New Mars Forums

I think Ceres is of more use a source of raw materials for a martian colony rather than as a target for growing crops. I hear that it probably contains a lot of water and organic material. Robots might be able of take care of this, either automated or remote controlled.

Perhaps it could be even hollowed out and turned into orbital ring habitat ( thats if ceres could be manouvered close to the sun, which is difficult)

There is no actual need for a nuclear reactor on the first mission to Mars. They don't need that much power. PV is also a lot simpler to set up. It won't need half as much maintenance. Nuclear reactors will require lots of maintenance and engineering staff. A Nuclear accident could leave the astronauts without power, or even worse kill them.

The small feeble solar panels of the two mars rovers has pretty much vindicated the use of that technology on the planet already. By the time Mars mission is possible, Solar panels will be a lot more efficient!

A few on y'all on this forum are highly irrational, and probably get boners from the idea of nuclear power.

can we rename the thread middle class white male paranoia?

hmmm

I've heard that the Earth's magnetic field is actually rather weak..

It can take that much to generate an artificial one, strong enough to protect the colonists/atmosphere on Mars - can it?

I don't have a lot of technical info about this - can anybody inform me?

I'd like to visit, just not live there.

No more than I'd like to live in the attacama or Antartica..

Mars is a very horrible frozen desert right now. Some amount of technology will be required before people can stay on its surface, even in an enclosed space...

I think that terraforming this planet will not be possible for 100s and 1000's of years (If ever...), so we're better of developing technology that allows us to take advantage of the local resources in the most efficient and minimalistic way possible. Humans don't actually need a global ocean or atmosphere to survive on this planet, just enough to subsist.

How deep would you have to go on Mars to get Earth like Atmospheric Pressure?

Thats exactly what I was thinking

To build a physical economy will require INVESTMENT, INVESTMENT, INVESTMENT etc etc

The kickbacks for this will never be immediate. It will a program a government does to protect its future.

Why can't you make the Dozer heavier?

Massive amounts of regolith might be removable by dropping a heavy metal weight from Orbit or using a thermonuclear device buried under the ground.

How Come Mass Driver don't work?

The Earth's magnetic field isn't amazingly strong, so I've heard, only couple of microtelsas.

I'm sure in the future there will be a technolgical solution. Perhaps their will an electromagnetic grid built across the planet's surface powered by solar power or nuclear fusion reactors.

I've got a small hunch that Earth's having plate tectonics and a global magnetic field have something to do with having such a huge moon. I'm no expert about this, but Venus and Mars don't have either of these for some reason.

I want to be the first man to pee all over Mars, therefore claiming the land.