New Mars Forums

We Americans refer to 'footbag' as 'hackeysack'. 

Why that is, I've never bothered to discover. Footbag seems self-explanatory.

I have to agree with Clark. Infrastructure expansion MUST be a high priority for any hypothetical Martian colony. The colony cannot drastically improve its self-sufficiency unless it can grow its population to the point where it can support many, many specialists...among other things.

However, we are not talking about suburban America here. This is Mars, an achingly beautiful desert planet, frost-bitten, dusty, and drenched with radiation. The colony can only provide so much breathable air, feed so many mouths, process so much human feces. That's the reality, personal views on reproductive rights aside.

Most of us would have to compromise some of our long-held principles, if we wished to survive for long in such a place.

Some of us would need to give up our right to own personal guns. Some of us would need to sacrifice our cherished right to privacy. And some of us would have to give up the right to have babies whenever we feel like it.

I think child-bearing should be a licensed activity, in an environment like a Martian colony. However, since the colony MUST grow or eventually die, I believe the infrastructure will accomodate the Martian birth rate. Expansion will be that big of a priority.

Yang Liwei Rocket, I love those images! 

Go Taikonauts!

Clark, as a Neocon partisan myself, I must say that I've had the best laugh today...seeing you being accused of being a CIA agent. 

You must be deeply, deeply, deeply, undercover.

I'd go to Mars in a heartbeat, and live there, but not without my wife.

I love the idea of nice gold coins.

Personally, I'm not a Trekkie per se, but I love the idea of putting Captain Kirk's face on some kind of planet-wide Martian colonial currency. I think it would add a nice touch of humor to the various societies of such a hostile, if achingly beautiful, land.

My dream confederacy of city-states, stretching from the subsurface ice reservoirs of Arcadia to the peak of Pavonis Mons, would have some astute quote from Voltaire as its motto. Voltaire rules.     :;):

The Russian 'Mars 1989'-class solar electric spacecraft is one of my favorite designs for a piloted interplanetary vehicle. It has a radial symmetry like the Mir space station had, and uses large farms of solar panels to provide power. It also relies on xenon-fueled ion thrusters for primary propulsion.

This ship is very much an extension of your "Space Station With A Rocket Attached" concept. In fact, if you look closely, you can clearly see similarities to Mir.

I understand the logic behind Mars Direct, but as a thing of sheer beauty, I'd rather be flying this girl around the inner solar system :

[http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mars1989.htm]http://www.astronautix.com/craft/mars1989.htm

I'd love to see an updated version of this vehicle. It could utilize inflatable components wherever feasible. I'd also like to use abundant, less-expensive, argon or krypton fuel instead of the 165 tons of vanishingly scarce xenon originally called for.

I don't like the short-duration surface mission the Russians call for, however. Seven days on the surface of Mars does not produce enough science to justify the expense of building this kind of vehicle.

I still think it's a beautiful ship, though. Just not in a streamlined, 1950's-esque, Hollywood kind of way.

'Marspost' is a new Russian design which, as we Americans say, "super-sizes" the original 'Mars 1989' idea. I don't think that the "Battlestar Galactica" scale of 'Marspost' is desirable or necessary, however. 

With regard to the ISS, though, I personally don't think that the huge redesign and retrofit efforts would be worth the expense. Honestly, it really would be cheaper (and safer) to design and launch a new Mars ship from scratch.

Gas giants in our own solar system are also fascinating because of they are our best opportunity to learn more about the dozens and dozens of extrasolar gas giants.

An awesome book about the troubled birth of Station Alpha is, "Island In The Sky", by Piers Bizony.

NASA may finally adopt Shuttle-C now, since the crisis caused by Columbia's loss has forced its various special interest groups to listen to common sense. It is twenty years late, but I say better late than never.

The discovery of native Martian nanobacteria will probably cause Western nations to put any plans for a permanent outpost on hold.

Of course, any extant extremophiles will likely be deep underground. Ironically, they'll probably never be found without a large human presence already there on the surface.

Hey, everyone!    Howard Dean dropped by to visit! Nice to see you, Doctor!

YAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! 

The ancient Greek playwright Euripides, who was a veteran of the Battle of Marathon (if I'm not mistaken), wrote many plays which condemned both jingoistic militarism and the institution of slavery. He was also a firm believer in womens' rights.

Euripides had an almost 20th-century view of society, but his attempts to create social change through his plays fell mostly on deaf ears.