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View Full Version : Is Colonizing Mars an Imperative? Obama's New Space Strategy Says "Yes"



Sol Invictus
02-04-2010, 09:09 AM
The Daily Galaxy | February 03, 2010

"I don't think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years unless we spread into space."
-Stephen Hawking

The Obama Administration unveiled its new far-sighted budget for NASA, which scraps moon missions but puts the focus on developing new space technologies, exploring the solar system with robots, and pushing humans closer to living offworld. All of which will be funded a budget increase to NASA of $6 billion over five years.


Under the new budget, we'd see a revamped NASA program focused on scientific innovation, rather than recreating old experiments. Specifically, as NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said: We will invent and demonstrate large-scale, new and novel approaches to spaceflight such as in-orbit fuel depots and rendezvous and docking technologies, and closed-loop life support systems so that our future robotic and human exploration missions are both highly capable and more affordable . . . as well as providing $3 billion over five years for robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids.

Read More Here (http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/02/s-colonizing-space-an-imperative-obamas-new-space-strategy-says-yes-lays-groundwork-for-human-space-.html#more)

Monolith
02-04-2010, 09:46 AM
Poor Mars :(

Poltergeist
02-04-2010, 09:59 AM
I can't believe there are people who actually take this seriously. Colonizing Mars??? LOL

The Lawspeaker
02-04-2010, 10:01 AM
And who is going to pay for that ridiculous folly ?
Yes.. it's the taxpayer.

Monolith
02-04-2010, 10:05 AM
I can't believe there are people who actually take this seriously. Colonizing Mars??? LOL
Yeah, I also think humans have enough problems here on Earth as it is. :P

Agrippa
02-04-2010, 10:34 AM
And who is going to pay for that ridiculous folly ?
Yes.. it's the taxpayer.

I think you probably got it the wrong way. There is so much money around, made up by the FED and the banks, which needs to be invested. This is just a huge employment-creation measure if it becomes real and actually one of the better ones, because there are worse around.

This money needs to be invested and with so much bubbles around and the interest rates being high, new "emerging markets" on the Mars are just a viable option :D

The current financial system produces too much money with too little real values in comparison, its totally perverted but they need more investment for the money "to work".

Liffrea
02-04-2010, 01:23 PM
I’ve studied various books on humanity’s future in space, my conclusion is we should endeavour to go off world…..but we probably won’t, at least not interstellar.

Space needs to pay, many make a case for “human curiosity” pushing back the boundaries, the reality is less prosaic, Columbus didn’t sail west just out of curiosity….he expected to become rich. Pragmatism often trumps romanticism, unless colonisation of space will equal return on the investment i.e. resource exploitation, then it simply won’t happen.

The moon, Mars and the asteroid belt do have resources and corporations may invest, if the returns are right and we have the technology, whether those ventures get under way depends on a civilisation being able to survive long enough and sustain a colonisation programme. Human technological progression has been…porous, stagnation of our current advancement is not impossible. As for advanced civilisation, history speaks for itself, stagnation and/or the barbarian hordes see them off in a thousand years or so.

The solar system could be opened up, and it will happen through competition, if it happens.

I’m less than optimistic about interstellar colonisation. FTL is only outer limits theory at best, which means any ventures would be below light speed i.e. once the ships set off they aren’t coming back and we aren’t going to sustain communication…..no government I know is likely to invest in that nor is any corporation either.

Cail
02-11-2010, 11:58 AM
It is going to happen sooner or later anyway, mankind needs to expand and start space colonization.

Murphy
02-11-2010, 12:05 PM
Who gets what though?!

Regards,
The Papist.

Bridie
02-11-2010, 12:09 PM
Who gets what though?!

Regards,
The Papist.It's quite simple. :) http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showpost.php?p=168481&postcount=54

:wink

Tabiti
02-11-2010, 12:35 PM
"I don't think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years unless we spread into space."
"I don't think Universe will survive in the next 2,000 years if human race spread into space"
- M.K. aka Tabiti
:D

Goidelic
02-11-2010, 06:01 PM
I definitely think human interstellar colonization is possible. In the next 2,000 years, the surviving European diaspora lineages on Earth could technically breed a colony of themselves on Mars. The environment on Mars is ironically somewhat habitable/terrestrial, so it's definitely not out of the realm of possibilities living their. ;)

European diaspora-Martians here we come! :thumb001:

Sooner or later European diaspora-Earthlings will become a minority, so Mars is a good place to start. :tongue;)

The Mission to Mars was originally supposed to have been launched in 2030, but now since NASA' problem it's going to be much further on from our lifetimes. ;) In a survey, Astronauts had the chance of landing on Mars, but not returning back to Earth, so they would all have to live their remaining lives on Mars. :D They all said Yes :D, but who wouldn't want to see Mars, if you think about it? ;)

"The European Space Agency has the long-term vision of sending a human mission to Mars by 2030. Laid out in 2001, the project's proposed timeline would begin with robotic exploration, a proof of concept simulation of sustaining humans on Mars, and eventually a manned mission. However, objections from the participating nations of ESA and other delays have put the timeline into question."

Liffrea
02-11-2010, 06:55 PM
Originally Posted by Goidelic
Sooner or later European diaspora-Earthlings will become a minority, so Mars is a good place to start.

Someone has already beaten you to it....

Hold Back This Day tells a chilling story about the last white people left on Earth.

It is 85 years after the Unification, and mankind has been forcibly united under one government, one religion, and one race. Yet a handful of whites still exist, among them skoolplex administrator Jeff Huxton. As he watches his son slowly destroyed by a racially homogenized world that will no longer accept his kind, Jeff comes to meet Karl Ramstrom. Ramstrom holds out one last hope for them--but only if they can escape the global-wide police state ruled by the iron-fisted leaders of World Gov. And the only place left to run is Mars...

http://www.amazon.com/Hold-Back-This-Ward-Kendall/dp/0595201601

RoyBatty
02-11-2010, 07:11 PM
It is going to happen sooner or later anyway, mankind needs to expand and start space colonization.

I volunteer Obama, Albright, KKKlintons, Tony Bliar and Gordon Brown for the first mission. May it be a one way trip! :wavey001:

The Lawspeaker
02-11-2010, 07:14 PM
I volunteer Obama, Albright, KKKlintons, Tony Bliar and Gordon Brown for the first mission. May it be a one way trip! :wavey001:
I think that people like Barroso, Queen Beatrix, Putin, Ahmadinejad and that little bitch called Chavez should join them on a second mission...

Cail
02-11-2010, 07:25 PM
Putin can stay, we need him vs Chinese :D.

Tabiti
02-11-2010, 07:26 PM
Poor aliens:(

Birka
02-11-2010, 09:58 PM
I think that people like Barroso, Queen Beatrix, Putin, Ahmadinejad and that little bitch called Chavez should join them on a second mission...
Also need to send the Rothschilds and any member of the Bilderberg group.

Majar
02-12-2010, 05:43 AM
You see men sailing on their ego trip,
Blast off on their spaceship,
Million miles from reality:
No care for you, no care for me. :(

Falkata
02-12-2010, 06:51 AM
I think that people like Barroso, Queen Beatrix, Putin, Ahmadinejad and that little bitch called Chavez should join them on a second mission...

Is there one place for Zapatero in the mission?

Stefan
02-12-2010, 07:17 AM
Is there one place for Zapatero in the mission?

Not on the same ship with Chavez. :tongue

Phil75231
02-12-2010, 12:42 PM
If resources are the issue, it's more worthwhile to go to the asteroid belt. You'd have to fight gravity to get resources off a planet, whereas you don't in an asteroid belt.

Even under the best of circumstances, colonizing Mars will be a tremendous challenge. Even with sealed domes in the craters, even if we do get sufficient water, even if we do manage to shield ourselves from the radiation reaching the surface and many other things - Martian "soil" has practically NO organic matter. This makes it pretty hard if you plant to grow food there, if not outright impossible. Imagine how many tons of organic matter you have to have to fertilize even 10 hectares of land (about 25 ac., IIRC). Can't get nutrients from what's essentially ground up rock and little else. That means that, unless we find a literal treasure trove of carbon and nitrogen, any Martian colony will be a small outpost at most. Maybe the asteroid belt will yield some carbon, but that's still more expense added to the effort.

Given all this, I expect the first "colonists" to be intelligent robots, with effective radiation sheilding - probably as construction crews and miners.