We could feed one million people living in colonies on Mars

.astronomy.com ^ | Wednesday, September 25, 2019 | Erika K. Carlson |

[fieldmarshaldj]

*ping*

[jonrick46]

Biosphere 2 in Arizona was a closed system such as envisioned on Mars. I have visited this facility and it is very energy intensive to run all the environmental systems. One pump, one control system, one plumbing leak would be disaster. A smoking electric motor would fill the complex with toxic fumes. The backup equipment would be staggering.

Biosphere 2 was an absolute disaster because the project failed to produce enough food to meet the calorie requirements of the participants. The hungry Biospherians began eating seed stocks that had not been grown inside the Biosphere 2. Such a situation will not go well on Mars because of the time it takes to send emergency food or other critical equipment. A colony of one million people would require a perfect system. Any little failure would have big consequences. I wouldn’t risk my life in such a situation.

[a fool in paradise]

1,000,000 people who are starving would find some slower moving members of the colony to fill their appetite. And reduce the community’s food needs.

[jonrick46]

I was going to include a comment like yours about human cannibalism but did not to let others, like you, to illustrate the extreme nature of such a colony. The horror of a colossal failure creating a starvation situation is enough to give me nightmares. It would also make a good science fiction movie.

[a fool in paradise]

“Send more colonists!”

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fieldmarshaldj. Unfortunately, we'll have two million living there at the time. ;^)

[logi_cal869]

Stole my thunder.

[a fool in paradise]

I am amazed at people like Ernest Shackleton and Cabeza de Vaca who did not lose any of their men (to illness, fatigue, conflict, etc.).

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids.

[DennisR]

Do you think that the billions and billions and billions of barrels of petroleum already used or that have not been used yet came from biomass? If so, how many trillions of animals would it have taken? And how would oil get miles down into the ground? My opinion is that God created the petroleum just as He created the water. And people do not run around calling it “fossil liquid” or saying it came from biomass. Just wondering.

[DennisR]

Yeah... exciting life when it’s -80 outside. No beach, no boats, no golf, no...

[faithhopecharity]

bugs and algae? yuck!
put Pizza on the menu (and a good 5 Guys burger joint) and I’ll go

[familyop]

Yes, increasingly more stupid people have been preferred as employees and spouses for a couple of generations. That’s why drug problems and other aberrations (hooking up, misinformation about sex, etc.) are so common. Get stupid people to eat stuff like that, and we’ll have an overabundance of good food for ourselves. Just give them mountains of refined sugar to go with those nasty dietary tangents.

[Redwood71]

One million people, huh? Do you really think the 7.6 billion other people on earth are going to give them a “bon voyage” party and wave as they sail into space and away from death. Trust me, the animal in people isn’t that tame and/or trained.

And as for protecting them and the vehicle, does the name Custer ring a bell?

rwood

[Peter ODonnell]

This plan needs to be improved, there’s way more socialists than one million.

[Reeses]

The racial politics of who gets to go would kill any Mars utopia project. Having humans on two planets would improve human survivability, but the systems would quickly diverge and become incompatible with each other. An unexpected gift of blankets from Mars could introduce multiple microbes and diseases not seen before.

[familyop]

Reminds me of the kind of people who went to Venus in the following (great classic short story in a free, online book).

The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51233

The stylish and more educated folks should go to Mars. We’ll cheer them on.

[familyop]

"One million people, huh? Do you really think the 7.6 billion other people on earth are going to give them a “bon voyage” party and wave as they sail into space and away from death. Trust me, the animal in people isn’t that tame and/or trained."

I'll cheer them on, and the more, the merrier. So we should build ships for all who want to go. Read the e-book behind the link in comment #37, and you'll see that it's perfectly doable.

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Mars would be a great place to colonize with all those who feel oppressed by White privilege. Currently Mars is devoid of White people, unpolluted, and unsullied by a culture which is based upon the ideas of Dead White Men.

Mars would be a veritable Utopia for all those who find life with White people difficult. There they could start a new society based on African and other third world principles and traditions.
 

[poconopundit]

Good one, TonyM! I'd go however. The algae burgers sound delicious     /sarc