Hijacking the Red Planet

Popular Science ^ | 01/01/07 | Will Snyder

[KevinDavis]

The interests of the Mars Society—an organization with the overarching goal of colonizing Mars—tend to elicit snickers from non-space fans. Why talk about building homes on Mars when we have problems on Earth like war, bird flu, AIDS and global warming? To the Mars enthusiast, these scourges simply count among the reasons to ditch this rock and head for the Red Planet.

Robert Zubrin, the founder of the Mars Society, likes to point out that Columbus encountered similar resistance from noobs when he pointed across the Atlantic. But Zubrin isn’t a seafarer—he's a scientist, with calculations that say people could create an oxygen atmosphere on Mars in just over 1,000 years. Compare that with other scientists’ predictions of 20,000 or 100,000 years, and he might seem like he's peddling interplanetary snake oil, but there’s no denying that his scheme for “terraforming” is thoroughly conceived.

[KevinDavis]

[stm]

"........with calculations that say people could create an oxygen atmosphere on Mars in just over 1,000 years"

At the rate and direction this planet is heading we will be lucky to be here 100 years from now, much less another 1000.

[RightWhale]

Zubrin had an excellent idea that a manned Mars mission would spell the end of islamism.

[BenLurkin]

I've said it before: humanity is not going to relocate anywhere in space until we have the technology to recycle 100% of each person's waste products into 100% of of each persons necessities.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

When my daughter was in high school, she was invited to Chicago to present her team's design plan for a Mars rover. Her group was the first high school team to be invited in the history of the Society. The Mars Society is a highly diverse group of scientists and space enthusiasts. She had a great experience.

[anymouse]

I've said it before: humanity is not going to relocate anywhere in space until we have the technology to recycle 100% of each person's waste products into 100% of of each persons necessities.

I guess we don't currently fly in space nor have men serving on nuke submarines under water for months at a time. /sarc

All it takes is the will to do it and we can do anything we set our minds to do. If you always wait around for the perfect solution, you will never start.

[anymouse]

Dumb title. Should read "Bootstrapping Mars" or at least "Hacking Mars." The liberals at at PopSci are implying that Mars needs protecting from the evil humans that want to rape and pillage the Red Planet. I can't hardly read PopSci and PopMech anymore for all of the pseudo science and liberal bias. Newspapers and newsmags aren't the only part of the media infested with leftist J-school grads.