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Chadrack says | |||
| So I'm sure most of you nerds have heard about terraforming Mars. What are your thoughts on this? What plans do you think are the most feasible? Do you think you will see a habitable Mars in your lifetime? Stephen Hawkins has said "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species" Do you think he is correct, and if not. Why? |
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| Total Topic Karma: 2 | - More by this Author | |||
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Ati says |
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| I think that staying on one planet is putting all of our eggs in one basket. One asteroid, or nuclear disaster, or massive plague and its over. As for terraforming mars, most of the possibilities are outlined in 'A Case for Mars' (A good read if you can find it). I doubt we'll see it done within our lifetime, as most of the ideas have time-spans of centuries, not decades. |
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| - 16 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| So yes, I think we absolutely want to get off earth if we want to stick around for the long haul, but I think we'll be in colonies for a long while yet. | ||||||
| - 17 February, 2007 | ||||||
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p0ss says |
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| i don't think mars will be our first terraforming project, i'd see us digging a cave system on europa and giving the caves a breathable atmosphere well before terraforming mars. | ||||||
| - 18 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| Well, Europa's a bit more of a trip than mars. A trip to mars could potentially be made in a month or two; a trip to Jupiter would take considerably longer than that. I think mars might be our first terraforming project simply because I suspect we'll have a long-term government presence on mars long before anywhere else (the private sector is probably going to be the driving force on the moon in a few years. |
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| - 18 February, 2007 | ||||||
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p0ss says |
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| colonisation, for sure, mars will be first, but as far as large scale projects to transform a hostile environment into a habitable enviroment without life support systems, i think europa will be first.. | ||||||
| - 18 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| It's possible. It depends on how far we get in terms of interplanetary travel. A good immersive VR system or long term hibernation unit would actually make it a lot more feasible; the biggest problem I see it people going nuts from being sealed in a cramped, artificial space for years or months on end. |
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| - 18 February, 2007 | ||||||
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GringoStar says |
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| going nuts in the VR, Or not wanting to leave it. |
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| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| Well, I have to tell you that if I was on an interplanetary voyage, I would much rather do it in a simulated, manipulateable world, than a cramped caspsule. The idea is to STOP people from going mad. | ||||||
| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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GringoStar says |
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| oh, I misread your post. my point is that people may not want to leave a blissful VR. | ||||||
| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| Well, the VR wouldn't be perfect; it would only be good enough to stop them going mad. I think that most astronauts would be more interested in, say, being the first to explore Europa, than staying in an inperfect VR for yet another day. | ||||||
| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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p0ss says |
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| If we could build sufficently capable self replicating nanobots, mars could be terraformed in a relatively short period of time.. | ||||||
| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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Ati says |
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| True. The difficulty with self-replicating nano-bots is that if even one manages to be damaged, or otherwise mutate so as to produce imperfect copies of itself, you've got a possible grey goo problem... |
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| - 19 February, 2007 | ||||||
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p0ss says |
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| if you have enough, and they could fix each other, that problem could be avoided. | ||||||
| - 21 February, 2007 | ||||||
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