Posted on 07/02/2008 7:24:59 PM PDT by KevinDavis
Why? Is asparagus popular on Mars?
Sure, you can build a greenhouse... but that’s building a structure, not “terraforming.”
whatever the environment on the surface of mars, i would hope that mankind sets foot on that planet before i die.
(hopefully not too many taikonauts will die a cold death before an American plants a flag there).
asparigus grown on mars would have a huge carbon footprint during importation!
Interesting stuff!
bring sunscreen! And water!
‘Scientists also found evidence of salts like magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride. ‘
These are elements, not salts. Salts are combinations of metals and non-metals. Writer should have just said ‘elements’ or ‘salts of magnesium, sodium, and potassium’.
Moving Mars into a better, warmer orbit is possible, of course, provided that some Outsider stops by and sells us the much needed drive:
But we had purchased a reactionless, inertialess drive from the Outsiders. You may have guessed their price. We are still paying in installments. We had moved two agricultural worlds; we had experimented with other, useless worlds of our system using the Outsider drive. In any case, we did it. We moved our world.
Naturally, during the transportation (and after) the Solar System may be severely disturbed gravitationally, and I'm unsure if this is acceptable.
Fortunately, terraforming != habitation. Mars can be a comfortable home for ten billion people, as long as they live and work underground. There isn't much to do on the surface anyway, and lack of meaningful atmosphere means that you can be killed by small meteorites, and lack of magnetic field makes space radiation a concern.
Power for underground cities can be produced by solar panels, possibly assisted with a mirror in orbit, or nuclear. Water is already there, that leads to oxygen. CO(2) will be produced by humans and [other] animals, and plants (possibly located under skylights) will rework it back into O(2).
The only question at this point would be "what is there to do on Mars?" and seemingly outside of supporting life there is nothing else. Mars does not offer a unique environment (such as LEO does); so humanity may be better off just homesteading the ocean shelf, of which we have plenty and it is known to contain vast resources of every kind.
One obvious reason to be on Mars is, of course, as a backup colony in case something happens with Earth. But it wouldn't be very exciting for colonists to live through their lives just knowing that they are just a spare part.
This is pretty big news.
NASA doesn’t even have this yet.
all right!!!!
One of my favorite movies... Mars Attacks...
when I cant speak intelligently about a subject, I refer to movies..
lol
thanks for thread Kevin - pinging my buddy AFPhys who will be first to go to Mars if he has a choice in the matter
dolly/BettyDavisEyes
Not to disappoint everyone, I am sure the environmentalists will find some excuse to stop development on Mars.
Not if they can get worms to thrive there. But without worms or ants it will be difficult to get the soil to sustain improvements.
Nope. Only one name is possible.
Deathmobile!
Sadly with no way to hold an atmosphere you end up again with Mars as it is.
Gravity will be an issue, but the soil means that we only need to send up air and greenhouses.
If we can farm in greenhouses using Martian soil, we can establish long-term settlements on Mars. It will be more like the Jamestown Settlement than Star Wars, but it can be a first step to the stars.
Just like Viking. Nuts.
That’s a hell of an attitude. Americans will find a way, given half a chance. Look at the otherwise inhospitable places where we have learned to not only survive but thrive. So what if Mars never gets transformed into an Earth-like paradise? It’s still a hell of a lot better than anywhere else in this solar system outside of Earth. Fertile soil, water and sunshine, that’s all Martian farmers need to start a colony. Guess you won’t be signing up.
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