Will we ever build an outpost on another planet? Finnley Clarkson is in the city.
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I’m not happy with ruining one planet?
This is tricky, this. There is always the risk that we will find that the planet has already been colonised by a starship-load of telephone sanitisers, hairdressers, public relations executives and management consultants.
I think the safest course would be to first send to Mars an advance exploratory party consisting of people who believe they are destined to rule whatever planet they’re on. They could include, let’s say for the sake of argument, Boris Johnson, Vladimir Putin, Jeremy Clarkson, Piers Morgan, Donald Trump, Jair Bolsoniero. They would jump at the chance. After the inevitable heated debate about who should be emperor, we might neglect to provide any return transport for either of them. It is unfortunate, but there we are. There is Owlno.
Is it an outpost? The various robot landers on Mars fit the bill for us already having done that, which is why some define it as a military position. It is a base from which to trade and interact with the existing local population, so we need to find another inhabited planet before we can do that. Randomusername22
It will happen, it will be difficult, and it won’t last. There aren’t any local supplies of what you need to exist, so they need constant support, constant delivery of supplies. Mars is our only shot, and it’s pretty desolate. Almost everything will need to be delivered, at great cost and with a huge time lag, because people, fuel, food, tools, almost everything will need to be delivered. Is it possible that we could terraform it to be able to grow food? It was unlikely. It would take about a year to get organised and get to the real emergency. There was a high chance that the individuals wouldn’t make it back. The film The Martian gives a realistic view on the difficulties.
The moon is too hot and not protected from solar radiation. Mars has no magnetic field and no protection from solar radiation. Jupiter: gas, and gravity too high.Saturn: cold.Uranus: cold.Pluto: cold. The rest of the universe is too far away.
The idea of a warp drive that will bring the universe into realistic travel distance is one of the most exciting things in science fiction. Correct, all made up for film and TV. It’s not quite. There are some intriguing theories about how we could travel faster than light, bringing the warp drive into reality.
It feels like it could be possible in the future, even though we are still in the realm of theory. I think we will all be gone before that stage. All the scientists should think this stuff up. It feels inevitable that we would find another planet and colonise it if we ever get it working. Will dance for Chocolat
We should probably get cracking on the warp drive and the nuclear war that preceded it, since it is only 40 years until the Vulcans make First Contact. Oh, I am such a SadGit.
There would be no sensible planet with us. A man named sarumbrother61
If the post is a colony with permanent residents or if it is a research station with temporary residents, it’s a question of whether Homo sapiens does or not.
The research station can be done in a similar way to the Antarctic research station. Plans for a future staffed mission to the surface of Mars would include a research station with temporary residents. Most of the required technologies exist and are in development. If the post is a research station with temporary residents, then yes, one day.
The colony requires breeding on the planet. As the female members of the species Homo sapiens have bodies that are adapted to Earth gravity, they can only have a healthy and successful pregnancy on a planet with a close to Earth gravity. Venus, with a 91% Earth gravity, is the only planet in the solar system with a gravity that comes close. Mars has only 38% Earth gravity, so pregnancies will not be healthy or successful. The answer is “No” if the “outpost” is a colony with permanent residents.
The people who make the most noise about colonising other planets are men. McBampot is known as Bammy.
Why is Earth gravity important to a baby? Have animal experiments been done in outer space? I can understand that the mother doesn’t want a high g baby. Isn’t low g equivalent to resting all day when you’re pregnant? I think of a mother who was told to lie down all day due to her pregnancies issues. Is it possible that the offspring would be less able to cope with a return to Earth due to bone density issues?
If it does happen, my money will be onAirbnb. It’s called Mobilepope
Unless we go extinct soon, the answer has to be yes. If the will is there, I can see it happening in 50 years. The necessary technology could probably be developed in a decade or so. Roy Jersey
The only chance of setting up on Mars in the next 50 years is if someone will be willing to fund the venture.
Yes, we will do that. A lot of technical problems have already been solved.
Hopes for lunar crops are raised by the growth of cis seeds in moon dust.
The problems that were once considered impossible to solve are now routinely solved. It was once said that brain and chest surgery wouldn’t be possible. The train was invented because it was said that humans couldn’t travel faster than 30 mph. The Wright brothers showed that heavier-than-air machines wouldn’t fly. The stuff of fiction was videophones. There are other “impossible” things that have been done.
There are problems with shielding from the sun, having to transport what you need to the planet until it can be made locally, and the effect on the body. Longterm residence will follow. Mark is a person
If The Martian has any relation to truth, you should send some seed potatoes and a botanist. LmCollis is named after him.
Absolutely we will. Humans aren’t very good at predicting the future. The existence of New York City could be predicted 500 years later by a Spanish sailor.
We need people willing to go, advanced technology, and spare resources to fund a colony in the solar system. Finding people who want to live on another planet isn’t likely to be a problem. There are many people. We are nearly there with spaceship technology, and after a few decades of practice, it seems likely that we will be able to develop the technology needed to allow a colony to survive and grow on the moon, Mars or perhaps one of the satellites of Jupiter. When will we be able to afford this?
The Apollo program cost about $25 billion, equivalent to about $260 billion in today’s money. The US GDP was about $1tn in 1969. About $23tn is how much it is today. The Apollo program cost 2% of US GDP in the late 60s, but 50 years later it would cost 1% of US GDP. It would not cost anything like $260 billion to do what Apollo did. The new SLS rocket, which is currently on its way to the moon, costs about $4 billion to launch, so you could go six times for about $25 billion, if the SpaceX Starship rocket works as advertised
At some point, founding a permanent settlement on another world becomes something that governments and companies can just plan, finance and do, because they want to, or because they see a financial return in so doing.
In 100 years, on a planet with a shrinking population, where energy is cheap thanks to renewables and fusion reactor, and where carbon is being pulled out of the atmosphere faster than it is emitted, I think there would be no reason for humans to not. Semifunctional.
Moxie makes oxygen on Mars.
What are you going to do to get the correct mix of microbes? The person is Dargyva.
The key to a lunar colony is water, which is used to grow plants and make oxygen and hydrogen, which is the basis for fuel for a Mars mission. The moon has 1/6 of the Earth’s gravity. It is much easier to get materials, water, fuel and oxygen from the moon to space than it is to haul them out of Earth. The moon has no air resistance.
It would be much cheaper to make rocket fuel on the moon than send it from Earth. So when future lunar explorers want to return to Earth, or travel on to other destinations, they could turn the water into the hydrogen and oxygen commonly used to power space vehicles.
Refuelling at the moon could therefore bring down the cost of space travel and make a lunar base more affordable.
You would send ships to Mars, the fuel would be made there, but you wouldn’t send people until all this was done. Other systems would look for water Fuel, water, and oxygen would be on Mars before you left Earth. You wouldn’t send people until everything was perfect for them.
Sending water continuously from Earth wouldn’t work, as a human colony would be far more viable if there was water. The first requirement for a colony is no water. MartinSilenus is a person.
Maybe we need to find solutions to our problems on Earth first.