Mars....Our next home?

Not really they have landed on mars, and taken thousands of photos.
No sign of aliens, so i doubt it.

 

Obviously, Mars would be one of the only planets we could actually adapt to. It would take some time to fully settle but it could happen. I'm betting were ten times smarter than those who first started to build upon the Earths surface so it can't be impossible to do. Also, this could give us a fresh start and for those who didn't take the whole environment seriously, they could now learn from there mistakes. It's actually an alright thought.

 

But how could we adapt? We'd run out of oxygen right? and why are "they" taking pictures of mars?

 

No, probably not in this century. Vegetation would fail and oxygen levels would be hard to maintain. Living on Mars in this day in age would be extremely challenging.

 

I think it's likely, with private funding.

 

This is a 3 year old gravedig, but nevertheless it is still a relevant topic today.

No we could not terraform mars because there is no magnetic field to protect any atmosphere it has from the radiation from the sun. This radiation will blow apart anything in the atmosphere into space, and cook any life below. I highly doubt we could terraform mars, it would be more realistic to build giant domes with controlled environments and simulated gravity.

The only severely difficult parts of this are simulating gravity and producing enough of an exterior magnetic field to shield from random cosmic rays. In space its quite simple to simulate the gravity of earth (theoretically) by having occupants on the inside of the station then spinning it, with a large enough station there would be no effects felt of the spin other than the "gravity".

 

Still not practical.
Mars's atmosphere is 95% CO2. No human can breathe that. So what is the solution?
Plants.
But Mars also has very cold winters. So the plants will freeze
And Mars has little usable Nitrogen
And it also has few nutrients.
It will be energy intensive to get enough water out to water the plants
It will be problematic to get the amount of plants high enough
and the plants will be restricted to one equatorial region where it is hot enough.
People will never terraform Mars. However, enclosed colonies are viable assuming enough energy can be produced to fuel oxygen generation, air conditioning, and several other essential functions.

 

But to get the effects would require a massive object beyond the current capabilities really. I believe it is the Foundation series by Issac Assimov that cover this, as well as the companion book The Science of Foundation or something along those lines that go into depth and prove/disprove the science in the books.

 

Terraforming a whole planet would use up too much resources and energy to make it really worthwhile. We should work on saving this planet before we try and set up base on another one.

 

This would never happen for many reasons, one of them being we are not accustomed to living on a different planet.

 

it wouldnt happen in our life times but i see in the distant future

 

Well when our ozone layer finally burns out, we're royally fucked and our planet will probably end up looking like Mars

 

I don't think this will happen to be honest, not for people like us. I bet only a few people will be allowed to go to Mars, also they would have to build giant domes to protect people from the radiation.

 

It's not impossible, and I would love to see it happen.

but according to National Geographic, it'll take us around a millenia for us to complete
try reading this article, it's very interesting!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/big-idea/07/mars

 

I personally think there are more oxygen in mars then we think, the redness of the mars comes from the rusting of iron, and rusting is a type of "oxidation"

 

I can't see Mars ever becoming a stable or consistent source of life for human beings. I believe that the human race will definitely have the ability to peacefully exist on other planets, but Mars will not be the answer, nor do I think any other planet will be.

It's not particularly abundant on resources needed to sustain life, and I can only see it being habituated by those who wanted to harness any particular metals/ores still lying dormant in the planet. Now, this COULD be replicated on the planet, but it would just be considerably more troublesome to do it on another planet, rather than here.

I think the only real reason people would seek another area to live would be the promise of new land and overpopulation. I hate the term, because it's thrown around so freely these days, but it's something that will over the next few thousand years, become a serious concern. As for now, it's hardly a trouble despite what nay-sayers will tell you.

Even then, it would be considerably more cost-efficient and safe to create new land masses on Earth within the ocean, or potentially, orbiting the Earth (living on the moon, creating alternative land masses that also orbit Earth.)

There would just be no real gain to move to Mars when it would be far easier to expand the Earth.

 

that wud be pretty cool

 

it is not obvious to people yet that we are like a little parasitic plague hopping from host to host. it is pathetic. to have any arrogance over any life form is the most ignorant and pathetic thing about the human race

 

Oh, shut your uneducated mouth. You have absolutely no idea what we're capable of, what the human race will accomplish in their time. Be proud of that. Stop the uneducated notion that you're a beacon of intelligence, the only person who knows that human beings are horrible for the Earth and take note that we're at a point in our race where we can turn back our damage, where we can repair the mistakes we've made in the past and renew things for the better.

We are so fucking intelligent that it should boggle your mind, be proud that you're human, you're living in a wonderful time.

 

TBH the main issue I see with mars is efficiently generating energy.
Oil and Gas don't exist since there were never animals to be fossilized, Sunlight is relatively weak, and the atmosphere isn't dense enough for wind. In addition, Solar and Wind are amazingly expensive and not all that efficient.