- cross-posted to:
- science@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- science@beehaw.org
cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/546668
If so, this should not preclude us from cleaning up our own planet first!
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As a wide-eyed kid this seemed like a no-brainer, but then having watched what Elon does with the things he owns I’m not sure it’s such a good idea…
Yeah. I feel like the billionaires who are actively destroying this planet shouldn’t get to be the first ones on a brand new one.
It would be a huge project, taking centuries, with kind of limited returns. I would be probably not opposed to it if someone were to start such a thing, but I think orbital habitats are the better place for humans to settle in space.
You mean, like this?
That and O’Neill cylinders
Isn’t there some dynamics problem with cylinders in terms of the physics? Can not remember what is was. Maybe stability.
Maybe, I haven’t given them much thought. It’s further away than starting Mars would be. It would take much longer but we could start terraforming sooner than build an O’Neill cylinder
No. Mars is an inhospitable wasteland that will never be truly suited for humans due to the differences in size. Our planet is currently turning into a fucking wasteland and anyone who thinks that they can just create a new planet is delusional. Our planet is also still viable for many more billions of people if we could just take care of it! Things like permaculture are far more sustainable for larger populations. In a few hundred years, once Elon is long dead and forgotten, and if we can somehow be living in a form of a sustainable society, fine. (Also as far as terraforming planets go, if we were thinking about ever doing something like this we should be looking at venus, not earth. It’s so similar to earth in terms of size that it’s often called our sister planet. It also may have supported life sometime in the past.)
TL;DR: Hell no, for the next 500-1000 years and until our planet is livable.
If my profile banner is anything to go by, I think we should. Specifically because the second point. The technologies developed for it could be used on Earth to help control climate change.
I dont think it’ll ever happen. Mars doesnt have a magnetosphere and as a result solar winds would erode away the added gasses and water vapor we manage to add into the system. Even if we were able to manage to get a breathable replenishing atmosphere I imagine the solar radiation would do bad things to us. We’d need like science fiction levels of shielding to keep it livable and we’d need to reach far off sci-fi levels of technology.
I imagine since there is an atmosphere that a pressurized dome city would be less fragile than say a structure on the moon since little holes and leaks wouldnt lead to dramatic explosive decompression. So colonization might be pretty doable but I think a green mars is unlikely.
Dome cities would be much more achievable, but still incredibly difficult unfortunately. It’s cool to think it may be feasible in the next generation or two.
The atmosphere erosion is not really an issue. It take 100s of millions of year to erode the atmosphere so at humanity scale it’s not really a problem.
pressurized dome city
My dream is covered canyons with cliff dwellings. But I would settle for a dome+tunnel city.
Yeah, I figured Mars would be an underground territory since that seems to be where any nutrients might be anyway. Trying to form an atmosphere there suitable for life is likely impossible, but cave cities would be theoretically doable.
Although I don’t know how I feel about terraforming other planets in general. Humans have destroyed this one so much that I feel like giving us another is akin to not teaching a child not to destroy their stuff. On the other hand, it would just be cool to see what humans have accomplished.
Yes, eventually, but we should stop terraforming earth first
