New Mars Forums

This topic has probably already been covered in the past, but if colonists are going to set up domes how could you block cosmic rays with such thin material and how will you protect the dome against micro-meteorites that probably hit Mars a lot more frequently than on Earth?  If the dome was big enough, would the air inside act as a sufficient radiation shield?  I'm beginning to think that maybe more permanent residents might choose instead to build structures that are covered with enough regolith to block out radiation and protect against micrometeorites, or maybe they'll stick to hab-like modules that are well shielded.  Personally though, I'd rather live in a big dome where I could have some running space.

Awesome, I never thought about the possibilities of having manpowered gliders on Mars.  If we could thicken up the Martian atmosphere to the same degree as Earth's I'd definately take up gliding as a sport.  I can see all kinds of endurance contests, like the first guy to try to fly all the way around Mars non-stop.

Someone could say the same though of fanatical political sects.  The deadliest wars of the 20th Century were fought over political differences, not religious ones.  Some people cling to their political philosophies with the same mindless and destructive fervor as some people do with their religious beliefs.  You have to be wary of letting in lunatics of any stripe, regardless of their beliefs, religious, political, or whatever.  Anyways, if mass colonization ever becomes a reality, it's likely no one group will be able to pick and choose who goes to Mars.  You'll probably have Buddhist retreats along with Marxist and Libertarian settlements all residing apart in their respective little domes or whatever.

The Chinese elite seem to be milking their space endeavour all they can to fan the flames of nationalism.  I think in many ways the Chinese space effort is paralleling the space effort of the 60's.  I think you might be right about Asia as a whole gaining more interest in space.  Japan seems to be ratcheting up its space program to full throttle lately.  Of any country I'd like to see in space is Japan.  It's fairly safe to assume they wouldn't be using their projects as military covers.   

I think the Chinese are doing a lot of dreaming if they plan to go to Mars just five years after they will have supposedly landed on the Moon.  If the Chinese are truly planning on these space projects and aren't just posturing, I think they should just can the Moon shot and go straight for Mars.  If that doesn't wake up the West, nothing will.  Of course, I'm not so sure I'd volunteer for that mission.

Algae would be a far superior alternative to fibrous plants.  I had no idea that it might be possible to make fibers from algae products.   We could just harvest the algae from the fish ponds.    I wonder if there might be easily obtained materials in the regolith that could be made into synthetic fibers. 

True.  Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in comfort and hygiene to make history.   I doubt if very many polar explorers dragged extensive wardrobes along with them.  But I wonder how many suits they should take along with them.  If they launch an unmanned hab module to Mars as a backup, they
could probably put a few extra changes of clothes in it for when the first explorers land.

I can barely even stand watching TV news anymore.  It's so predictable and dumbed down. It feels more like the National Enquirer than a true form of journalism.  Anyways, I'm beginning to wonder if education can even do the job of instilling greater appreciation of science in people.    I think one of the problems with science education in high school and below is that it focuses so much on just memorizing rote facts and occassionally doing calculations here and there.  With the exception of one class, I never had an enjoyable science class in high school.  Most students don't understand that true science is often a mixture of both technical competence and creativity, which is very similiar to the way an artist works.  But most revere artists while they see scientists as just these hags with big pocket protectors.  We need to destroy those stereotypes and make science class focus less on the boring rote crap and more on the thinking and creative aspects.

How much clothing will astronauts need to bring with them on what will be a nearly 3 year round trip to Mars?  Will they be able to wash or dry clean their clothes or what?  I think a textile plant would make an excellent first manufacturing endeavour on Mars for an established colony. The colonists will need clothing and there's no sense in waiting for such supplies to come from Earth if it can be helped.  And also sewing could give the colonists something to do.  It would also make dwelling places more homey if you could make things like quilts, blankets, curtains, pillow covers, etc.  I think there should be experiments on growing fibrous plants like cotton, hemp, etc for this end.  If we can't set up a textiles factory on Mars maybe we could just make Mars a nudist colony.

This happens a lot when I start a thread for some reason.  I hope those moles at NASA haven't attached some alien technology to my computer to keep the truth from getting out!

That's why we would also have a fleet of smaller rockets in addition to the Saturn V.  Those same payloads that we launch on the Shuttle would likely be a lot cheaper to launch on smaller, unmanned rockets.  At least if we did have Saturn V's still readily available we'd still be that much closer to having more massive space projects a reality.  And considering how many launches it took to build the ISS, the Saturn V could have done it in way fewer launches.  So I think there would still be reasons to have Saturn V's available.

Tell me about it.  There seems to be plenty of people who like to play death by a thousand questions with Zubrin's plans, but I have yet to see anything that's sounds even remotely plausible, both economically and technically, by those enlightened beings who like to call Zubrin a crackpot.  Granted, there are technical holes here and there that need to be plugged up, but I think Zubrin has done a good job of laying the basic groundwork for a Mars mission.  With human ingenuity I'm sure the few technical problems remaining could be cleared up in no time.

Using seeds from hybrid plants is definately a danger that I hope is realized before people start growing plants on Mars.  With the direction modern agriculture is moving I hope there's a pure strain of food crop left before we go to Mars.   If plants are truly vaccuum tolerant, that will sure make harvesting them a lot easier if we only have to build small terrariums to keep them in.  On the other hand, you have to be careful that the plants don't freeze to death when exposed to the ultra low temperatures when you go to harvest them.  I guess you could flip on a heater that would keep the plants warm.  Maybe line the terrarium with heating elements and a thermostat to regulate so the temp stays nominal?

Sometimes I think this high emphasis we put on the reusability of a vehicle goes a bit far.  I agree and would bet my life  that we could probably get more for our money using Saturn Vs as opposed to the space shuttle.  If you don't want to waste any material just reclaim the parts, smelt them down, remold 'em and go at it again.   The Saturn V is a glorious, proven vehicle it didn't deserve to die such an untimely death!  Of course, we could use smaller vehicles if we don't need to put anything heavy into orbit, like re-crewing the space station or whatever.