Mars: Terraforming?

claudine · Post by **claudine** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 5:55 pm

This is the hour of my coming-out: I am a BELIEVER! I am even a TREKKIE - ever since I fell in love with the ears of Mr Spock. All that Mars-talk makes me so nervous that I am hopelessly sleepless. So I am writing nonsense (again) instead of getting correct nightsleep. Say a prayer for me at 6.30 am (GMT + 1). Thank you.
And please, let me know if there is a cottage for rent with view on Olympus Mons and within walking distance of MacDo.
Thanks again. Keep the faith. We're gonna go there one day. We're even gonna farther. We will reach the stars.
I know in my afterlife I'm going to be stardust. It's my destiny.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 6:33 pm

That's beautiful. I, too, am a sci-fi fan.

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:42 pm

Bretton wrote:I'm all for it! ...and we need to get on it quick! Establish a Moon base right away (the only good idea Bush has had, and unfortunatley, probably for all the wrong reasons)....

Yes, NASA acts so convinced that water was once there. The Bush administration is probably betting if there's water, there's proabably oil. :roll: Come on, say it! I know that's what democrats are thinking.

I'm just waiting to see if some "Preserve Mars Environment" group forms and starts demanding money from the government.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 9:51 pm

I am also a fan of sci-fi...especially the classics. Gods, the Giants novels by James Hogan are a "best of breed" as far as I'm concerned.

If I thought for a second that they were serious about going to Mars, even for the wrong reasons, I'd be completely thrilled.

I just don't think they are. They don't want to go: they merely want to outspend other countries to stop them from going.

Once the trip gets so expen$ive that nobody can compete with the U.S., they'll pull the plug on it quicker than anything.

I wish we would come up with a real plan that would get us a usable orbital vehicle, a useful off-planet station, and some near-system exploration going in our lifetimes. I just don't know if they will turn loose of the funds to do it.

--James

buddhu · Post by **buddhu** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:26 am

Expansion beyond Earth isn't a matter of choice, long term. At the moment humanity suffers from eggs-in-one-basket vulnerability. It is very likely that one day the planet will get hit by something big enough to bring our tenancy to an abrupt end. That's if the place isn't rendered uninhabitable by our careless use and abuse of resources.

If humans are to survive long term we have to grow up and fly the nest. The sooner we start, the more likely we are to be ready when things hit the fan here.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Fri Feb 13, 2004 10:34 am

buddhu wrote:Expansion beyond Earth isn't a matter of choice, long term. At the moment humanity suffers from eggs-in-one-basket vulnerability. It is very likely that one day the planet will get hit by something big enough to bring our tenancy to an abrupt end. That's if the place isn't rendered uninhabitable by our careless use and abuse of resources.

If humans are to survive long term we have to grow up and fly the nest. The sooner we start, the more likely we are to be ready when things hit the fan here.

For what it's worth, I agree with you.

However, I don't think the people holding the purse strings do--they simply won't care until they can see an Event approaching...and by the time you see it, it would be way too late to do anything about it, movies like Armeggedon not withstanding.

But I think we have even more immediate problems on our species' long-term survival, such as global hunger, disease, war, and chronic and ever-increasing overpopulation.

I think to have a serious chance at starting to look at space as a viable frontier, we have to fix those problems first. Because at the end of the day, the biggest danger to humanity isn't an offplanet threat: the biggest danger to humanity is, and always has been humanity itself.

--James

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 5:43 pm

You'd never guess that I'm a Trekkie.

Just look at the Avatar.

TonyHiggins · Post by **TonyHiggins** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:03 pm

If we don't do it soon things are going to get really nasty here on Earth before too long, unless we have some kind of huge natural disaster that reduces our population by a significant amount.

<a href="http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/">Life After the Oil Crash</a>
More food for thought (argument, flaming, etc)
Tony

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 6:04 pm

peeplj wrote:
buddhu wrote:Expansion beyond Earth isn't a matter of choice, long term. At the moment humanity suffers from eggs-in-one-basket vulnerability. It is very likely that one day the planet will get hit by something big enough to bring our tenancy to an abrupt end. That's if the place isn't rendered uninhabitable by our careless use and abuse of resources.

If humans are to survive long term we have to grow up and fly the nest. The sooner we start, the more likely we are to be ready when things hit the fan here.
For what it's worth, I agree with you.

However, I don't think the people holding the purse strings do--they simply won't care until they can see an Event approaching...and by the time you see it, it would be way too late to do anything about it, movies like Armeggedon not withstanding.

But I think we have even more immediate problems on our species' long-term survival, such as global hunger, disease, war, and chronic and ever-increasing overpopulation.

I think to have a serious chance at starting to look at space as a viable frontier, we have to fix those problems first. Because at the end of the day, the biggest danger to humanity isn't an offplanet threat: the biggest danger to humanity is, and always has been humanity itself.

--James

James, for heaven's sake, the greatest threat to
humanity is The Borg!