Is there such a thing as going to Mars, and if not why not?
Asked by
flo (
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February 5th, 2019
“Mars has almost no surface water; a toxic atmosphere that is too thin for humans to survive without pressure suits; deadly solar radiation; temperatures lower than Antarctica; and few to none of the natural resources that have been critical to human success on Earth.”
https://qz.com/536483/why-its-compeltely-ridiculous-to-think-that-humans-could-live-on-mars/
So, is there talk of going to Mars or are they just talking about going close enough to be safe? If it’s the latter what is the purspose?
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Its just a stepping point for exploring the rest of the galaxy. Terraforming might make Mars liveable without a space suit.
@flo Private buisnesses would have to fund most of it. They would need a good way to make a profit eventually. Tourism and people wanting a new life would be first till some way to make a living is discovered. It would be like the Oregon trail all over again.
No. There are definite plans to land and settle either on or under Mars. The planet has the water which can provide both oxygen and hydrogen, and schemes can be devised to either shield folks from radiation or deflect the ionized radiation with magnetic fields. Mars is certainly not going to accommodate 7 billion human beings in the near or even foreseeable future, but the way things are going here, it won’t be too many generations out before human existence on earth will require those same sealed spaces or pressurized suits as Mars.
If you’re going to live underground, wouldn’t it be (not easy but) much easier to do that on Earth than on Mars?
Or are humans just that dangerous to themselves?
People are living in deserts, arctic regions, and oil rigs.
They can live on Mars.
Don’t forget the hovels and prisons.
If you want to spend the rest of your your life on a dead planet in a frozen box or cave with toxic soil and atmosphere while your bones deteriorate from lack of gravity, then go to Mars.
You’ll likely go crazy before you even get there.
Yes, as in futuristic ideals and hypothesis, or a wishful thinking in the least. Too much problems for our current technological advances and conveniences to consider the viability to colonize Mars.
They do have a rover or 2 up there collecting samples and sending back information. There is really no need for humans to go there.
There is no need for humans to do anything.
They do it anyway.
The best argument I can think of is that it creates the potential for redundancy in the human race (and other life too). Currently, an asteroid could take out all human life in an instant. With humans on multiple planets, this really can’t happen.
The other reason is to explore and learn about Mars itself. We can learn about it’s geology and that may give us clues about the the rest of the Solar System.
“They” will go because it’s next. It’s no coincidence that Americans walked on the moon when the country was at its zenith. A full 50 years later, and Mars sails over an America where “the vision” is about 100 million dollar fighter planes defending our freedom to live out of shopping carts on the sidewalks of cash starved cities. We can leave it to the Chinese to do the job we should have achieved 30 years ago.
There is nothing wrong with the idea of going to Mars but we aren’t ready to do that yet. We don’t have the technology. At the moment it is far too dangerous and it would be pointless.
Can’t the rovers tell us everything we need to know? Why risk sending a human?
All you naysayers disgust me.
The rovers are great, and over time will crawl all over Mars without human risk and at comparatively meager expense. If you ain’t goin, pictures are better than nothin.
Thanks all.
But most of the time when the say ”...going to Mars…”, they don’t mean landing on Mars
Well, yes they do. It’s like someone saying, “I’m going to Atlanta for the weekend.” They mean they are going to go hang out in that city for the weekend.
If they do in fact plant to land on Mars, there is a big problem of returning to Earth. The gravity of Mars is far greater than the Moon.
They think that Mars is something that it is not. Just getting to Mars would require about 10 months of travel time in a confined space. That alone would drive me nuts. Then the Astro-nuts get to live in spacesuits and stay inside small boxes for the rest of their short lives.
Can’t go outside for long because of the hazards of cosmic radiation.
Can’t see a medical doctor.
No fresh air to breath fresh food to eat.
Continually dependent on care packages from Earth.
Complex life support systems could and likely will malfunction.
Toxic soil and toxic air and likely toxic frozen water.
Dealing with night time temperatures of -150 degrees F would also be challenging.
Then the gravity is only 38% of that of Earth so bones would quickly degrade.
Then there is the realization that they traded a magnificent garden planet for a dead, frozen poisonous planet. And then when they see Mother Earth as a dim and tiny dot in the night’s sky they will think what a colossal fool they were as the slowly die.
^^That was like reading the poignant last lines of a really good book, @gondwanalon. Very nice.
Because the people being sent to Mars will all be total randos, who will just be dropped off there unprepared and untrained.
Seriously, come on.
You can make similar lists for all sorts of things that are being done right now.
Like the international space station, the moon missions, submarine crews, scientists in the arctic, the long range sailing ships of old.
Please someone tell me, what will the lay people do there anyway?
@ragingloli being on Mars sounds like being in hell, How do you even compare it to anything else?
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