone.

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Humans survive 1000s of years without numbers, canned beans, turbo Diesel generators, and transportation. But it's true "society right now" would struggle.
If you use Benm's number of 70 000, many would die soon after[fictitious event] but many would revert back to primal skills -hunting & gathering, Reproduce and eventually prosper.
As for colonization of Mars I don't see it anywhere in our century IMHO. The Biosphere projects failed horribly both from a psychological standpoint and carbon dioxide.
With all that said maybe biosphere is worth another shot. Before colonizing the moon or Mars we need to do it here on earth.

My thoughts. Interesting thread.
Dwu

Hap said:

^I still think we should first try to get ourselves setup with a Moon base before attempting to colonize another planet. Plus, after doing some research I do agree with some comments regarding some people who decide to go on the one way trip there, wanting to come back home, however this won't be possible

-Alex

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A moon base is something I'd like to see in my lifetime. How cool would it be waking up and seeing the earth out the window.

trencheel303 said:

A moon base is something I'd like to see in my lifetime. How cool would it be waking up and seeing the earth out the window.

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It'd be awesome indeed! Hopefully it does happen

-Alex

I would love to see a moon base happen. But I agree with the fact that we need to solve issues here first, including overpopulation before moving on. I can just see us having two out of control planets to deal with.

Well, there are some who think there is already a base on the dark side of the moon, closely guarded.

Also if there really are aliens working within NASA like is told through some disclosure videos I have seen, (see Boyd Bushman videos on youtube) Then It might be possible to goto Mars sooner rather than later, but is the Earth people ready for such an endeavor? I don't think so within 20+ years. But that may also be why NASA projected 2030 as their Mars timeline, because they have this external knowledge available to them which gave them more optimism about it becoming a reality.

I would want to wait and see some success stories for sure and be sure that all the kinks are ironed out for safety before even considering such a thing.

Personally? Hell no I won't go