Yes Welcome to Newmars as JBurk said in your introduction topic.
]]>Perhaps they realize that building and demonstrating a proto-type of a Martian settlement on Earth is the quickest way to demonstrate the disadvantages to living off planet.
Reporter: So what do you do all day?
Proto-Mars Colonist: Er, um, I sit inside, under the flickering lights, driving this little rover around in vacum.
Reporter: What do you do for fun?
Proto-Mars Colonist: Well, most of the time we have to do saftey drills, do diagnostic sweeps, calibrate sensors, and triple check the machinery we pretend to depend on for life.
Reporter: So what are the advantages of pretending to live on Mars?
Proto-Mars Colonist: That's what we are trying to figure out, so far we have "science".
Reporter: What is the food like?
Proto-Mars Colonist: Rich and varied, all nutrious- of course by Earthly standards, it is sparse and tasteless. We have very little room for luxaries, as the cost is too great. Most of our food is soy based. Most of us would kill for ice cream, we feel for our Antartic cousins.
Reporter: Speaking of killing, is there crime in your community?
Proto-Mars Colonist: Nah, not really- what with all the cameras and other base sensors that monitor the status of the habitat 24/7, and the fact that we live in an enclosed and regulated environment, there is little opportunity for crime. Of course, it would be nice to have cloudy and cold days now and then, but the temp regs require 72 degrees, all the time- and due to the need for constant work throughout the day for maintainence, the lights are always the same in the general area.
Reporter: Why do you think people would want to go to mars?
Proto-Mars Colonist: Why? For the adventure of course, dosen't my life sound like an adventure? Well, dosen't it?You tell mme.
It is very boring. But there is one aspect of colonizing Mars you forgot about. Renewable food. A food garden would be a must have for real Mars colonists. If an Apollo 13 type malfunction delays a supply run, with rations their only food, colonists are dead. One hundred percent isolation from the outside world (including reporters) would be a necessary part of establishing a test colony on Earth. Also B-12 deprivation is a serious issue. Without a high-tech chem-lab as part of the colony for creating artificial pills and liquids with vital nutrients like that, a full blown ecosystem within the real Mars complex would be necessary, including keeping animals for slaughter.
There are many such issues I see with colonizing Mars, but I'm determined to come up with solutions to every single one of them, same as the rest of you, I assume.
]]>This sonnet you've just penned makes it obvious that if and when people do go to Mars to begin a new life, it's going to get terraformed, one way or another...
"A thousand colors for red,
But only one lonely name for a shade of blue." Sure says a lot, doesn't it?
B
]]>If my enthusiasm was flagging before, it certainly isn't now!
What you've written sums up so much of how I imagine it would be to live and work on Mars. Your words reveal how well you've visualised the whole thing.
Excellent! Thank you.
]]>Also, a great deal of research and exploration would be carried out outdoors in rovers and spacesuits, and many people will essentially spend their entire workdays out under the Martian sun, despite the risk of increased radiation. And the vistas from the habs wouldn't neccessarily be of a montonous, flat dun-colored desert, unless the base was unfortunately situated out on the vast reaches of the northern plains...most likely, people would live in places of geological interest, such as the floor of Marineris or in the Kasei Valley or in the bottom of a steep-walled crater. Imagine waking up each day to watch the pink rays of the morning sun illuminating the nearby sheer, two kilometer-high cliffs of Kasei, or being able to gaze at the endless ranges of the mightly 9000-meter tall (that's almost 30,000 feet) North Wall of Mariner stretching away over the sharply curving horizon in the super-clear air of Mars. Or being in a glass-enclosed rover, crawling for hours on end up and down the heavily cratered regions of the southern hemisphere, watching the dueling moons of Mars crossing the sky from west to east, not to mention witnessing the spectacular blue sunsets that Mars will surely be famous for. As far as weather goes...Mars is not without its meteological wonders, either...just think of the vast, continent-sized dust storms that roll across the landscape in a giant, billowing waves, or those uber-sized dust devils that soar for thousands of feet into the the clear sky..and yes, Mars has clouds from time to time, just like the desert does on occasion..just no rain or snow...
Sure, there would be people that wouldn't want to expose themselves to any more cosmic radiation than is absolutely necessary, or to take that chance of depressurization each time one ventures out from the hab, and they would perfectly content to live and work under the regolith 24/7. But the way I see it, if I gave up everything I had on Earth to go live on Mars, I'd be in a mindset to experience the mind-boggling beauty and geological diversity of Mars to the greatest extent possible, the 'risks' be damned.
Sorry for the rambling..it's the writer in me coming out this morning...
B
]]>Source: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002 … list843206
]]>I guess I'm biased about living indoors.
I mean, I spend a good 20 hours a day indoors. I know it's somewhat pathetic, but my line of work doesn't put me outdoors, and when I'm off work, I just don't go out often. On the weekends, I may go to the park, perhaps, but being outdoors really isn't something I indulge in.
I think people are way more capable than we're suggesting here. People aren't exactly weakminded, and they tend to adapt to enviroments fairly well. The only exception would be, say, the mentally ill, but even they spend a lot of time indoors!
Hey, people will probably be saying here, that they wouldn't want to go to Mars if they couldn't go outside. I don't think you'd always be confined to your habitat. You could go out daily, if you wanted. Whether or not it's safe, I dunno. You know, I can see people rock climbing in suits specially designed for such a thing; even hiking. The point is, that ?getting out? of the hab, would be risky. You could probably do it, you just probably wouldn't often due to the risk factor (and comparatively extraneous steps to nullify those risks).
]]>I have to believe that as the routine sets in of putting on suit and checking systems (and the myriad other things that will need to be done on Mars) that the excitement of being one of the first will rapidly fade and like a deployed ship, the messages from "home" will be the most anticipated. I can fully understand why a "media wall" is a part of the analog habs now.
As far as the children, I tend to agree with the environment as influence psychologists that the first generations will grow up in the steel/aluminum with glass windows world of airlocks and leak alarms and whatever else and find Earth a strange and hostile environment. Human actions aside (i.e crime), tell a Colonial child about hurricanes/cyclones and they may ask why anyone would want to live on such a horrible planet with its terrible weather, dangerous life (find one rattlesnake on Mars, I dare you) and disease-causing intense solar radiation and crushing gravity. Those kids will probably ask why it took so long to get off the Earth once the technology was ready.
turbo
]]>So for starters the first colonists will have to be experienced submarine crews? Some of those guys live in a world without windows for months at a time.
I agree, but not everyone has the psychological where-withal to thrive in these kinds of environments. And there really isn't much of an option to return either- this isn't a few months, this is for the rest of your life.
*Yes. And will eventually involve children. ???
--Cindy
]]>So for starters the first colonists will have to be experienced submarine crews? Some of those guys live in a world without windows for months at a time.
I agree, but not everyone has the psychological where-withal to thrive in these kinds of environments. And there really isn't much of an option to return either- this isn't a few months, this is for the rest of your life.
]]>