New Mars Forums

Scott has a unique vision for a better society, which I don't personally share.  :;):

I believe in individualism, but the 'rugged individualist' archetype is an American myth.

The colonists who braved the Atlantic and colonized New England in the 1600's weren't individualists. Mock the flaws of Puritan theocracy all you like (I certainly do), but the harsh environment favored those who could work well together and recognize the need for cooperation. The same could be said for every region colonized by species Homo. The lone wolf does not survive.

My politics are at least as right-wing as yours are, but I see things a little differently. As much as I despise the cult of victimhood which has conquered American society, social safety nets serve a valid purpose. Sometimes it's difficult for those of you working in tech jobs, sitting in nice cubicles, making high five figure salaries, to realize that. However, the truth is that you're only one downsizing away from waiting in the Unemployment Office line.

We have to care for others. I'm not Christian, but I think the Bible still says it best:

"What doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world if he loses his soul?"

My apologizes ahead of time, if I've somehow mangled this scriptural quote.

GCNRevenger, I couldn't agree more.

Josh, they need to evaluate things a bit before they start sending people to the surface. I'm not a rocket scientist, but my guess is that the whole EDL sequence will put a lot of stress on the mission-critical subsystems. A dress-rehearsal is in order.

Let's just see how well those work on a crewed flight article during in interplanetary cruise phase.

This will be human interplanetary space travel at last. But we can do everything right, and people may STILL die. I say we go forward, but cautiously. Why should they cut corners on safety?

Welcome! The natives are mostly friendly. 

I don't honestly believe that any democratic nation will be interested in sending humans to Mars for a long, long time. As much as I'd love to see a human mission to Mars, the failure rates for robotic probes (whatever the true reasons for the failures) and the staggering costs involved dictate the Moon as humanity's next destination for permanent habitation. I find it difficult to believe that modern-day politicians who understand the risks will take them to send people to Mars.

To reiterate, I'd love to see humans on Mars in my lifetime, for most of the reasons mentioned above. But I'm doubtful that the Americans or Europeans will be the ones who bankroll it. Perhaps the Chinese will step up to the plate after they've sent yuhangyuan to Luna.

America's future in human spaceflight will be limited to X-vehicles and Earth orbital space stations of questionable utility, in my opinion. Frankly, I don't see a return to the Moon, never mind Mars, anywhere on America's horizon. Hopefully I'm wrong. 

If humans could transfer their identities to android bodies, travelling between the galaxies wouldn't be as much of a problem. The Milky Way's core has so much energy, that perhaps a colony built near the core could harness it. Humans as we are could never travel for 30,000 light-years to the core, but perhaps androids could. The androids could establish a colony near the edge of the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, using local resources.

Converting the titanic amount of cosmic rays present into electricity might allow the androids to power an impressive array of neutral particle beam (NPB) generators.

The NPBs could propel a starship to relativistic speeds. The starship would ionize the incoming particle streams with its lasers, then deflect them off the backside of its magnetic sail.

Alternatively, the energy thus converted could also be used to create large quantities of anti-matter. A photon rocket could hypothetically reach something like 50% the speed of light.

Hopefully, our imaginary androids have acheived enough velocity to generate massive time dilation effects. If that's the case, then travelling for millions of light-years might really be doable in my opinion.

I just want to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Great comebacks to the robot-only killjoys!   :;):

I hope the Great Galactic Ghoul isn't enjoying a Christmas feast right now.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Maybe Beagle 2 will transmit a detectable signal today.

I read that the RAT was invented by a dentist, of all people.

Sounds like Andrea Dworkin, or some other man-hater. We men sure do a good job of brainwashing women into thinking we're sexually desirable. Besides, I've seen lesbian relationships go bad. Women emotionally scar each other in those situations, ten times worse than a man ever could.

They're better off with us, most of the time.    

Christina and Clark, those really made me laugh. Thanks.

I'd love to have a large fleet of colonizer spacecraft propelled by neutral particle beam generators all the way to the Gliese 876 solar system. It's got a dim M4 red dwarf parent star, and two gas giant planets.

The outer gas giant is twice the size of Jupiter, so I'd bet a nickel it's got at least one Galilean-analog moon. If I'm lucky, since the planet's twice the size of Jupiter, maybe its largest moon is twice the size of Ganymede also! (So much world to strip mine...drool...) Maybe it's actually big enough to be a Mars analog world!

The inner gas giant is half the size of Jupiter, and (like the gas giants in our own Sol) probably has vast amounts of Helium-3 thermonuclear fuel. The He-3 could be mined with the NIFT vehicles Zubrin discussed in "Entering Space", providing the colonists with limitless amounts of energy. (Hey, this is my fantasy, so Deuterium/Helium-3 controlled fusion will be available to my settlers.  )

The fleet would rendezvous with Kuiper Belt-class objects (should they exist) upon arrival in the Gl 876 system. Robots would mine the comet-like objects for their mineral wealth. Next comes processing the native resources into useful building materials. Finally, use them to repair, replace, and upgrade the industrial and transportation infrastructure. Note that all of this preliminary work would preferably occur outside the gravity well of the two giants. If it can't be done, then heavy shuttlecraft will have to be brought from Earth. In the absence of Kuiper objects, all of the initial industrial focus would have to shift to the big moon of the outer giant. 

Once landing ships and an adequate colonizing infrastructure have been manufactured from asteroidal and cometary materials, then the large scale settlement of the biggest moon of the outer giant (Gl 876B1) can begin.

The first generations of colonists might have to suffice with nuclear fission reactors using local radiogenic materials. Eventually, however, the NIFT (Nuclear Indigenous Fueled Transatmospheric) vehicles and the He-3 mining infrastructure would be complete. The inner giant, with its lower mass, is perfect for this kind of resource extraction.

Do I have lengthy fantasies or what?