Retreat Mars

[Ecthy]

There'd still be Venus left.

[Ned]

Originally posted by RedFred
I'd love to see permanent habitation of the earth's Lagrange points, the Moon and Mars. One of the issues that hasn't been addressed yet is that the earth has a huge honking magnetic field around it. It, along with our atmosphere, protects us from most cosmic radiation. What have we got to protect people who go further afield?

It may be that permanent habitation of another space station orbiting earth is a more realistic option for now.

Redfred, What happens to people exposed to cosmic radiation?

[Az]

ermm, the Earth Lagrange point to Mars??? how can this be???

[JohnIII]

Originally posted by Bugs ****ing Bunny
So will the one we're currently on. Planet hopping is a waste of time- it's like thinking you've got a better chance of swimming the Pacific if you enter the water running really fast.

A better analogy would be that you have a better chance of swimming the Pacific if you practice over short distances and slowly build up.

[Korpo]

Space stations have to solve all possible problems that could threaten human survival at once and cannot grow out of themselves (no raw material). Colonial sites on Mars or other celestial bodies could use already given ressources like magnetic field, atmosphere, minerals etc.

[ZaphodBeeblebrx]

You could always use simple Mass, as a Radiation/Meteor Shield.

It's better than using Rock.

It's Transparent, and on a Planetary Body, Self-Supporting, via Molecular Attraction.

[Korpo]

Read: Planetary body.

[DanS]

I think this is very possible, and not too expensive, although it would take a while and current off-the-shelf technology would have to improve.

The key is to have robots on Mars that have defined and simple tasks and that would work together in some fashion. These would prepare the way for human habitation sometime in the future. For instance, you would need a couple different kinds of dig-bots, water heater bots, and concrete bots.

Thing is, why would anybody want to spend time on Mars, when the Earth is so nice? As Bugs says, there's gotta be some reason to go and stay.

[ZaphodBeeblebrx]

Von Neumann Machines?

[DanS]

What about them?

[faded glory]

Currently the economic strength of earth cant support a martian terraforming effort at the moment. Not in our lifetimes.

Btw China wanted to go on the moon. Mars is way out of our reach right now unfortunately.

[Korpo]

What have computers to do with that in special?

[faded glory]

Ide be more worried about cross contanimation between the planets. What if there is some super martian microbe out there that gets brought back?

What if there is life on mars? Just not Carbon based?

[Korpo]

Why shouldn't it be possible?

Developing and building the spacecraft: 10 - 15 years, NASA guesses that's possible.

Where we can go we can build stuff, especially if we ind ways to use Mars ressources.

Gene alteration in bacteria is nearly commonplace in bioengineering. Terraforming bacteria could be introduced by now . Larger terraforming efforts may be staged later. I didn't say we're likely to see a terraformed Mars in our lifetime. But it is possible to start terraforming the Mars in ... say: two decades. Besides: introducing basic, simple life should prove easy. Life is the quickest way to produce the basis for another life, proven by evolution.

[Korpo]

Cross contamination could be avoided by making it a one-way trip .. at least till safety is assured. This does fit well into what I said about self-sustaining.

I still want to know what Von-Neumann-Machines (read: computers) have to do with it, Zaphod? Trying to be funny?