To the Moon or Mars

[Dark0ne]

Didn't you guys already go? You didn't go back there for over 40 years so I guess it couldn't have been that worthwhile...

[brokenergy]

Don't worry, Virgin is going to take us to the moon at a cost of 1.2 million dollars per person.

[LHammonds]

Wouldn't it be fairly easy and inexpensive to setup a military base on the moon and rig a catapult to fling huge rocks on peoples heads who we don't think are cute enough?

[LegoManIAm94]

I heard about that. When the man went to the moon in the 60's he couldn't do too much. I would start off with the mood since it is nearer and if we can mannage that then we go to mars. But Mars has some bad storms so it would be hard to build shelter unless t is underground.

[Aurielius]

The prize is Mars, being that within our foreseeable future it is the only possibility for eventual self sustained colonization by mankind. However the logistics for a Mars Colony effort would require a mid station to accomplish that. I believe that a manned Moon Base would give us the practical knowledge to make a Mars mission series a safer prospect. Having grown up in the era of the Mercury Missions I was sure that we would have reached Mars by now, never expected personal jet packs but I did think we could have managed this exploratory feat.

Mars could be successfully terraformed within a realistic time frame and the rewards of a second home for our species would be survival and perpetuation should there be an extinction event on Earth caused by man or a celestial object.

The essential problem with terraforming Mars is well within our current technological grasp just not within easy reach.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/4651/800pxterraformingmarstr.jpg

 

Historically exploration comes first, followed by military outposts then colonists to create support for the outposts. Eventually the colonists gain superseding importance and the territory becomes civilian. Expecting some form of benign disarmament of the nation states of Earth to form a space program is contrary to the geopolitical facts currently in existence. The Mars Space program will most likely be a US venture but the colonization program will more than likely be a collective of allied states.

[brokenergy]

It will be impossible to turn Mars into another Earth as Mars is too small to hold Oxygen gas within it's atmosphere as it will go up into space. Most of it's atmosphere is CO₂, in fact 95% of Mars' atmosphere is CO₂ with only trace amounts of Argon, Oxygen and Methane. This is due to Mars' low pressure atmosphere on the surface which is 600 pascals (0.087 psi), compared to Earth's 101.3 kilopascals (14.69 psi). Sorry to burst people's bubbles of an inhabitable Mars.

 

We should stick to the moon then go to Mars in my opinion.

[AncientSpaceAeon]

Mars ? Too long, too expensive, too far, and we can't do anything there. If we're planning to settle on Mars, try settling in the moon first. Do some crazy experiments at the moon, as long it doesn't destroy it.

 

http://spiff.rit.edu/classes/phys235/no_moon/no_moon.html

http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=2507

 

Example, let the world knew how powerful nuclear is, as long it doesn't destroy the moon. Just a thought.

[LHammonds]

If anyone would like to know what it would be like to fly a plane or try to land on Mars' surface, you should really give X-Plane a try. You'll be surprised at just how fast and how long an airport runway would have to be just to take off in the current atmosphere!...landing would be a joke. As previously mentioned, the atmospheric pressure just isn't there which gives lift to the wings of planes. You'd have to design something completely foreign and test it in this simulator to see how it would react on Mars.

 

The author of the site had an interesting write-up about Mars on his website but all the interesting articles have been replaced with "buy this and that" links.

 

PS - Aurielius, where did all that water come from in your terraforming pics. hehehe.

 

LHammonds

[antonkr]

Perhaps, we must, settle the unknown world. Colonize our species. Either its Mars or Luna, or anything, having a colony in what is now mostly unknown would be crucial with things like global warming and climate changes that are going on in our home world. My opinion is that we must colonize at least one other planet, or a moon.

[brokenergy]

...where did all that water come from in your terraforming pics. hehehe.

 

I think that is from Doom 3