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

[seany65]

Hmmm. What happens if the AI we send to these other planets evolve during the time we take to get there, and turn out to have decided that they hate our guts for sending them their tin the first place?

I think whatever one human imagines they, or someone else, will do.

[Brecht]

The era of space race has shown what mankind is capable of when there's enough public funding in education and research. In just three decades man has walked in space, landed on the moon, built probes that successfully landed on Mars and Venus and sent two spacecraft of which one has already left our solar system. Voyager 1 and 2 have explored the outer planets (the gas and ice giants) and their moons. 40 years later, they're still out there sending information back to Earth. Just 10-15 years before they were launched, a space odyssey like that was almost unthinkable.

Mars is a relatively friendly planet compared to Venus which has a surface pressure 100 times higher than on Earth and a temperature of 500°C. Not to mention the extremely dense atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide (thus the high temperatures) and sulphuric acid. Yet the Russians managed to land a probe there in 1970. I think it was the Venera 7.

The low temperatures on Mars are survivable. Though its atmosphere is mainly composed of CO2 as well, it's much thinner and thus not a big problem as it would be on Venus. There are other problems to worry about like the unpredictable dust storms and solar winds because Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere. These solar winds are the reason why most of Mars' atmosphere was swept away.

First manned landing will be possible but only through the combination of our resources. Only through public funding and international cooperation will we able to do that and not with frauds like Elon Musk and other megalomaniacal libertarian charlatans. There's too much misery and war in our world, too much spending on the military but less money for schools and hospitals. At the same time, a bunch of deluded Silicon Valley billionaires are making plans to send a probe to another solar system or looking for ways to achieve eternal life. They are parodies of characters from some mediocre science fiction novels.

[bowlinggreen]

The Moon and Mars are quite reachable even now. One problem I foresee is sustainable habitats - just about every artificial system created for long-term independence under experimental conditions has broken down, so you would need a very good resupply chain, and going out to Mars, this would be problematic.

If we ever gather the gumption, we could do it, but I think there WOULD be some disastrous setbacks along the way, including the loss of entire small colonies to unforeseen disasters.

The big question, as has been remarked, is CAN we muster up the will as a species to begin the odyssey. It's so much more fun to sit on Earth and devote our time and resources to maintaining our dysfunctional social hierarchies through war and economic fuckery.

[bloke57]

I would rather see the huge amounts of money and resources spent on keeping this planet in good order for all of us now.

Sorry to be a bore but running away from the problems we have created seems like the cowardly option - not to mention somewhat elitist.

[Greenman]

I would like someone to go back to the Moon and bring the Rover home, imagine the parking fine that has accumulated over the years!🙂
On a more serious note I am sure humans will colonise the Moon or Mars or somewhere that can sustain life, BUT what worries me is that we might louse that up as we have the Earth, especially the use of whatever resources are on there. I doubt I shall see it in my lifetime.

[bloke57]

Originally Posted by Greenman

I would like someone to go back to the Moon and bring the Rover home.

If it's a Rover, I can guarantee that it won't f***ing start!

[cginok]

It's inevitable that we will have a permanent settlement on the Moon. It's also inevitable that we will land on Mars. Colonizing Mars is a whole other ball of wax. Keeping a Mars colony supplied is going to be a difficult and expensive undertaking. Imagine if we sent say 100 people to colonize Mars. You're going to have to provide them with all the food, oxygen, water, you name it, for however long those people stay there. The supply train for that is going to be huge, with even a slight hiccup in that train being, potentially, fatal to the colony.

Going beyond Mars, to the rest of the solar system, isn't something that's going to happen in the lifetime of anybody currently alive on this planet. The distances and time are just too great for that. Not to even talk about leaving the solar system. To do that will take a leap in technology that is as far over us, as we are over cavemen.

Having said that, I think we as a species MUST do that. This little rock we reside on has a finite shelf life. Yes, it might be in billions of years, but it will not last forever...assuming we don't destroy it ourselves first. If our species is to survive, we have to go out into the galaxy and infest as many other planets as we possibly can.

One other thing, some other comments have mentioned this, we ultimately need to do this as a planet. The cost of colonizing Mars is likely beyond the financial ability of any one nation, not to mention leaving the solar system to colonize elsewhere in the galaxy. The latter is definitely beyond what any one nation can afford. But, if we all pool our resources, both technological and financial, it is much more doable.

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by cginok

Having said that, I think we as a species MUST do that. This little rock we reside on has a finite shelf life. Yes, it might be in billions of years, but it will not last forever...assuming we don't destroy it ourselves first. If our species is to survive, we have to go out into the galaxy and infest as many other planets as we possibly can.

It would best for the good of the Galaxy if We didn't do that..

Originally Posted by cginok

One other thing, some other comments have mentioned this, we ultimately need to do this as a planet. The cost of colonizing Mars is likely beyond the financial ability of any one nation, not to mention leaving the solar system to colonize elsewhere in the galaxy. The latter is definitely beyond what any one nation can afford. But, if we all pool our resources, both technological and financial, it is much more doable.

That's probably the least likely thing to happen..

[AmateurEmale]

@Brecht: What difference would it make to colonize the Moon and Mars, if you live under ever-increasing taxes to fund education and space exploration, where the government(s) involved are your ultimate landlord, and you are imprisoned if you don't pay income or property taxes? Living on the Moon or Mars after it was terraformed, would be purposeless if they enjoy less freedom that we do today, which is itself shrinking.

To misquote L. Neil Smith: "How'd you like to live in a public space colony, where Nixon or LBJ could turn off the air?"

[cicciobuki]

Originally Posted by AmateurEmale

(...) Living on the Moon or Mars after it was terraformed, would be purposeless if they enjoy less freedom that we do today, which is itself shrinking.

To misquote L. Neil Smith: "How'd you like to live in a public space colony, where Nixon or LBJ could turn off the air?"

You're assuming there would be more freedom on earth than on a mars colony, i'm not so sure about that... (sometimes people flee to a new world in search of a freedom they don't have at their homeland)

Then again, too much freedom on a space colony sounds like a recipe for disaster!

Originally Posted by AmateurEmale

@Brecht: What difference would it make to colonize the Moon and Mars, if you live under ever-increasing taxes to fund education and space exploration, where the government(s) involved are your ultimate landlord, and you are imprisoned if you don't pay income or property taxes?(...)

To misquote L. Neil Smith: "How'd you like to live in a public space colony, where Nixon or LBJ could turn off the air?"

I'm a big fan of the Borderlands games, where in a Mad Max style setting, the big weapons manufacturers are the ones calling the shots, instead of governments. I get the feeling this might be where humanity is heading to. For now the corporations are buying politicians through lobbying, but some day i can imagine those middle steps will be taken out and we'll all be slaves to the big brands...