Mars Colonization Will Never Happen(shubhamjain.co)
shubhamjain.co
Mars Colonization Will Never Happen
https://shubhamjain.co/2022/07/09/mars-colonization-will-never-happen/
14 comments
I've always wondered what it is we plan on doing to this planet, that would make dealing with the travel issues and realities of Martian living so much better an option than applying all that science to keeping Earth livable instead.
I like your comments, shuhamjain.co.. I'm pretty sure I don't want to live on Mars.
Why didn't you pick the Moon, Mr Musk? (Not that I want to live on the Moon, either.)
How about stick here and help us? We have a great need for clever engineering right now. One day, some unanticipated discovery might be made, and a non-rocketry solution to fast space travel might be found. Maybe then we could explore Mars. The existing space travel technology is destructive, polluting, and wasteful.
The Earth is our mother and is not to be considered expendible.
Why didn't you pick the Moon, Mr Musk? (Not that I want to live on the Moon, either.)
How about stick here and help us? We have a great need for clever engineering right now. One day, some unanticipated discovery might be made, and a non-rocketry solution to fast space travel might be found. Maybe then we could explore Mars. The existing space travel technology is destructive, polluting, and wasteful.
The Earth is our mother and is not to be considered expendible.
If you’re asking about Musk I think you’re mistaking ego, hubris, and narcissism for sincere concern about our species. His Mars plans are scams, not something a sensible person thinks will happen anytime soon, if ever.
Never is a really long time.
You can probably reduce it to a few billion years (lifetime of the sun) or less.
Not quite. Mars will most likely still be there after our sun turns into a white dwarf. Less pleasant than it is today, but still a fixer-upper with sufficiently advanced technology.
Not for someone with infinite range crystal ball...
Its just one of those goals that people setup to distract themselves from the boredom of current problems
> Its just one of those goals that people setup to distract themselves from the boredom of current problems
I think it has many benefits, chief among them will be the innovation in tech and engineering we will derive from it, in addition to a much needed perspective change: it seems that Life is rare and that treating our Home planet with reverence will be a priority if the species is to survive.
I think the resources and drive to get us to Mar is enough to make all of those things happen, what I don't think will occur without an immense level of investment is to have a sustainable colony not dependent on Earth or space-based manufacturing for some time.
It's hard to see how, in our current path, we do not end up just squandering all of the progress we have made these last ~300k years as a Species and succumb to extinction because we refused to learn the hard lesson that Humanity seems to only thrive when it is faced with an immense, often existential endeavor; I wish we could just be so enlightened as to get along as Humans and solve all the Earth based problems, but it seems that only under extreme duress are we able to make any impact on these immense problems. And so far, at least in my Lifetime, I don't think anything but Mars colonization has the potential to make any of that happen.
It isn't so much distraction, as it is to re-imagine what our destiny and what Life could be.
I think it has many benefits, chief among them will be the innovation in tech and engineering we will derive from it, in addition to a much needed perspective change: it seems that Life is rare and that treating our Home planet with reverence will be a priority if the species is to survive.
I think the resources and drive to get us to Mar is enough to make all of those things happen, what I don't think will occur without an immense level of investment is to have a sustainable colony not dependent on Earth or space-based manufacturing for some time.
It's hard to see how, in our current path, we do not end up just squandering all of the progress we have made these last ~300k years as a Species and succumb to extinction because we refused to learn the hard lesson that Humanity seems to only thrive when it is faced with an immense, often existential endeavor; I wish we could just be so enlightened as to get along as Humans and solve all the Earth based problems, but it seems that only under extreme duress are we able to make any impact on these immense problems. And so far, at least in my Lifetime, I don't think anything but Mars colonization has the potential to make any of that happen.
It isn't so much distraction, as it is to re-imagine what our destiny and what Life could be.
> Antarctica is probably 100x more hospitable than Mars and establishing a colony there must be a thousand times easier. Even then, except for a few research stations—which are also only inhabited during summers—humans have largely avoided living in Antarctica. Why make a settlement in a place where everything is significantly harder?
This is a valid point, though I'd argue there's a sci-fi allure of living on another planet that makes it inherently more compelling than living in Antarctica.
This is a valid point, though I'd argue there's a sci-fi allure of living on another planet that makes it inherently more compelling than living in Antarctica.
It would only take a few hundred years to turn Venus into a pretty close Earth analog. It has issues to be dealt with, but would really have much more resources available that Mars. Even solar power would be more viable on Venus than Mars. Plus it would give us a good midway point to start planet harvesting Mercury if we wanted it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WO-z-QuWI&t=606s
A few hundred years? With what technology? We can’t deliberately terraform this planet in that time period and we don’t have to launch millions of tons of equipment off the planet to do it.
Going from “Some planet has these chemicals in its atmosphere or crust” to “We can make it earth-like” is a huge leap that just gets waved away. We can’t extract fresh water from the ocean economically at scale yet. So far we’ve had lots of failed attempts to land even small probes on Venus.
Going from “Some planet has these chemicals in its atmosphere or crust” to “We can make it earth-like” is a huge leap that just gets waved away. We can’t extract fresh water from the ocean economically at scale yet. So far we’ve had lots of failed attempts to land even small probes on Venus.
With that level of technology and industrial capacity, we could just build a few tens of thousands of orbitals far more cheaply.
I just watched that video and only have one question: are you being serious?