let me get this straight..
the plan is to permanently maroon some people on a dead planet for a reality TV show.
?!?!?!
if this was feasible it should be blocked, just incase there are people dumb enough to volunteer.
Shouldn't we transport all the *ankers who caused the financial crash there first?
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools - Douglas Adams.
stevecook172001 wrote:As much as I find the remote exploration of Mars a fascinating and admirable achievement, in terms of where we are all going to be living into the deep future, that place is here, on earth. We humans have simply got to come to terms with that and grow up before it is too late.
The long term future on Earth will be bleak and primitive for humanity in my understanding. Outside of a declining ecology and a potentially chaotic climate we will be suffering the effects of resource depletion.
Just no. There's nothing that's going to happen here that would ever make Mars, or any other planet in the system better than Earth. The middle of Antarctica, the bottom of the Pacific, several miles under a mountain, are all far more comfortable environments than anywhere off planet. Our future in on Earth.
stevecook172001 wrote:As much as I find the remote exploration of Mars a fascinating and admirable achievement, in terms of where we are all going to be living into the deep future, that place is here, on earth. We humans have simply got to come to terms with that and grow up before it is too late.
The long term future on Earth will be bleak and primitive for humanity in my understanding. Outside of a declining ecology and a potentially chaotic climate we will be suffering the effects of resource depletion.
let me get this straight..
the plan is to permanently maroon some people on a dead planet for a reality TV show.
?!?!?!
if this was feasible it should be blocked, just incase there are people dumb enough to volunteer.
Sounds similar to what Robert Zubrin described in his 'Case for Mars' (the whole 'setting up a base before sending the people' part rather than the reality TV part).
Would love to see a man on Mars in my life but these guys have a long way to go, who knows maybe their idea of flogging the media rights across the world could net them a tonne of cash but I won't be holding my breath.
The most complete exposition of a social myth comes when the myth itself is waning (Robert M MacIver 1947)
ceti331 wrote:people seriously under-estaimate just how amazing fossil-fuels were
Abso-fecking-lutely. No-one (who matters) gets it.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
The one thing you can do at Mars is make rocket fuel. The steam age process Zubrin describes in Case for Mars is all proven technology and in use here on Earth today.
A protected outpost or two on Mars could then act as a base for further exploration of the asteroid belt and so on. We have really got no idea what materials are out there yet.
If we want to go to the stars it won't be at high speed, it's looking increasingly likely that all local space is seeded with planetoids. So it'll be multigenerational baby steps outward. If the energy is available to maintain it. I don't think it is...
