Posted on 03/04/2021 1:49:22 PM PST by Eleutheria5
There’s no place like home—unless you’re Elon Musk. A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship, which may someday send humans to Mars, is, according to Musk, likely to launch soon, possibly within the coming days. But what motivates Musk? Why bother with Mars? A video clip from an interview Musk gave in 2019 seems to sum up Musk’s vision—and everything that’s wrong with it.
....Sagan believed that if we had a photo of ourselves from this distance, it would forever alter our perspective of our place in the cosmos.
But there Musk cuts himself off and begins to laugh. He says with incredulity, “This is not true. This is false––Mars.”
He couldn’t be more wrong. Mars? Mars is a hellhole. The central thing about Mars is that it is not Earth, not even close. In fact, the only things our planet and Mars really have in common is that both are rocky planets with some water ice and both have robots (and Mars doesn’t even have that many).
Mars has a very thin atmosphere; it has no magnetic field to help protect its surface from radiation from the sun or galactic cosmic rays; it has no breathable air and the average surface temperature is a deadly 80 degrees below zero. Musk thinks that Mars is like Earth? For humans to live there in any capacity they would need to build tunnels and live underground, and what is not enticing about living in a tunnel lined with SAD lamps and trying to grow lettuce with UV lights? So long to deep breaths outside and walks without the security of a bulky spacesuit, knowing that if you’re out on an extravehicular activity and something happens, you’ve got an excruciatingly painful 60-second death waiting for you.....
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Eleutheria5, you explain it to him.
I think it’s gonna be a long, long time.
Journey to the center of Mars?
Suppose the intelligent life out there wants to kill us? Out of the trillions of galaxies there is certainly one civilation that wants to kill us. No?
I heard a speech given by an Astronaut. He new to the penny(at that time) per pound how much it cost to launch something into space. He then started listing all the necessities humans would need for a journey to mars and gave the figures for how much all of it would weigh. The cost was staggering. That’s the first reason human life will never reach Mars. The second is gravity. The effects of prolonged existence in the absence of gravity are already well known. If we could afford to get them there and they were able to safely land, they wouldn’t be able to move a muscle. Even though the gravity of Mars is less than ours, they would be rendered immobile. It’s folly!
I just had a curious thought... I wonder how many people could tell off the top of their head the number of moons Mars has and name them(without looking it up!) I’ve known since about sixth grade or so. Trivia, I know.
Release simple plant life that can live on Mars and produce oxygen.
You can live underground here...and just pump in breathable air rather than have to make it
Smile...
I want to see that too. They recently discovered a cyanobacteria that can live in Martian conditions in martian soil and release oxygen.
But I think there is a problem with retaining an atmosphere on Mars, both because of the lower mass of the planet and because of the lack of a Magnetosphere which allows the solar wind to strip the atmosphere.
Disclaimer: not an astrophysicist or a planetary terraformer, but I play one on FR.
Forget about inhabiting any other planet. Europa might be inhabitable, but everything else is a pipe dream. But forget it. Build solar energy collection plants in outer space, and download it wirelessly, per Anton Tessla’s theorem. The Chinese are hard at work at that, and they will not be very generous, should they have the high ground. They could not only monopolize this source of power, but block anyone else from accessing it. Or, we could grow lettuce underground on Mars.
You need to think of our the determination, fortitude and purpose of our early explorers, pioneers and settlers. It will take many generations before leisure time might allow brainless self-centered fools to think of their own causes and amusements. It will not be like Star Trek or Star Wars. The sluggardly will find themselves on the wrong side of an airlock. As I said, air is expensive when you have to make your own. It will not be wasted.
Can you explain how you came up with this meandering musing? Mars has less gravity than Earth. Astronauts in the space station are not immobilized with no gravity at all. How can you imagine individuals landing on Mars would be rendered immobile? Coming back to Earth would be a problem readapting to our gravity after a six month stay on Mars, but less than than that of some Astronauts that spent over a year in space.
I suspect you never read any Science Fiction.
There is no way we would be able to teraform Mars with an atmosphere containing oxygen. Mars lacks a magnetic core which creates a global magnetic field that would shield its atmosphere from being blown into space by the Sun’s solar wind and radiation.
They are testing a device called MOXIE that will convert the air available on Mars into oxygen. The device is a test, and if the technology was used on a larger scale could produce oxygen for humans to breathe on the Red Planet and could be used for rocket fuel.
Mars has the advantage of lower gravity which will make it a stepping stone for staging interplanetary vehicles used to fetch resources from places in the solar system. As far as venturing to nearby stars, such ventures will depend on what is found with the new generation of telescopes.
LaGrange point between Earth and Mars?
Explanation please? The Earth and Mars are not co-orbiting bodies.
As there exists a point between Earth and Moon, I had heard this suggested in print years back, referencing Mars’ near equal size to Earth, that the gravitational pull when we two planets are nearest the other, could through all these years, set up an eddy flow that would act like a LaGrange Point.
Great!
Did you ever get word of any strange happenings and/or interesting lore about the area/town/mountain?
With an address like 37 Graves for the ***SKI*** lifts, which are located at the place of first light and first wind, MarsHill certainly has my attention.
It's a weird little world out there. A lot of folks are missing out! :)
The longest journey starts with the first step forward... Move the cyanobacteria in - it's a first step. Who knows what technology we'll have in 40 years? "Disclaimer: not an astrophysicist or a planetary terraformer but I play one on FR."
LOL - I like that...
Optimal? Hardly.
Possible? Yes. And that should be enough for exploration and exploitation of off-Earth resources for off-Earth purposes.
I’d risk an awful lot for freedom and the chance of rewards, literally, without limit.
Yeah, we’re on the same page...
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