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Ed Regis writes in the New York Times that today we an witnessing an outburst of enthusiasm over the literally outlandish notion that in the relatively near future, some of us are going to be living, working, thriving and dying on Mars. But unfortunately Mars mania reflects an excessively optimistic view of what it actually takes to travel to and live on Mars, papering over many of the harsh realities and bitter truths that underlie the dream. "First, there is the tedious business of getting there. Using current technology and conventional chemical rockets, a trip to Mars would be a grueling, eight- to nine-month-long nightmare for the crew," writes Regis. "Tears, sweat, urine and perhaps even solid waste will be recycled, your personal space is reduced to the size of an SUV., and you and your crewmates are floating around sideways, upside down and at other nauseating angles." According to Regis every source of interpersonal conflict, and emotional and psychological stress that we experience in ordinary, day-to-day life on Earth will be magnified exponentially by restriction to a tiny, hermetically sealed, pressure-cooker capsule hurtling through deep space and to top it off, despite these constraints, the crew must operate within an exceptionally slim margin of error with continuous threats of equipment failures, computer malfunctions, power interruptions and software glitches.
But getting there is the easy part says Regis. "Mars is a dead, cold, barren planet on which no living thing is known to have evolved, and which harbors no breathable air or oxygen, no liquid water and no sources of food, nor conditions favorable for producing any. For these and other reasons it would be accurate to call Mars a veritable hell for living things, were it not for the fact that the planet's average surface temperature is minus 81 degrees Fahrenheit." These are only a few of the many serious challenges that must be overcome before anyone can put human beings on Mars and expect them to live for more than five minutes says Regis. "The notion that we can start colonizing Mars within the next 10 years or so is an overoptimistic, delusory idea that falls just short of being a joke."
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Tuesday September 22 2015, @02:24PM
Humanity *needs* extraplanetary colonies.
We're computer people, right? We understand the importance of offsite backups. As long as humanity is a single-planet species, we could be wiped out by any number of mass-extinction events. Asteroid impacts, supervolcanoes, anything. Extraplanetary colonies might still be hit by the absolute worst extinction events, but they dodge enough that they are well worth it.
Given how important it is for the human species that we develop offplanet colonies, the question becomes "where" not "if". And so my question for Mr. Regis is "do you have any better ideas?"
Mars has sufficient gravity for human comfort. It has water and oxygen (not in naturally-usable form, but it's there). It is desolate and inhospitable - combining the dangers of living on the ISS, the South Pole, and the Sahara. But that merely makes it "hard", not "impossible".
Luna is worse in every way except distance from Earth. Perhaps it's worth trying, simply for the easier transit, but it's not better as a destination.
Venus is also hard. There is a habitable band in the upper atmosphere - right pressure and temperature for human life. We'd have to live in airships, but it would otherwise be better than Mars. It's about equally hard to get to, though, and the thick atmosphere makes it harder to get back.
The outer moons are out of reach of current rockets, at least with human-sized payloads. Asteroids are even worse than Luna. Lagrange stations can't be fully self-sustaining, so they're out. Can anyone else think of something I missed?
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Tuesday September 22 2015, @03:17PM
The point is not that we should never leave Earth, but that going to Mars any time soon (few decades) is not feasible.
We will probably get there, and beyond, but it will take quite a time (few centuries, at least).
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Tuesday September 22 2015, @03:26PM
Luna is worse in every way except distance from Earth
Agreed. And if (that's a big if) I understand this beautiful graph [clowder.net] correctly without reading the explanations, the delta-v requirements for Earth->Moon transfers are only marginally smaller than those for Earth->Mars. And if you consider aerobreaking a valid option, a trip to mars would even require slighty less (0.1 km/s). (All trips one-way, no refunds)
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Tuesday September 22 2015, @04:40PM
Here, have a far more readable dV map [imgur.com].
Earth->Luna is 15km/s, and Luna->Earth is 5.7km/s. Earth->Mars (with aerobraking) is 13-14km/s, and Mars->Earth is 6-7km/s. So they're about the same round-trip delta-v.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 23 2015, @10:40PM
Protip: You can sort out the technical (scientists and engineers) from the technical wannabees (if it makes sense in a SciFi story, it must be right) by whether they call it "the Moon" or "Luna" (respectively, by the way, in case you weren't sure).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2015, @03:33PM
We haven't even managed to build a fully self-sustaining airtight habitat here on earth (the Biosphere II project tried, but didn't succeed). Before we have managed that, there's zero hope to do the same on other planets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2015, @03:46PM
Apparently you've never heard of ISS?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2015, @04:56PM
Apparently you don't know what "self-sustaining" means?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday September 22 2015, @04:16PM
> We understand the importance of offsite backups.
It's gonna take another 50 years at least before the analogy works. Until then, your mars offsite backup is merely RAM powered by a very long and extremely fragile cable from earth. You're actually more likely to lose your backup than your primary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 22 2015, @08:49PM
^^ Most perfect analogy in ages!
(Score: 2) by gman003 on Tuesday September 22 2015, @11:34PM
All the more reason we should start working on it now. We'll develop the technology a lot faster if we're already using it. What's that development maxim again? Release early, release often?