Buzz Aldrin wants a Mars colony

[Colonâ„¢]

Why?

[Guynemer]

Hot green alien poontang. Why else?

[loinburger]

Why?

So we can mine all of Mars's precious sand.

Also, so that if a huge meteor hits Earth, the human race will be saved from extinction by the hundred or so people living on Mars.

[H Tower]

Why?

Because the Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

[snoopy369]

Because we can, and because we need something to strive for as a nation to bring us together... Bush's attempt with Iraq certainly didn't do it

[loinburger]

I think a better idea is to colonize the ocean floor and wake up Cthulhu

[Colonâ„¢]

So we can mine all of Mars's precious sand.

Also, so that if a huge meteor hits Earth, the human race will be saved from extinction by the hundred or so people living on Mars.

I think we should find ourselves a nice comet that isn't planning on doing any collision work soon and colonise that. Humanity would get to travel all around the solar system.

[Hauldren Collider]

Let's try the moon first, it's a lot closer...

[snoopy369]

Mars is more useful, though - a good stepping stone to the asteroid belt and serious industry. The fourth? fifth? industrial revolution awaits us...

[PLATO]

Mars is more useful, though - a good stepping stone to the asteroid belt and serious industry. The fourth? fifth? industrial revolution awaits us...

This is the key. Mars would be a great jump off point for mining the asteroid belt. I think the first step though is getting the Lagrange point space station up and running.

[Hauldren Collider]

Mars is more useful, though - a good stepping stone to the asteroid belt and serious industry. The fourth? fifth? industrial revolution awaits us...

How do you know that? 1. Why is it a useful stepping stone to the asteroid belt more than the moon, and b. what do you think it has that the moon doesn't?

The moon has a lighter gravity well and is closer, and probably some areas of the moon have deposits of metal ore that can be used to build spacecraft if that's your meaning of stepping stone. Mars has extremely harsh weather, is far away, and has a much larger gravity well than the moon. It would probably be less of a technical accomplishment to build a habitat on the moon than on Mars, because there wouldn't be any adverse weather and getting supplies there is easier. Remember, we've already solved the problem of keeping humans underwater indefinitely (nuclear submarines, limited only by food), and the only obstacle to indefinite living in space is bone and muscle decay from microgravity, and the moon has gravity.

Powering stuff on the moon would also be way easier. It's much closer to the sun AND there's no atmosphere, so solar panels are vastly more efficient, and there are areas in nearly perpetual sunlight. Furthermore, thanks to the lighter gravity well and proximity to the earth, it would be much simpler to move nuclear reactors there.

Conclusion: Mars colony = stupid.

[loinburger]

If the idea is to mine asteroids, then Mars would be a better choice: closer to the asteroids, and you're much less likely to inadvertently crash the asteroids into Earth (presumably you'd be mining the asteroids from the moon by setting them up in orbit - I doubt you're making repeated round-trip to the asteroid belt).

Still, the most likely result of a Mars colony is a lot of dead colonists.

[Sava]

If humanity is going to be more than just planetary pond scum, it needs to start moving in the direction of creating a stellar economy. The sheer numbers of production in energy and mass of goods that such an economy produces easily dwarfs anything humanity has ever done. To put it in perspective... compared to that sort of society, we are an ice age fishing village. Establishing a colony on Mars is a step along the way. But I'm not sure if it is necessarily productive expenditure of resources for us in the relative short term. Terraforming Mars should perhaps be a goal. Such a thing would be a demonstration of our technological development. 20,000 years ago, it would be unimaginable for a human society to move into and settle a particular geographic region and build modern infrastructure with the relative speed current technology allows. We can build super-highways that criss-cross a continent. That future society? They can build transportation infrastructure that spans the solar system.

Personally, I doubt humanity will become that civilization. We are big on imagination... but the political will to invest in such advancement just doesn't exist. The best we have is rich guys shooting themselves into orbit. That's a far cry from an organized society spending serious time, effort, and resources in becoming a space-faring society. We're moving at a snail's pace. IMO, our civilization isn't particularly sustainable. I think a contraction and decline of sorts awaits us.

[Colonâ„¢]

I don't know if a Mars colony would make more or less sense than a Moon colony, but I do know it makes more sense not to send humans at all except as a form of dick waving.

[MikeH]

Mars has water and C02.


And don't underestimate the proximity to the asteroid belt thing. It's not only a stepping stone on the way there, but a stepping stone on the way back with your ore/processed materials.