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MoreGull OP t1_ja94lu5 wrote

To add to this discussion: Mars is a joke. I can't see any realistic benefit at all for human efforts directed at Mars.

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lochlainn t1_ja9d3e0 wrote

Other than scientific inquiry or barring some specific mineral wealth, I agree. Everything we need can be found floating in space except for a gravity well to live in. If we're capable of living in space, why deal with an atmosphere that does nothing but add to the energy cost of leaving it?

The future entirely depends on just what we discover about human adaptation to microgravity, likely from experimentation on the Moon. If we can remain healthy and especially reproduce in fractional gravity, other planets have much less appeal than the moons and asteroids that don't require a huge energy expenditure to reach.

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dgames_90 t1_jacpg4t wrote

Mars is a pipedream cultivated by sci-fi and scam artists.

Terraforming Venus would be a lot better but much harder techwise.

A bunch of juvian and saturn moons could also be interesting since they have gravity and readily available water.

anyway colonizing any of those is so far out we will have to see how tech develops.

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MoreGull OP t1_jacpswl wrote

I think terraforming is far out as to be basically pointless to discuss. Could it be done? Sure, theoretically. Will it anytime soon? Not likely.

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PhotonicSymmetry t1_jad3ps5 wrote

Hey, I wouldn't call it a pipe dream cultivated by scam artists. Mars has appeal purely for the exploration - just like any other planet. Humans will surely set foot on Mercury too if we don't eliminate ourselves sooner. Mars will never be terraformed and terraforming Mars is a terrible idea. But a reasonable sized human settlement for scientific purposes with a decent number of orbital habitats is in the cards. Over time, I expect most people living within Mars SOI will be living in orbit and perhaps going down to the surface to work.

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dgames_90 t1_jae1txj wrote

>Mars will never be terraformed and terraforming Mars is a terrible idea.

isn't musk selling this idea? colony with MILLIONS of people?

he isn't the only one, MarsOne comes to mind among many others.

I totally agree with what you say, having small bases like in the artic, or simple mining colonies is feasable and interesting, but the talk here is fully functional independent colonies. that's not gonna happen anytime soon (200++ years).

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