Do you think Humans will colonise The Moon and Mars someday?

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Matt Damon went to Mars if that helps

Was the Matt Damon's picture filmed in the same studio as the Apollo's Moon landings?

[Estreeter]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

Was the Matt Damon's picture filmed in the same studio as the Apollo's Moon landings?

Dunno Mate I wasn't there to witness either of them

[vo1v0d]

What is the point of going to the moon or Mars if there are no native inhabitants to steal land from and exterminate? And there is still quite a lot of work to do in fucking up this planet before we go interplanetary.

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by vo1v0d

What is the point of going to the moon or Mars if there are no native inhabitants to steal land from and exterminate? And there is still quite a lot of work to do in fucking up this planet before we go interplanetary.

I don't know if there is much in the way of natural resources on the moon and Mars, but Titan, a moon of Saturn, is covered in hydrocarbons.

Since it's like 300 degrees below zero out there, getting at it would be problematic but I could imagine one day huge space tankers sucking the stuff up into orbit by the billions of gallons and hauling it back to Earth.

[Sir Honkers]

Just the logistics of going to Mars seem overwhelming, never mind the outer planets.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by loosegoose

Just the logistics of going to Mars seem overwhelming, never mind the outer planets.

Mars is achievable, but probably not in our lifetimes though. Anything further out than Mars is many centuries away.

The limiting factors are indeed logistical. To get to Mars would probably require the ability to survive and travel using resources outside earth's atmosphere for fuel, food and water. The first realistic step would be to colonise the Moon - unless we can achieve that, forget about Mars. Soviet space probes in the 1970s found traces of water in samples of Lunar soil about 1 metre down. There are various lunar minerals which contain the right molecules and could be made to yield water in a synthetic chemical reaction, the way we obtain various chemicals on Earth. Colonisation of the Moon on a modest scale should certainly be possible and a start could be made within our lifetimes. I am not sure who would volunteer to move to the Moon for keeps - it might be a job for people who have stolen a loaf of bread.

[vo1v0d]

Great; it takes a mod to turn space exploration into a penal colony like Downunda two centuries ago. Does ES know about this?

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by vo1v0d

Great; it takes a mod to turn space exploration into a penal colony like Downunda two centuries ago. Does ES know about this?

We're thinking of moving the VEF servers out there.

[vo1v0d]

Keep the servers here, send all politicians there and you will become the first emperor of earth

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Mars is achievable, but probably not in our lifetimes though. Anything further out than Mars is many centuries away.

The limiting factors are indeed logistical. To get to Mars would probably require the ability to survive and travel using resources outside earth's atmosphere for fuel, food and water. The first realistic step would be to colonise the Moon - unless we can achieve that, forget about Mars. Soviet space probes in the 1970s found traces of water in samples of Lunar soil about 1 metre down. There are various lunar minerals which contain the right molecules and could be made to yield water in a synthetic chemical reaction, the way we obtain various chemicals on Earth. Colonisation of the Moon on a modest scale should certainly be possible and a start could be made within our lifetimes. I am not sure who would volunteer to move to the Moon for keeps - it might be a job for people who have stolen a loaf of bread.

Not really necessary, at first. IIRC they have found water ice in the polar craters, where the sun never hits, probably enough there to sustain a small colony for awhile.

Plenty of water ice on Mars, too.

A bigger problem will be food and long term shelter, all the long-term self-sustained bio-dome experiments done to date have failed, i.e. periodic replenishment of things is necessary. Not so far to the moon, but a fuck of a long way to Mars, if all your hydroponic tomatoes die for one reason or another and you need more shipped in fast.