Danny
30-Apr-2013, 01:04 PM
So recently in the science media theres been a lot of talk about the 200,000+ volunteers who want to join a one way trip to mars. Naturally this lead to a down the pub shooting the shit conversation with mates for me :lol:
We all seemed to reach the same conclusion "it would be nice to visit but you wouldnt want to live there" mostly because, as much as its a "one small step for man" situation mars is a geologically dead rock and if you arent a geologist or a scientist studying basic colonisation and terraforming or something its basically just the desert, but worse.
One dude argued its a very defeatist attitude though, and i can see what he means. Space is essentially the last new frontier, its the old west on a larger scale. Some folks have got to be the pioneers that figure out survival strategies for living in a none terran environment for the long haul and god knows theres probably companies right salivating at the thought of strip mining mars for materials and they are going to need miners so a first step is expected and mandatory for future expansion thats much more comfortable for the rest of us.
But what about you? would you get your ass to mars? You wouldnt be isolated with a quarter of a million other people for example and i would assume they would still get your satellite tv - though maybe with a delay :lol:
But would it be worth it? To say good bye to Earth and know you wont return. To leave for a planet devoid of oceans, forests and wildlife? Personally i would find that horrible. Mars makes for an excellent undisturbed sample testbed for colonisation and eventually terraforming attempts but its such an unforgiving environment i can only imagine the extreme cabin fever that might occur to the colonists. Would you take the plunge to be one of them at this stage?
We all seemed to reach the same conclusion "it would be nice to visit but you wouldnt want to live there" mostly because, as much as its a "one small step for man" situation mars is a geologically dead rock and if you arent a geologist or a scientist studying basic colonisation and terraforming or something its basically just the desert, but worse.
One dude argued its a very defeatist attitude though, and i can see what he means. Space is essentially the last new frontier, its the old west on a larger scale. Some folks have got to be the pioneers that figure out survival strategies for living in a none terran environment for the long haul and god knows theres probably companies right salivating at the thought of strip mining mars for materials and they are going to need miners so a first step is expected and mandatory for future expansion thats much more comfortable for the rest of us.
But what about you? would you get your ass to mars? You wouldnt be isolated with a quarter of a million other people for example and i would assume they would still get your satellite tv - though maybe with a delay :lol:
But would it be worth it? To say good bye to Earth and know you wont return. To leave for a planet devoid of oceans, forests and wildlife? Personally i would find that horrible. Mars makes for an excellent undisturbed sample testbed for colonisation and eventually terraforming attempts but its such an unforgiving environment i can only imagine the extreme cabin fever that might occur to the colonists. Would you take the plunge to be one of them at this stage?