Should Earthlings colonise Mars?

Times of India ^ | 1.18.04 | Unnamed Martian

[luvbach1]

Manifest Destiny, you bet. How are we to take our "star trek" without going to Mars? Hope it will be long before 2030.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Regarding costs:
What did it cost to go to the moon the first time, in dollars?
Do you think we could do it for less* or would the economy of scale make it much more expensive?
We sent the rovers for what, 480 million a piece (or is that both of them)?
Would a human mission cost double or triple that?

Keep in mind that this is lest than the cost of three or four california "big time hollywierdo" estates. The proceeds from 10 or 15 "blockbuster movies", literally a drop in our national bucket...

One of my biggest "whatif's" is what if what we discover on mars, or with the technology we need to get there, sets us free from the mad mullahs monopolizing the world's oil supply? What if our need to find a way to power, fuel, oxygenate and colonize mars, SAVES us from our environmental concerns for the next twenty millenia?

What if?

---

*adjusted for inflation of course

[RightWhale]

I will tell you what should happen, and this is very possible. It won't happen soon enough, of course, because we can't just make a total national leap into the unknown as if we were Red China. When outer space is developed sufficiently and if that development is integrated with the American and world economy, the world national product should grow to several times its present size. What will then bring happiness is a different problem, but at least we will all be rich.

[Sender]

Earth First
We can log the other planets later.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I believe that when it was time to develop "the hidden asset" of this planet, the Americas, the resources needed were too great for folks to imagine, entire nations of wealth were put at jeopardy for the purpose of finding that unknown route to the far east.

And once the americas were discovered, entire nations of wealth were focused on the new world. As soon as we got enough computer technology to know we could figure out the next step and go for it, we took a large chunk of change to take the next toddling step to expansion of the species' domain. Space, and then the moon, which were each just a stepping stone to the future.
Once we had the moon under our belt, and COULD have been sharpening our skills for it, MARS, IO and our own solar system were actually within reason for consideration. Each step makes the next possible, probable and impossible to avoid... an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

logic AND experience dictate that when we learn how to colonize our system and spread the human seed to sol system... we will be challenged to fold space, cheat theoretical lightspeed and if we cannot do it by our own wits, I expect supernatural help.

The momentus-destiny paradigm will drive human kind to propagate the universe. It is the core of our god-bred human programming. It's what we do.

[new cruelty]

Should Earthlings colonise Mars?

Yeah, I guess.

[Doc On The Bay]

We are RAPIDLY "Running Out of Capital" to fund what MAY BE our Species' Destiny.

That we Don't "Go to the Stars" is NOT a problem of Technology or Funding (at the moment), it is a matter of WILL.

If we Fail this "Test;" "Humankind" may well become an "Ancient, Failed Lifeform" catalogued by some future Interstellar Species.

To "Involute," & abandon the Dreams of our "Best Ones", is to Wither--& Die!

There are LOTS of us "Humans" who would have our Species "Go On to the Stars!"

So WHO will lead us--those who would have us "Involute," & "Care for the Poor:" or Those who would have us "Care for the Poor AND, 'Go To The Stars!!'"

Our G'Grandchildren will CURSE the Names of Those Who Turned Their Backs on the Stars!!

THIS, I Guarantee!!

Doc

[Robert_Paulson2]

When daddy gives sonny boy the bicycle for his birthday... he will only let little johnny stay off it for a while...

Eventually, johnny will either volunteer to ride the bloody thing skinned up ankles and elbows notwithstanding, or daddy will help johnny see the light. Yes, I speak from experience.

This is because balance is a lesson that MUST be learned.
This is the nature of reality.
Mankind will be "prompted" by the "hand from nowhere" if he does not move voluntarily.

and NO we will not turn our backs on the stars.
God layed abraham on his arse one night, concerning destiny, and said "Sonnyboy, just you look at the stars, and to the degree you can them, you will be able to count your own seed.." As the stars of the heaven.. so shall thy seed be." That decidedly means mankind is destined to be all over the universe and in massive quantities, NOT just on some tiny plot of ground in the local cemetary... or some extinct fossil in a dead universe. No way.


God knew then what he was directing abraham's attention to. God knew an infinite number of humans on a scale with the entire hosts of heaven would require LOTS of real estate to live on... explore and develop.

The imagery was not mistakeable.
We have a destiny, to exist as the sands of the shore, and the endless seas of stars in the heavens above us. So is our destiny.

I am of the opinion that we will engage and conquer space...
and NOT go extinct in the process.

Given the terraforming and farming skills of the human race, ultimately the soil on Mars, looks rather tillable to me.. the rocks look easy to gather, all it needs is the human touch.

The question is, will we get with the program in our lifetime? Or will we spend all our capitol on constructing the perfect nannystate utopian socialist order here?

[Doc On The Bay]

'Nuff Said.

Doc

[JSteff]

"We should have had a permanent moon base for 20 years now and an ISS on the surface of Mars for 10 years now."

Agreed on the moon, not on Mars. Mars is a fairly worthless place to colonize. I think it should have been a permanent moon base(s!) and active mining of asteroids.

That possibly yields the best chance for success as it has the highest profit potential which is absolutely critical for private involvement. Private involvement is what made our ancestors settle the west.

Money was and will need to be a huge driving force to our successful exploration and colonization in space. Government, (Lewis and Clark and others..) investigated and mapped, private companies followed and that drove settlement.

[marron]

I think it should have been a permanent moon base(s!) and active mining of asteroids.

I agree. And you are right. It isn't going to really take off until private actors get involved. The task in the meantime is to keep pushing the technology forward until we get those first interesting core samples back, the ones that draw private money into the game.

[Robert_Paulson2]

It isn't going to really take off until private actors get involved.

good point.