Colonizing Space

[Stockhausen]

Well, if it ever happened.

Me and my friend suddenly started discussing it after watching an old Star Trek movie. Anyway,

How do you visualize living in space? How do you think it life in space would be like for us? How do you think it should be done? if we successfully colonized a portion of space oh say Mars?

[Vermilion]

Don't know. Congress cut funding to NASA so that we could spend more money building tanks to oppress third-world nations, because advancing the knowledge of human society is less important than killing brown people and spreading the word of Jesus Christ the heretical ponce.

[lowkey]

There is a program for Mars colonization. Mars core is ice and there are couple of ways to melt it and they assume there will be enough water to sustain atmosphere for couple of million years. Basically Mars is our backup plan in case Earth gets hit by whatever.
The best plan so far is to send self-replicant robots who produce a gas called freon. In theory, they will produce massive global warming since freon they produce will stick to Mars gravity and form outer gas layer. The whole process is 100-200 years long.
Land on Moon is allready sold out.

Originally Posted by WaveMasterJohn

I read in a popular science magazine that I am subscribed to that, the best planet to start would be mars. They said that if we could send some form of algae (turns CO^2 into O^2 ) then it could start to slowly form an atmosphere. This method however would take a very long time.

Yes, I heard that one as second one along with self-replicant robots. It was on some radio show about science.

[JaffaCakes]

Originally Posted by Vermilion

Don't know. Congress cut funding to NASA so that we could spend more money building tanks to oppress third-world nations, because advancing the knowledge of human society is less important than killing brown people and spreading the word of Jesus Christ the heretical ponce.

Who also was one of these brown people.
The only way I can see it being any way viable, is self replication, and autonomous smelting. Using as few materials as possible to get the planet/moon to create more and more of itself(self replicators/smelting machines/yeah), using caves and such to create the basis of storage and possible habitation. But things like "reprap.org", are in it's infancy.

@WaveMasterJohn
Nope. Mars has basically no atmosphere. Algae needs water too. But, if you modify some plants/bacteria to live off of t he rock, turning it into liquid, or extracting all co2, and water, after about 30km and 30 years, you might have enough to create a pseudo-atmosphere. But, you'd have to have a PhD in terraforming rusty dusty planets.

@Lowkey. If any such robot existed, or would be in existence in the next 30 years. Then yes. But no. The best we can hope for is using iron/plastic and a few other things, to "self-replicate" itself, then after about 100 years, it will be hand held. Then after 100-500 years. We might have microscopic nano-"bots". Or we could re-purpose some bacteria. But Sorry. It's a pipe dream. You'll be dead before most of the initial projects are underway.

Read this.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[lowkey]

Originally Posted by JaffaCakes

@Lowkey. If any such robot existed, or would be in existence in the next 30 years. Then yes. But no. The best we can hope for is using iron/plastic and a few other things, to "self-replicate" itself, then after about 100 years, it will be hand held. Then after 100-500 years. We might have microscopic nano-"bots". Or we could re-purpose some bacteria. But Sorry. It's a pipe dream. You'll be dead before most of the initial projects are underway.

Read this.
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

It was said that there were plans but not resources or need to do so. the question was about Mars colonization and this was said to be best idea so far. I remember him saying that, as you said, initial projects wont begin for more that 100 years and the robots itself are only the first step in the whole process.
That's the info I got.

I'll pass on wiki link (I'm too lazy to read it) but thanks for the info

[Ulquiorraunlimited]

Originally Posted by Vermilion

Don't know. Congress cut funding to NASA so that we could spend more money building tanks to oppress third-world nations, because advancing the knowledge of human society is less important than killing brown people and spreading the word of Jesus Christ the heretical ponce.

My friend you are uneducated and ignorant. The military got its budget cut far more severely then NASA, cutting soldiers and DoD civilians.

We also have no tanks in Afghanistan, if you see a tank looking vehicle its a M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV), [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I know you are just generalizing but tanks are nothing more then a show of force, a battalion of tanks(14x4= 64) could easily be wiped out by 4-5 helicopters.

And for the record i'm Atheist and believe all religion especially Christianity are nothing more then huge cults. (I have then right to my opinion so if you take offense to this too bad, and keep it to your self.)

I also agree that our funding should be put more toward education as our rank in the world has dropped from 1 to 17 over the last couple decades.

[Times]

@Verm
It's actually more like spreading the word of democracy and capitalism... Not a very noble cause at all...

@Ulqui
Sure, you could be right... I don't really like the idea of fighting in the first place though... I'm a dreamer who wishes everything could be solved peacefully... Well I guess it isn't a reality though...

We could go places if we worked together... That's what I think about the colonization of space...
EDIT: Sure we can accomplish things individually country-wise, but wouldn't it happen loads faster if more people work together...

[Skizzit]

Originally Posted by Times

@Verm
It's actually more like spreading the word of democracy and capitalism... Not a very noble cause at all...

@Ulqui
Sure, you could be right... I don't really like the idea of fighting in the first place though... I'm a dreamer who wishes everything could be solved peacefully... Well I guess it isn't a reality though...

We could go places if we worked together... That's what I think about the colonization of space...

We need a hostile extra terrestrial force to invade and attack Earth so that we can join together as the human race to defend ourselves. Either that or a crazy rich super genius to fake an attack by teleporting a biologically-engineered, telepathic creature into the middle of downtown Manhattan where it will explode in a psychic shock wave.

[WaveMasterJohn]

I read in a popular science magazine that I am subscribed to that, the best planet to start would be mars. They said that if we could send some form of algae (turns CO^2 into O^2 ) then it could start to slowly form an atmosphere. This method however would take a very long time.

[eccentrich]

When I hear living in space, I think of space colonies, large habitats either in orbit, at a stable lagrange point like L4 or L5, or in or near an asteroid belt. Colonizing other planets, like Mars, is a little different, and probably easier for most people to imagine.

There are quicker ways to terraform Mars, like bombarding it with comets (water ice), and/or heating it with solar mirrors. But some kind of gradual introduction of plants, microbes, and eventually animals would also be desirable. The whole thing would take a long time (Robinson's Red Mars/Green Mars/Blue Mars series lays the whole process out in excruciating detail). But even as it stands, Mars would still be safer and easier to live on than most other places in the solar system. It does take too long to get there using current technology.

You could also divert a large nickel-iron asteroid into earth orbit (scary if you missed!), and then turn it into a large, spinning habitat. It makes sense to move a lot of industry into space, and there are enormous resources available there if you can ever develop a cheap way to get into orbit.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of military options up there as well, so it is a political hot potato. I do think the space race is going to get started again over the next 20 years, given China's interest in that area, and the private companies working on it.