Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Humans Will Never Colonize Mars
The suggestion that humans will soon set up bustling, long-lasting colonies on Mars is something many of us take for granted. What this lofty vision fails to appreciate, however, are the monumental—if not intractable—challenges awaiting colonists who want to permanently live on Mars. Unless we radically adapt our brains and bodies to the harsh Martian environment, the Red Planet will forever remain off limits to humans.
Mars is the closest thing we have to Earth in the entire solar system, and that's not saying much.
The Red Planet is a cold, dead place, with an atmosphere about 100 times thinner than Earth's. The paltry amount of air that does exist on Mars is primarily composed of noxious carbon dioxide, which does little to protect the surface from the Sun's harmful rays. Air pressure on Mars is very low; at 600 Pascals, it's only about 0.6 percent that of Earth. You might as well be exposed to the vacuum of space, resulting in a severe form of the bends—including ruptured lungs, dangerously swollen skin and body tissue, and ultimately death. The thin atmosphere also means that heat cannot be retained at the surface. The average temperature on Mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit (-63 degrees Celsius), with temperatures dropping as low as -195 degrees F (-126 degrees C). By contrast, the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was at Vostok Station in Antarctica, at -128 degrees F (-89 degrees C) on June 23, 1982. Once temperatures get below the -40 degrees F/C mark, people who aren't properly dressed for the occasion can expect hypothermia to set in within about five to seven minutes.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday August 01 2019, @09:55PM (6 children)
Feeling of my guts, this is more likely to happen than colonizing Mars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Snow on Thursday August 01 2019, @09:59PM (1 child)
I think our modern civilization will be destroyed, but I think that humans will live on. A very few of us anyway.
Not me. If shit hits the fan, my skills won't be useful at all. Most of us desk jockeys will die in the first wave.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 02 2019, @11:56AM
Agreed, but... would you rather live like a desk jockey, or a fringe survivalist waiting your whole life for an apocalypse that never quite materializes?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @02:53AM (3 children)
Feeling of my nuts, this is more likely to happen than colonizing Mars.
FTYY
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @02:59AM (2 children)
Advice: take you nuts off your keyboard, you'll simply fix nothing, they aren't made for typing.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday August 02 2019, @03:31AM (1 child)
That's nuts!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 02 2019, @09:26AM
"Dem Nutz!" Or, when you add some Meth: