heywood on 15/3/2017 at 23:25
Quote Posted by icemann
So we should just give up and settle for living on 1 planet for all of eternity until we've ruined it to the point where we all kark it from rising temperatures etc? Bugger that.
Plus with the global population rising quite massively with each passing year and fewer wars than in previous generations, we simply don't have the space to support the amount of people on the planet very soon. Colonization of other planets solves this + allows humanity to continue on and to expand.
I still see it as inevitable that we'll have to expand out into space someday. It's that or overpopulating the planet to the point that all resources run out and we all just die out slowly. That'd be a horrible way to go.
If over-population and over-pollution and eventual resource exhaustion are the things we really should be worried about long-term, we should be putting our best minds and resources into solving those problems right here. You simply can’t send people off into space fast enough to overcome population growth.
Besides, there are no plans on the table for a colony on the Moon or Mars. We have the technology and resources needed to go there and put our boots on the ground and bring some samples back. At huge cost and for no real purpose except to pat ourselves on the back and say we did it. That’s about it.
We don’t even have a practical concept on paper which could sustain a permanent base on Mars without supplying nearly 100% of its resources from Earth (everything except electricity basically). A colony would have to be mostly self-sustaining and right now that is just science fiction. We’re still gathering preliminary information about the planet to learn about its history and see what resources it might have. We can do that more effectively and much more cheaply through unmanned missions.
And if the purpose of colonization is to provide a new place to host a permanent human civilization, to give us room to grow, don’t you need a place that is hospitable to human life? If we desperately needed more space, we could start by settling Antarctica. It’s cold, but so is Mars, and it has breathable air and plenty of fresh water and it’s relatively easy to get to. If that’s not exotic enough, what about the oceans?
Pyrian on 16/3/2017 at 00:15
It's not like we don't have pseudo-permanent bases on Antarctica and scattered about the oceans (e.g. oil platforms).
But I totally agree that there's a lot more work that can and should be done before sending human colonists. Far better to have robots build a sustainable habitat and indeed industrial base before anybody sets foot thereupon. And of course you'd have to develop and test that sort of equipment on Earth first. If I'm not mistaken, right now there is no such thing as a small industrial base for anything; our world is heavily interconnected.
'Course, running a full miniaturized mining and factory complex on Mars would require advanced AI, and a self-sufficient self-replicating machine intelligence sounds like the start to any number of disastrous sci-fi scenarios...
EDIT: Hmm, maybe this should be my next game. "We're landing on Mars to take over the running of the robot base established years ago and now running well enough to support human life. There's just one leeettle problem..."
icemann on 16/3/2017 at 04:15
Well what needs to be solved is bringing down costs / developing better and cheaper technologies. We certainly for example need much faster propulsion for rockets to get to places quicker, and we need to develop plant life that would survive and thrive on Mars + start creating oxygen.
Once we have that it's do-able. Looking only at the costs like Bulgarian_Taffer said is the wrong way to look at it, when the long term benefits are there.
The problems here don't have to correspond out there. Just because down here for example we have religious fanatics wanting the extermination of the US and all that, would have no relevance up on Mars. I think that Mars will have it's own issues to deal with. Daily life would be far more dangerous, especially in the early days. It's very much worth the effort though. If we can pull it off with Mars then the sky is the limit. And it's our greatest challenge as a species to pull it off.
Kolya on 16/3/2017 at 07:52
Quote Posted by Pyrian
"There's just one leeettle problem..."
What is it, Mr. Chekhov?
Chimpy Chompy on 16/3/2017 at 13:38
Maybe the first step would be some sort of industrial base on the moon. It would help if mining resources there could be profitable. Dig stuff up, shoot it back to earth.
We really need better propulsion too, to make manned flights to further destinations more practical.
Trance on 23/4/2017 at 02:35
My god, look at all the stratospheric aerosols! How far will you go until you're satisfied, liberals!?
Renzatic on 23/4/2017 at 02:39
That 2nd brain looks like been stroganoff. Now I'm hungry.
Tony_Tarantula on 23/4/2017 at 02:46
Cool pic. Good to see some tangible results coming from the effort.