38 percent of normal earth gravity. Temperature extremes like Antartica. Not enough air pressure to support life without a suit or a dome
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Mars hasn't enough air pressure to be habitable. And even if you could fly 100 people (ha) to Mars every month (ha ha) over 20 years nonstop (hahahhah wee!), that's a mere 24000 people. More people will die of bee stings than that. So all the problems of life support, food, and habitat become moot as a way to save the population of Earth.
Good point, that.traveller_bluesSeptember 29 2008, 19:20:36 UTC
In other words: "We're making babies faster than we can ship them to Mars." So what we really need to do is figure out a way to get interstellar travel efficient enough that we can put a thousand people on a ship that we can send up every other week...yeeeah.
...but that's still not a lot.
So we're stuck here, for the most part, and we'd better be better about taking care of the planet we've got, eh?
Biodomes are usually inefficient; you need far more than just what can be walled off in such a habitat.
On the other hand, terraforming an entire planet? Also unlikely.
If Mars has sufficient geothermal heat left, cracking open canals and fostering atmosphere in there would probably be best. You'd likely still need breathing gear (if going for realistic), as the atmosphere would probably be toxic for generations. Still, even a toxic-to-humans atmosphere will support bacteria and many simple plants. Artificial flavors would be a prized commodity on Mars.
Yep, that's what I was originally thinking...traveller_bluesSeptember 29 2008, 19:22:42 UTC
...it'd be probably saner to live underground than above ground -- I don't buy the whole 'we can figure out how to make a dome support life and not be susceptible to something landing on it and killing anyone inside.'
Artificial flavor shipping. Now that's something out of left field...
Re: Yep, that's what I was originally thinking...stryckSeptember 29 2008, 19:26:34 UTC
After a few years of eating bacteria cultures and lichen, I imagine it would be a pretty high priority. I could easily see somebody complaining that half their food is cherry flavored (a strong flavor that masks nearly anything).
Mm.. tofu streak...traveller_bluesSeptember 29 2008, 19:35:44 UTC
So I was thinking of maybe firing unmanned shipping containers into a 'dead zone' on Mars every month with durable goods, water ice (maybe with stuff frozen in the ice), and having people go out there and pick it up. But for the most part, it's back to paste, powders and making your own tofu and flavoring it, by your reckoning... hmmmmm...
Thank you, by the way. I didn't figure you to be into the whole space science field...
50-75 years? I'd guess that in that time frame we've only sent tentative exploration missions to Mars. No permanent residents, just expeditions. I mean, we haven't even established a lunar base, which is much less technically challenging and would almost necessarily be a proving ground for a Martian habitat.
*chuckles* Did that on purpose, actually...traveller_bluesSeptember 29 2008, 19:41:47 UTC
...IMHO, I kinda predict that unless we turn our educational system around in the next 50 years, we're not going to be smart enough as a culture to do much more than produce computers that can create shockingly realistic pretend Martian space colonies. :} But that's a different soap box.
Have you read or looked at the Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, and Blue Mars)by Kim Stanley Robinson? He discusses most of this kind of thing throughout the two hundred or so years the books cover. I've just been reading his follow-up novel, The Martians, in which indeed baseball is mentioned. The field is so big it's described as stretching to the horizon (which is much closer on Mars because of the planet's smaller size) and they have to have a second center fielder.
I have not, but it's mentioned in some of the research I've been doing...traveller_bluesSeptember 29 2008, 22:20:36 UTC
I'm still working on this in the 'initial oo!' stage, and I may well end up writing something different for the NaNoWriMo this year if it doesn't make sense.
While it might be 'doable' by just flinging the thing 500 years in the future, I'm aiming for the 'near future' angle and working with the things at or almost at hand.
Thanks for the tip. I have a Border's gift certificate I might dedicate towards this.
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...but that's still not a lot.
So we're stuck here, for the most part, and we'd better be better about taking care of the planet we've got, eh?
-Traveller
Reply
On the other hand, terraforming an entire planet? Also unlikely.
If Mars has sufficient geothermal heat left, cracking open canals and fostering atmosphere in there would probably be best. You'd likely still need breathing gear (if going for realistic), as the atmosphere would probably be toxic for generations. Still, even a toxic-to-humans atmosphere will support bacteria and many simple plants. Artificial flavors would be a prized commodity on Mars.
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Artificial flavor shipping. Now that's something out of left field...
-Traveller
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Thank you, by the way. I didn't figure you to be into the whole space science field...
-Traveller
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So are you in for the NaNo this year, rat?
-Trav
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While it might be 'doable' by just flinging the thing 500 years in the future, I'm aiming for the 'near future' angle and working with the things at or almost at hand.
Thanks for the tip. I have a Border's gift certificate I might dedicate towards this.
-Traveller
Reply
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