is it practical to settle mars and the moon?

The moon and Mars both have a very big problem. They have no atmosphere. So you not only need to bring a supply but recycle it with near 100% effecienxy for any sort of long term settlement.

I can see mining opperation or perhaps factories, but there would be no way to sustain a cicvilian population without being able to harvest large ammounts of oxygen from non earth sources.

Thoughts?

Biosphere. Create our own ecosystems in those...we can mimic mother nature pretty well, not perfectly ofc though.

I think it's important for human advancement...as we are an "intelligent species" (funny how we call ourselves this yet we kill each other...) we should be putting man kind into the future as one, rather than as individuals. It would be important to not only learn our planet, but also our neighbors and eventually the universe.

I will now add that socialism could be great, if the leaders are not greedy.

Yeah it would be great if we did it.. but I'm not sure it would be practical to do it at this time. I could be wrong, but I don't think we are technologically advanced yet to sustain any large groups of people out there.

It might be a solid possibility in the next 10-20 years though

What would be the point of this though? Of course it would be a big step in our advances, but I see it more useful to replenish things such as the Sahara desert first before worrying about the moon or Mars.

Plus the Sahara is alot closer and already has an atmosphere. If we can't turn that back into a forest, our luck with something in space is much less likely.


I'm curious, have we found anything useful to mine on Mars that isn't found on Earth yet, or the moon either?

What would be the point of this though? Of course it would be a big step in our advances, but I see it more useful to replenish things such as the Sahara desert first before worrying about the moon or Mars.

Plus the Sahara is alot closer and already has an atmosphere. If we can't turn that back into a forest, our luck with something in space is much less likely.

I'm curious, have we found anything useful to mine on Mars that isn't found on Earth yet, or the moon either?

I agree that we need to terraform the earth. As it is now there is a lot of unusable surface area and untapped carbon.

We could make floating cities that vaporize ocean water to cool the earth and spread water to desert areas.

However I disagree that we should do it instead of space. I think we have the resources and man power to do both. We just need to stop having expensive wars.

As for resources, yea Mars is made outta the same stuff as earth. But there is a lot of it and at 1/3 gravity it is easier to mine deeper. There are no oceans on Mars getting in the way. So we could potentially have more access to materials on Mars then on earth.

Furthermore any extra resources are useful. We wouldn't stop mining earth to mine Mars.

A planet like Mars that is nothing but a rock could be useful as a resource hub for building spaceships and deepspace research.

Its all made of atoms. You just need to rearrange them to make the chemical compounds that sustain life. If there are oxygen atoms on mars, then that all you need. Much of the energy would be supplied by the sun. But there could possibly other ways to harvest energy there in ways we simply can not do on earth. Winds might be sustainable for wind turbines.

As for the moon. It would be a good place because it would be a good base to use in case you need to repair satellites. It would cost a lot less to launch a vehicle from the moon and coast to the satellite instead of burning a crap load of energy getting off the earth.

Its all made of atoms. You just need to rearrange them to make the chemical compounds that sustain life. If there are oxygen atoms on mars, then that all you need. Much of the energy would be supplied by the sun. But there could possibly other ways to harvest energy there in ways we simply can not do on earth. Winds might be sustainable for wind turbines.

As for the moon. It would be a good place because it would be a good base to use in case you need to repair satellites. It would cost a lot less to launch a vehicle from the moon and coast to the satellite instead of burning a crap load of energy getting off the earth.

I didn't think about this before. If bars never had life this could actually be a good thing for us. It would mean oxygen could still be locked away under the surface. The main problem is that all the h2o and co2 were stripped into space. There would he a lot less oxygen on Mars and if it leaves your habitat it goes into space

I didn't think about this before. If bars never had life this could actually be a good thing for us. It would mean oxygen could still be locked away under the surface. The main problem is that all the h2o and co2 were stripped into space. There would he a lot less oxygen on Mars and if it leaves your habitat it goes into space

Im sure there are many other compounds on mars that contain oxygen. We would just have to extract it. Same thin with hydrogen. Then we combine them to make pure water.

I'm curious, have we found anything useful to mine on Mars that isn't found on Earth yet, or the moon either?

Yes, Tralphium, which is sometimes also called Hellium-3. It might be one of our best roads to developing fusion power systems.

But being worth it for actual mining...
On Earth, the most easily accessed resources are stripped first. Since Mars has never been mined, that means that heavy metals can still be found in pockets close to the surface. And there isn't a biosphere to contaminate, so if interplanetary transport gets a little easier, it would be worth the trip just to stop munging up our own back yard. A little Thorium mined and put into thermolitic reactors, and we could start melting the permafrost to release water, then use electricity from the reactor to split out oxygen.

The material the moon is made out of is mostly lighter rock, so there aren't enough heavy minerals to really bother with. But it's a stepping stone to the rest of the system.

Edited by Mikayote, 01 June 2012 - 12:31 AM.

Biosphere. Create our own ecosystems in those...we can mimic mother nature pretty well, not perfectly ofc though.

I think it's important for human advancement...as we are an "intelligent species" (funny how we call ourselves this yet we kill each other...) we should be putting man kind into the future as one, rather than as individuals. It would be important to not only learn our planet, but also our neighbors and eventually the universe.

I will now add that socialism could be great, if the leaders are not greedy.

Central planning never ever ever ever works and you cannot have a peaceful and prosperous society without freedom.

Socialism by its definition runs on theft, oppression, force, and violence.

I will now add that socialism could be great, if the leaders are not greedy.

Lets keep this thread about science huh? There are like 5-6 threads about socialism over next door

I agree that we need to terraform the earth. As it is now there is a lot of unusable surface area and untapped carbon.

Flying to New York from the west coast I really realized how much barren unused land there is on Earth.

I laugh every time now I hear someone say we're risking overpopulation because the earth is too crowded. Bitch fly over central US and tell me there's not enough room. lol

Resources, maybe, but actual space for people, we could fit 20 billion people on this planet no problem.

I think it would be an amazing accomplishment if we could turn the planet back into what it used to be. There's even been fossilized palm trees found in the south pole. Earth used to be a flush forest.

We could make floating cities that vaporize ocean water to cool the earth and spread water to desert areas.

However I disagree that we should do it instead of space. I think we have the resources and man power to do both. We just need to stop having expensive wars.

Couldn't agree more with the bolded. If we realized how pointless fighting is and came together as one we could accomplish SO much more..

But no, this land is mine and my religion is more right.. :sigh:

Motherfuckers this land is mother natures, I don't see how we can claim any of it to say one group owns all of it. Learn to share ya greedy bastards lol

Just hear to read, not smart enough to be able to contribute in intelligent opinion. Although prolly the same for most of you guys but good convo nevertheless

Socialism by its definition runs on theft, oppression, force, and violence.

this is a lie, get out of here.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QoEEGySGm4&feature=youtube_gdata_player]Mars One introduction film - YouTube[/ame]

this is a lie, get out of here.

awesome rebuttal

Socialism FORCES sovereign individuals at GUNPOINT to pay THEIR money into a system they AREN'T voluntarily joining and it also OPPRESSES the free market with FORCE using the threat or eventual use of VIOLENCE.

What about all this unused land, underground?

What about all this unused land, underground?

Yea if we lived just under the furface we could grow food ob top of our houses

Mars One introduction film - YouTube

I see someone else was going wtf on reddit yesterday as well. Only 6 bil? Seems kinda well underfunded the ISS was over 100B I'm pretty sure. Why would this be so much cheaper. And you can't rely on solar power on Mars. The atmosphere isn't right. Dust is constantly being thrown around on mars and would block a lot of the suns rays to the panels. Since dust is constantly being kicked around the panels would be buried easily too.

I see someone else was going wtf on reddit yesterday as well. Only 6 bil? Seems kinda well underfunded the ISS was over 100B I'm pretty sure. Why would this be so much cheaper. And you can't rely on solar power on Mars. The atmosphere isn't right. Dust is constantly being thrown around on mars and would block a lot of the suns rays to the panels. Since dust is constantly being kicked around the panels would be buried easily too.

Yea and Mars has no geothermal either.

In Mars your only option really is nuclear or chemical fuel mined from the surface.

People talk about terraforming Mars. But that's an insane idea. We would have an easier time terraforming Venus. Without a spinning core and a magnetic field, Mars is literally just a big rock to mine on.

Speaking of the devil I wonder how hard it would be to cool Venus? Probly.super hard