Mission To Mars

If that's what passes for a light-hearted note with you, please spare us any of your grim notes.

 

I am not keen on beach holidays so while looking at other planets please find one with rolling countryside and if possible some historic buildings to visit.
Thanks.

 

And bends.

 

Don't go on Wednesday's cause it's shut

 

I find it thoroughly depressing that people question the worth of an incredible feat of engineering and bravery.

The simple fact is our planet is overcrowded and at some point in our future we will need more land and resources. If we don't start to develop the technologies we need to colonise another world now it may be too late by the time we do need it...

 

We need it already. The Earth cannot support the 7 billion human beings in existence now without rendering many other species extinct to accommodate them. A situation that can only get worse as more of the world's people achieve the high standard of living/profligate lifestyle of the industrialised west; and bearing in mind that the population has doubled since the second world war, Pete's question is all the more apposite.
Then there is the question of ethics. We have not so much outgrown the planet as devoured it. Our relationship with our world is essentially parasitic and we know it is. We are not merely a super-successful species running purely on genetic instinct, we are self-aware. We understand cause and effect and we have free will. We know exactly what we are doing and we can accurately predict the outcome. Do we find better ways to live on this world or do we seek other worlds to colonise knowing our arrival is likely to condemn them to ruin also?

 

Without some species of time travel, there is no hope of colonising other worlds (unless it's Mars, I suppose - and who'd want to live there?).
I can't see us organising time travel any time soon - or at all.

So I think we are a lot better off making the most of our beautiful planet and making sure that it stays beautiful.
The Chinese stabilised their population, so it can clearly be done.
But then every time you suggest that we should look out more for the planet, everyone shouts you down saying that it's a "green conspiracy". Well, we aren't going to make any progress with that attitude.

 

The Apollo program was one of the highlights of the 20th Century, it was and remains an incredible achievement.

But which other world can we colonise ? We simply do not have a technology with the potential to do so.

Again, which other world and how could anyone get there, let alone sufficient people to solve overcrowding on Earth ?

 

So what could wipe out all life on Earth short of the destruction of Earth itself, and what could do that ? ?

 

That's the point of a manned mission to Mars, do assist with developing the technology to do so!
Both Venus and Mars have the potential for a colony, albeit one in sealed structures.

Agreed we do not have the technology now but does that mean we shouldn't bother to try and develop it?

 

I never really get this.
Developing a megapolis in the middle of the Sahara or the Kalahari would be a lot easier than trying to do it on Venus (or Mars). So why don't we do that first?

 

Easier yes but why? Venus and Mars are lifeless planets full of natural resources. Resources we will need if we are to go further afield.

 

We got a planet, we can't even look after what we got. So piss this one off and just go somewhere else? Thats a real human problem, we use until its gone. The planet should just give up on us. The way I see it, every living thing takes what they need to survive, nature keeps the numbers in check, unless we have fecked the natural balance of the system. Humans, they want more, use more, greed.
By the time the tech is cost effective, do you really Joe Public will have hope in hells bells chance of relocating?
There is an argument for population control. A lot of useless humans around. No one ever really questions our legacy, what are we leaving for the future. Its all about now.
Anyway, in don't think you will wanna be around to see the future, because it isn't so bright the way we are heading.

 

I totally agree with this.
To me, colonising other planets just seems like an extreme manifestation of the consumer society: let's consume this entire planet, turn it into a toilet and bugger off and consume another one. It's complete bollox.

We need to start to get serious about limiting our numbers and looking after what we have.
So that means, we don't do fracking. It's obvious, isn't it?
It's about making real decisions now, not in some hypothetical future in a century's time.

 

I don't necessarily disagree however by the time the human race gets itself under control it may well be too late for us, or this planet.
Should we just give up on pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge? Or give up on our natural instincts to explore?
I'm not saying we should devour worlds like an advanced race of locusts but this planet will not be enough to support us as a race in the future.
The thought of population control and the inevitable abuses that will bring is a lot more worrying to me than the idea of establishing a mining colony on another planet.

 

What if the estimates for our sun's life-cycle are wildly inaccurate and we have only thousands of years before an ELE occurs, instead of millions of years? Or perhaps we'll be unlucky and a particularly bad CME will be directed at the planet? That could happen any time.

We need to do the donkey work now, so that if we need an exit strategy for the planet, or the solar system, we are using mature technologies, not seat-of-the-pants Heath Robinson solutions.

Or we could just accept the inevitable - that could work, too.

 

So are we looking to technology to get us out of this mess. Yeh someone will harness abundant energy, but for what? So we can add another 10 billion humans. It may be to late, then again some believe the tech is here already. In terms of the natural balance, we are a real drain on the planet. Are we all really here so the elite can get richer and poorer starve. We are cruel and selfish, we serve no purpose but to consume to help those that can afford it, have a so called better life.
A lot of tech has come from an industry which designs shit to kill, is that good, sure there are nutters than need sorted.
I think the whole system is wrong and tech won't sort it.

 

This planet is more than capable of sustaining life and has done so for a few years. It just can't sustain us the way we are. We are the problem.

 

You're a proper ray of sunshine tonight aren't you!
Tech makes dirty water drinkable, allows crops to grow where they couldn't normally, helps keep the vulnerable alive, makes medicines, provides shelter and even gives us the 2 wheel machines we all enjoy so much. It ain't all bad...