Why should we leave Earth anyway

[NORMANBOND007]

Can humans survive on Mars?

[C1ay]

Can humans survive on Mars?

Welcome to Hypography. You might enjoy these news articles related to your question:

 

Why colonize the Moon before going to Mars?

Can a human survive a trip to Mars?

[Hawkens]

Mar's atmosphere is less than 5/1000 that of Earth's atmospheric pressure.

This is much closer to the Moon's atmospheric pressure.

 

Without spacesuits or airtight structures.....nope

[Hawkens]

Welcome to Hypography. You might enjoy these news articles related to your question:

 

aw.....We posted at almost the same time. :circle:

[NORMANBOND007]

While on our way to Mars the physical and mental health and safety of the crew during a long, arduous months on Mars are a major concern for mission planners. How do you plan for life-threatening medical emergencies when you are trapped on a far distant world? The astronauts must also be shielded from harmful radiation while traveling in their spacecraft and when on the planet's surface.

 

However, in March 2000, NASA took one of the first steps necessary in prepring humans to live on Mars when it successfully tested the prototype of a device to produce pure oxygen from the carbon dioxide in a simulated Martian atmosphere. Besides providing breathable oxygen for future colonists, the unit, called the Mars In-situ Propellant Production Precursor ( MIP), demonstrated that rocket fuel can be manufactured on Martian soil for the return trip to Earth.

 

In the decades ahead, humans will land on Mars and explore the red planet. President Bush announced that the United States would put humans on Mars. The plan calls for a base to be built on the moon and then onward to the Red Planet, but experts believe that the first American footsteps on Mars wouldn’t happen any time before 2030. The European Space Agency (ESA) has the Aurora mission to put humans on Mars, also by 2030. In July 2005, the Russian space agency announced they were looking for six volunteers to lock themselves in a mock space capsule for 15 months in preparation for a Mars mission in 2015.

[infamous]

To answer the question which the title to this thread poses; "Why should we leave Earth anyway". Same reason Columbus left Spain, in quest of adventure and to learn new information. Man has a built in need to explore, and that won't change anytime soon, nor should it.

[Jay-qu]

right now, no - with some heat and oxygen then yeah sure why not

[NORMANBOND007]

One day... NASA scientists have already told us that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.

[UncleAl]

Humans cannot survive getting to Mars. Outside the Earth's atmospehre (equal to 900+ cm of lead shielding, 14.7 lbs/in^2) and magnetosphere you would be cooked medium well done traveling to Mars. Folks who live aboard MIR or ISS FUBAR get radiation cataracts - and that is still within the magnetosphere.

 

Earth sea level atmospheric pressure is 760 torr. Mars runs 7 torr in deep valleys. Water at room temp boils at 20 torr. High noon summer on the Martian equator is barely above 0 C. Solar deep UV comes in without filtration. It's a crappy place to be even if you are a piece of plastic.

[CraigD]

Hum… not sure which question to address – “why should we leave Earth anyway?” or “Can humans survive on Mars?”.

 

I like the first one best. A good, obvious reason that we should leave – or at lest spread to self-sufficient dwellings beyond – earth, is that the solar system is a dangerous place full of large objects on orbits that intersect Earth’s. An impact from such an object could extinguish the human race.

 

Instinctively, we know on many scales not to “all bunch up together”. Travel to other astronomic bodies is yet another application of this human urge.

[GAHD]

Claustrophobia in action.

 

I personally say we should get out there for the minerals, Isotopes, and 'frictionless' advantages inherant. Yeah yeah, microgravity hasn't done much yet. You try making big science in something about the size of an RV.

 

Iseriously think that with an appropriately sized foundry, they could harness solar power to drive a giant reflector/refractor-oven and smelt materials. Just set it spinning to start, and let centrifugal force do the work of gravity in a counter-spinning(conservation of momentum) catch basin. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think it might be worth it to manufacture some things in 0G;, or atleast get first-gen Iron&such out of the deal.

[alxian]

Yeah yeah, microgravity hasn't done much yet. You try making big science in something about the size of an RV.

 

getting out into microgravity will require us to take total control of our environment, living in "clean" environments, making intel clean rooms seem like cesspools, purging ourselves of all bactira and viruses. replacing intestinal flora and fauna and blood with designer fluids and compounds to do the job much better, cheaper, and thus making us* more efficient and resource-cheap to operate on less food outputting more energy and more efficiently metabolizing our food. *our bodies.

 

growing food would be fine and dandy but our metabolisms require very little in the way of diversity, its all the in the proportions. creating a garden in a spaceborn snowglobe is simple, creating a full biome from the carbon and water cycles (including percipitation) and raw materials in the ground being delivered to plants (greens and staple foods) then designing animals to feed on those plants (staple foods) and then predatory animals (refined meat and dietary compounds) to in turn prey on those grazers in an environment more sterile than the core of a nuclear reactor, quite a technical undertaking that..

 

cleaning the body and genome would mean would could live longer too. replacing our hearts with pumps, conditioning our muscles with electrical impulse stimulation in lieu of real exercize... unless all passengers are olympic athletes competing daily in sporting events to stay fit.. and then of course activists would cry bloody murder about humanities right to clone itself and still propagate like rabbits, meaning our populations would explode, first on earth then the trickle fill of the moon and mars, then galilean satelites (atmospheres of venus and jupiter being questionable habitats)(but if venus' shroud could be metabolised by designer plankton the surface could easily be claimed). humanity will swell into the hundreds of billions and trillions withing the next couple hundred years.

 

so..

 

personally, i would like to as you mentioned mine rocks for a living and spend time mining, smelting and refining ore. if bova is correct then building a worldships/generationships might tap the belts available resources... should that immediately be on the ajenda then bringing them into earth orbit and building stations, ships, geostationary elevators or droping payloads through the atmosphere directly to the surface where they'd use the resources to build vertical cities (fifth element) and build a new transport infrastructure worthy of a space age future (http://www.moller.com).

 

plan two, owning a space hotel or (plan three) taking people around the solar system in

a huge "mini" dyson's sphere type cruiser, with a spherical habitat module, with a clear TTFT dome at the fore and filled halfway from the bottom with peeps habitat, pluming and appartments, the acceleration would create g for its inhabitants, when stopped the habitat could swing out to the classical rotating halo patern.. that would rule, having something the size of a small city transforming. (otherwise the water would like flow everywhere). at the center of the sphere would be the nuclear furnace, blocked off of course by a thick metal shell. an ion jet spoke out one end poking out of the sphere (the engine). the fusion furnace would generate a magnetic field funneling energy through the clear end of the sphere (the dome) this energy would be recaptured to power the dome allowing it to glowing while opaque(looking like a real atmosphere) or a few square kilometers of curving display. the trick would be feeding the fusion furnace with the miniscule trickle from the electro-magnetic funnel a spoke on the other side feeding the furnace (not exactly a bussard** collector but a close cousin). we wouldn't be out too long though and could refuel twice at jupiter and saturn not much to see further out than that. thus holding tons of fuels and worrying about running low in our lifetimes without refueling (topping up)would be a small concern.. exploding into a small temporary companion star to sol.. would be a more immediate concern.

 

**A workable ramjet design could in principle accelerate indefinitely until its mechanism failed.

[NORMANBOND007]

Indeed, 'Why should we leave earth anyway?' is the main point which i wanted alternative views on. The theory that we can escape to mars seems slightly unearthly at present.

[alxian]

we'll me mars bound in less than 20 years

 

if only for scientific reasons by then private concerns will be in space. not long thereafter if only for hubris or to 1up the US, russia france or china will launch a handful of people to go establish a base on mars.

 

consider also by then qrio will have grown up. they could take a few of his grandkids along to do most of the heavy lifting, and could create large habitats in time for much larger groups of people to take the ultimate trip of a lifetime when next mars and earth occult.

[paultrr]

The biggest reason stems back to biology in general. Any life that lives on an island is easy to wipe out. The more spread out a life form is the more its chance of survival. This planet is an island for all purposes. Survival of humans eventually will require us to spread out. Now the question becomes when should we spread out. As far as developing what it takes to do so the sooner one starts the better. Its not a good idea in general to wait to spread untill that big unknown that has the potential to wipe that species out comes along. We human's have the ability to think ahead to avert trouble. The problem is we tend to wait till things are to bad before we act.

 

Yes, at todays level we tend to think in the RV terms which would not work for large scale movement out there. But the RV approach works good for those early on steps at learning how to.

 

Also bear in mind that conquest of space is dealing with a environment that we have to alter to fit us. Its hostile out there by our standards. Even given we could use some of the other rocks out there which is possible(ie Mars), the old SF generated idea that perhaps if other life is out there we can co-exist peacefully rather may or may not be true given our experience here on earth as an example. My suggestion there is come in peace and carry a big stick, so to speak.

[alxian]

when travelling between planets becomes somewhat more instantaneous.. like at less than a dozen years with a good saftey margin over 99%...

[alxian]

other life out there..

 

 

 

if aliens so much as sneeze on us we'll obliterate them no questions asked.