New Mars Forums

Would clouds form? Or would instead the axis of the cylinder contain a spinning cylinder of water. Maybe we could inject air bubbles into the cylinder of water to induce rain.

Forgive me for being the pessimist but what happens if it falls down? The elevator better be very light. We don't wish to drop an asteroid on our selves.

I wonder, are there people that would like the Martian life. There are many people that are really excited about the possibility  of humans going to mars. Do any of these people understand what life would be like on mars. Or how about the poor, the starving and the persecuted, would any of these people appreciate the possibility of a new life on mars.

Can we choose people that are psychologically predisposed to living in this kind of environment. I recommend we don't send people that have a history of depression in there fammily. I recommend we send people that like to work and live indoors. I recommend that we send people that don't mind having little privacy and little personal freedoms.

Don't forget the speakers and microphones on the suit. Add some digital signal processing and people should be able to hear the sounds the want to hear and ignore the sounds they don't want to hear.

Hmmmm, perhaps I should of read it more closely before I signed it. Oh well, it was quite a while ago.

Turning Towards Earth

Our goal ultimately is to benefit humanity. The mars society is a forward looking organization. In times of uncertainty and instability it becomes important to look at the present as well as the future. A new war has begun and pacifists aren't welcome. Afghanistan stated they will go to war against, any nation who supports the U.S. in any efforts to launch an attack against Afghanistan. The U.S. and Russia both said this is not terrorism this is an act of war. In the NATO documents it says an attack against one member of NATO is an attack against all members of NATO. Nukes are not only held by NATO and Russia. Pakistan, Kazakstan, China and India also have nukes.

I don't claim to be a sooth sayer and the politics of the day are far too complicated for me to grasp every subtle detail that might influence future events. However, when what is at stake is the survival of perhaps all vertebra's on earth, it becomes our responsibility to be prudent. In this spirt of caution and responsibility I call upon the Mars Society to become the Shepards of the earth, and lead the species that our closest to us away from the wolves of war.

In this day our responsibilities of a Shepard do not entail the construction of a space ship. Rather the entail the implantation and development of infrastructure necessary for the survival of man, his culture and closest relatives on earth during and after a nuclear war.

Why do people like old things? Does preserving an antique coach give people a tie to the past? If we preserve what is old and what existed before, will in make us feel as we are contacted to something eternal. Could doing something for the future also have the same psychological effects? If we are the guardians of a way of life, does it mean our way of life will live beyond our short lives. Is the essence of our life, the possessions we have, the city we lived in and the customs we follow. Is the essence of our lives, our corpse, is it the work we contribute the knowledge held by man kind?

With our without people we cannot save the Martian landscape. The Martian landscape represents  an infentessimal unit of space, in the vast Mosaic making up the history of our Universe. The rights of the landscape will be violated as they have always been through the history of our solar system. Still, there is the academic question, "If something occurs in nature does it make it right?". Or to rephrase it, "If nature constantly destroys the pristine in favor of the new is it right for man to do the same?

I find the moon hard to get excited about with it?s 90 earth day, days, tremendous temperature extremes, a complete lack of gravity, and almost know water at all. I believe mars being less hostile and still within reasonable travailing times is the right place to focus our energy in overcoming the problems inherent in unlocking the nearly infinite resources beyond our planet.

However, the earth, the moon and mars are all just places. What is important is the lives that members of humanity enjoy. We should not think that any place is the answer to all our problems. Instead we should use these places as tools to challenge the creative juices of mankind, to unlock a freedom of movement that has never been seen before, to substantially increase the resources available to life on this solar system, to satisfy our curiosity, to bring a feeling of growth and adventure, to increase our resilience in the face of natural and man made disaster, to better understand where we came from and how the universe works.

Well, Who are they?

It?s unfortunate that many people don?t share our enthusiasm about space research. Rather then dismiss the opinions as not well thought ought I believe that the space community should take on the responsibility turning these opinions around. Our efforts should be to fold. The first is to educate people about the value of space research. The second and more important is to focus on improving the value of space research. Instead of ignoring critisizim we should embrace it and see how we can use it to increase the benefit of space research in general. In my opinion FMARS was a good first project, many didn?t think so. Some saw it only as a publicity stunt to promote Zubrin?s book.

But what is research if we don?t learn from our mistakes. Perhaps the critizim is part of what we learn from the research. In our next Simulation Habitat we can learn from this and do better. Good luck to Terry Kook, in his efforts to make CELSS (Closed Ecological Life Support Sytem) a reality for earth and mars. Good luck to others who are taking on there own projects that are unrelated to FMARS. (For example, Robert Dykes efforts to develop a low cost ION engine, the group who is working on the mars suit design, the chapter that proposed the balloon mission, the simulation task force.)

People are inspired and they are working to go to mars. They will go not because of gornermnet but despite government. Last but not least let me wish best of luck in the efforts of people who are working on projects related to FMARS such as the two Mars Rover teams.

To be brief I'll say planing and engineering. For more details you can look at my mars page.

The announcement of the translife project is the first really exciting news I have heard about mars exploration. It shows real vision on the part of the mars society and it makes me proud to be a member. I now what to hear updates on this project so I know what needs to be done to make it a success. How is the fundraising going? Who is designing the mission? What progress have they made so far?