'Colonizing the Red Planet,' a How-To Guide 288
Velcroman1 writes "A manned mission to Mars would be the greatest adventure in the history of the human race. And one man knows how to make it a reality. In fact, he just wrote the book on it — literally. Joel Levine, senior research scientist with NASA's Langley Research Center and co-chair of NASA's Human Exploration of Mars Science Analysis Group, just published 'The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet.' The book reads like a who's who of Mars mission science, featuring senators, astronauts, astrophysicists, geologists and more on getting to Mars, studying its atmosphere and climate, the psychological and medical effects on the crew and other details. The most interesting bit: Levine presents is a solution for funding the trip, something unprecedented for NASA: advertising. 'The suggestion is marketing to different corporations and professional sports leagues for advertising, which is something NASA never does.'"
Advertising! (Score:5, Insightful)
Advertising!
The best way to make an expensive thing look cheap.
Re:Not going to happen (Score:3, Insightful)
The worst places on Earth are far easier to explore and colonize than Mars. Even Luna is easier to work with. A base on Luna is mostly a logistic problem; with enough lift capacity, it could be done today. But none of this will ever happen with chemical rockets, except as a nationalistic ego trip.
Consider your job. Is it easier than living on a beach while picking fruit and fishing? If the answer is "no", then why do you do it?
Re:Fight Club was right (Score:2, Insightful)
And if it's anything like stadiums, the taxpayers will still pay for most of it, while $BIG_CORPORATION gets to put their name on it.
Re:venus is a better target for colonization (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Step 1: Think of a rational reason. (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, what's on Mars that can't be done more cheaply by building near earth orbital environments?
The real estate to spread a colony upon. 1/3 gravity would be healthier. Local water is pretty damn nice too. Easier construction environment, simpler building designs, etc.
Re:venus is a better target for colonization (Score:5, Insightful)
Mars has a LOT of hydrogen, in the form of good old H2O.
Venus is a dead end. Sure, you can make floating cities, but HOW would you do this? Venus has no satellites to mine and conditions on the surface are waay too extreme.
Re:Not going to happen (Score:3, Insightful)
well, the modern life is about 10^6 times more pleasant than the hunter gatherer existence, so i will disagree with you there.
It's not more pleasant than the easiest hunter gatherer existence.
Re:Um, why? (Score:5, Insightful)