New Mars Forums

Would it be medically feasible to put that much iron into a human body?  I know it's good to have at least some iron, but the body might be unable to cope with such a massive amount
of it.  Well anyways, thanks for the warning before I strap myself into an electromagnetic chair.  I'm not sure the rest of the crew would appreciate my imploding bladder. 

Sometime this Century artificial intelligence might evolve to such a formidable state that it might be better just to increase our lifespans by scanning the connections in our brains and downloading them to a computer that could simulate and augment their abilities beyond what any improvements genetic tinkering could bestow on humanity.  Sounds kinda whacky but I believe that artificial intelligence will someday far surpass that of even the most intelligent humans.

I couldn't agree more that we should siphon off a little more money for non-military ventures like education and space exploration.  I get the feeling that we're going to see a lot more projects like New Horizons axed so that some military technology can be developed.  Yeah, I agree that we need to do experiments that feel like they have the potential to increase our presence in space rather than testing how crickets react to weightlessness.

    I've always found it amusing that the President is expected to have some magical ability to fix the economy.  Even if the President did come out and make a declaration for Mars he'd probably find a very loud mouthed mob accusing him of recklessly spending money when the economy is in such shambles.   But I agree with you that supporting an effort to get to Mars could be a boost to the economy.  It'd be a lot better than designing new bombers.

all your bases are belong to us

I tend to agree with Adrian.  You'd need a pretty #### big scoop to terraform Mars by taking bites out of the atmosphere
of another planet.   :0

     It's funny that you mention the possibility of the Space Shuttle being used as a weapons delivery platform.  I read in "Korolev" by James Harford that the Soviets believed the real purpose of the Space Shuttle was to toss hydrogen bombs at the Soviet Union.  Apparently, according to this same book, the Soviets scrapped their plans to set up a permanent base on the moon to develop the Buran spaceshuttle so they to could sneak some hydrogen bombs
into orbit should they have to.   They didn't have funds for
both programs.   This seemed a little far fetched to me but
I suspect there's some truth to it.

If we find life that's very similiar to ours on Mars, it might lend credence to the theory that life was transferred from Mars to Earth or vice versa.  Even though I think such events are far fetched, I'm hoping that if we do find life on Mars that it turns out to be organized much differently than Earth's life so there will be no question that life started independently on both planets.

Personally, I'd find it fascinating if there turned out to be blue green algae, or just a few alien bacteria burrowing around on Mars.  If it exists on both Mars and Earth, then the possibility is very good that life is a common occurance throughout the rest of the universe.  It would be especially interesting to see how different the life on Mars would be from Earth life.  Would it have DNA sequences like we do?  Would it use ATP as a power source?  We could see a totally new way in which life
can arise and operate.

          We don't have to leave the Solar System in order to
preserve humanity, we could set up bases on Mars, the Moon, or out in open space, or even more practical for the very near term, develop systems capable of detecting and thwarting an asteroid that threatens earth.  We don't have to send some giant beast on some questionable journey out into the middle of nowhere to save ourselves.  And yes, our technology isn't good enough for this yet.  And are you sure I'm the one being naive?

It seems to me that if your going to build a generational ship, you'd first need to find some earth-like planets or some other suitable destination before putting any expense into it.  I guess you could just shoot the thing off and hope you find some good destinations after launch, but personally, I think we'd be better off building permament space habitats closer to earth and gain more experience in colonizing space before undertaking such a venture.  Anyways, a lot of our technology isn't really mature enough for such an undertaking.  Cloning for instance has problems that haven't been solved yet, like the tendency of the clone to have the biological age of the parent.  Some of the other points you brought up are also not proven yet such as massive agriculture that could feed thousands being undertaken in space and mining.  Ultimately, once such a ship leaves the Solar System, it might be a very long time before it can find
resources to renew itself.  I think we need more research into power systems that could last hundreds of years before needing to be refueled.

Some people propose cutting the costs of getting to Mars by putting a ship in a permanent orbit around the Sun that would swing by Mars every six months or so.  I like the idea personally, it seems like it should be cheaper than always building new spacecraft for the long voyage.