What's Really Happening On Mars

[John D.]

Americans are too paranoid these days to revive the frontier spirit of the wild west days... My apologies if I have offended any Americans here..

If you were worried about offending Americans, why did you say it in the first place?

I live in the U.S. and I dont see any of this mass 'paranoia' that you're refering to, a lot of us would think going to Mars would be a cool thing for Nasa to do.

I was thinking more along the lines of the US sending a brave fearless cruise missile into the heart of some rival country's space program, for reasons of pre-emptive national security of course.

China and Europe have been getting into space on their own and there have been no conflicts, so I dont see that happening anytime soon. It could happen if Iran/North Korea started building up a launch capability however, since a rocket that can carry a craft into orbit can also be used as an ICBM.

[Zaccheus]

We were talking about items of value being found in space resulting in military conflict.

[John D.]

We were talking about items of value being found in space resulting in military conflict.

That could be possible in the distant future, but space travel is so expensive you could have chunks of gold scattered across the lunar surface ready for an astronaut to scoop up and it would still cost more than it would be worth to harvest them, Mars would be even more expensive. Without some serious technological innovation, that kind of fight is very unlikely to happen anytime soon. Any conflicts regarding space travel will most likely be related to events on earth rather than discoveries elsewhere.

 

Unless we blunder across some aliens and shoot first! :lol:

Edited June 11, 2005 by John D.

[Ishtvan]

We were talking about items of value being found in space resulting in military conflict.

 

There already are items in space involved in military conflict: Satellites!

 

Can you imagine how screwed we'd be if someone took out / shut down the Milstar or Comstar satellites?

[Zaccheus]

Items of value. Worth fighting over. Simple concept.

 

Of course we are not there yet, but as soon as there is something worth fighting over, we can expect someone to do so.

[obscurus]

Interesting idea, we'd better grab the place while we can! :lol:

Seriously though, I think one major obstacle to any sort of permanent base is the harsh environment. If there was some sort of terraforming technique we could develop to give Mars a thicker, breathable atmosphere with some sort of ozone layer to help screen out the ultraviolet rays-and be able to do it in decades not centuries, perhaps there might be a greater interest in exploring the place. It would probably still be pretty cold though.

 

Wonder if nukes on the polar ice caps would kick up enough vaporized carbon dioxide/water vapor into the air to create some sort of greenhouse effect?

Teraforming a planet would take centuries, if not millenia, as Mars does not have a significant magnetic field, which is essential to retaining an atmosphere, otherwise the solar wind will strip the atmoshpere of the planet away (which is what is happening at the moment - in a few hundred million years there will be no appreciable atmosphere on mars at all). A magnetic field is also essential to the formation of ozone in the upper atmosphere. Mars also has 30% of Earth's gravity, which means lighter gasses like oxygen and nitrogen will leach off into space (compounded by the lack of magnetic field).

 

It will actually be far easier technically (although probably not politically) to genetically modifiy humans, plants and animals to be able to survive colder temperatures, lower atmospheric pressures, higher concentrations of CO2, less O2, and to build large inflatable domes that don't have to be as robust as they would for unmodified organisms.

 

You could then terraform mars so that these modified organisms could survive with LESS protection, less bulky spacesuits than we could at present. But unfortunately, unless there is some way to generate a magnetic field on a planetary scale and strengthen Mars's gravity, there is no way that humans could ever walk on mars without some kind of pressurised spacesuit, and Mars will never be able to support life in the way that Earth does.

 

Fact is Earth is the only planet in the solar system that can sustain human life without lots of machinery - we will probably have to look much further into space to find another Earth-like planet

[Vadrosaul]

I've heard Tau Ceti V is a lavish paradise of a planet

[Dr.Spangle]

Yeah, just watch out for the locals. I hear there's too many of them.