Mars and permanent fixtures on the Moon should have been the natural goal after the Apollo program now but instead we went backwards and wasted decades with the shuttle program. I think this country needs to do some serious fat trimming and downsizing but areas of research and science are not the ways in which to do it. Those areas are what need to be expanded. Unfortunately though programs like NASA always seem to be the first on the chopping block which is really a shame.
nuclear energy and other renewable energy should be first priority in my opinion. If the US do it, other countries will follow suit. For areas on fault lines/plate borders where nuclear energy would not be stable in event of earthquake begin building wind/hydro farms.
The events in Japan torpedoed that ship. It took 25 years after the events of Chernobyl for people over here to get over their mostly irrational fears and start having a serious conversation about new nuclear power plants. It probably take another 25 to get the ball rolling again.
Nah! Venus would be MUCH easier to terraform. 1 - seed atmosphere with chemicals to precipitate out the existing atmosphere 2 - bombard with comets to provide some water (might not need this step due to next step) 3 - seed with bacteria genetically altered to "eat" the precipitated atmosphere to produce a good atmosphere, nutrients for the ground, and maybe water 4 - seed with higher lifeforms once the atmosphere reaches a good density This is a LONG term project, with some of the steps taking many decades, perhaps centuries. While we'll probably have shelters on Mars first, Venus will be terraformed and have permanent settlements before Mars.
Venus? No way you could ever reduce the 92 atmosphere pressure it has to one atmosphere. You would literally need to remove 90%+ of the atmosphere to start with. It would be much easier than mars for sure. So how does one remove trillions of tons of CO2? Drop a conduit to the surface and let the internal pressure vent it to deep space? Sure. I hope you have a few millennia to do it in...
You don't have to worry about "harming the environment" so just use the nastiest chemical stripping you can imagine. Once you realize that, it's not really that bad. Yes, it would take a long time as there is a LOT of atmosphere. That's why I said this was a LONG TERM project. Actually, I see the real problem as "why" rather than "how". By the time we're ready to terraform Venus, we'll all be living in O'Neil habitats all around the system with no need for planets at all. I predict that NONE of the planets will get terraformed with colonies, just permanent research stations. Why terraform Venus/Mars/Callisto/whatever when you can sling several space habitats in orbit around them instead?
If we don't find a viable way to live outside of earth, and also, to live in earth without destroying it, our civilisation will not survive. I am of the idea that we are completely fucked energywise and spacewise, and without the cold war, there's no pressure for the dominant superpowers to explore space. They don't see profits out there, nor in alternative energy, and their lack of vision makes them screw science over. I say it's already too late for mankind. We are fucked and we probably deserve it (As a species, at least). But I really wish to be wrong, and that we somehow manage to make it off earth, and also make energy viable. But I'm almost certain we're living as the penultimate generation of this civilisation. Two more, at the most, and then, mankind is over. And we earned this end, sadly.
I think we need to take care of all the Transformers hiding underneath the Moon's surface before we go to Mars. Heaven help us when they wake up and attack. Our fate will rest in the hands of Shia Lebeouf.
Gravity, for one. Unless viable, cheap technology simulating gravity arrives having astronauts exercising for 3/4 of a working day will be incredibly limiting. One problem with terraforming planets would be investment. In a free market no private investors will go with an extremely long term and risky investment. Government/World bank etc might, but again you'll be very hard pressed to persuade tax payers to invest in something that will be completed far past their life times. I agree with xerdopwerko - there will be a crisis within this generation due to the carrying capacity of land being outstripped. Unless technology appears (which would likely be a massive cultural upheaval itself) that provides for the population there is going to be a huge collapse around the world - both in food producers (competing and outside interests will likely cause instability and collapse of governance) and in the countries they export to. I'd imagine the US and Canada would probably fair the best, unless nuclear arsenals get dragged into it of course.
I'm of the opinion that in the near-future humanity will either come up with a huge breakthrough (probably many) that will change everything for the better (higher than human intelligence computers, nanotechnology, etc), or we'll die off before that has a chance to happen. Or those things will happen but then they'll kill us. In any case, it'll be interesting.
Most things involving science and technology are only impossible until they aren't. To Terraform Mars you would mainly need to heat it up... heating up planets is something we're actually good at. Pricey yes, but it is a lot more fathomable than say 50% light speed travel. Carving out will probably be the only way for a long time. They'll need to be deep enough to protect it from asteroids that pummel it as well.
And I hope we, at some point, will be able to. But it seems highly unlikely, more so every year. I don't think this civilisation or species is going to make it. Do you think there are other intelligent species that have made it? I'm interested in what your opinion on that matter is.
i LOLed hard. i researched on the matters and really read your 4 points and think. it's really easier than on mars? point one was calculated by people at NASA and it would require 4×10^19 kg of hidrogen... do you have any idea how much that is? just this feat would be harder than terraforming mars think that the WHOLE mass of jupiter is around 1.9 x 10^27kgs... and jupiter is not 100% Hydrogen...
recommended reading This series brings up pretty much every concern addressed in the thread along with viable solutions. Any terraforming project would almost certainly be a one-way trip. Long term exposure to martian gravity would basically guarantee that your body would never be able to readjust to earth gravity even with an extreme exercise regimen. Anyone really interested in this subject would do very well to atleast read Red Mars if not the rest of the trilogy as well.
There are bigger problems Landing on the moon is one thing but landing on Mars is NOT the same thing in the least it's completely different. Current designs at NASA aren't designed for Mars but for the Moon the last time I checked on the on again / off again capsule. Keep in mind the way the rovers land is one thing, you can't land a human like that. The other thing is "life" and first let me say I don't doubt it's out there but it's very far away IMHO (like so far away we'll never get there). Some teasing options to us are Titan and Europa but that's all they are at this point. Enticing targets. We've proved we can land on Titan and Cassini has truly rewritten the book on Saturn as we know it, not bad for something the size of a Winnebago. But for most of our solar system if life was there ... we've missed it, it happened long long ago or if there are remains, it would be something like a bacteria thingy and not an alien from The X-Files ;-)
Problem is would we last long enough to see it evolve. and if we landed there whats to say we wouldn't shit it up and kill the bacteria much like we have done here.
It irks me to no end that fucking mankind is not dedicating its resources to expand and ensure its survival. Earth has finite resources that are running out, and with our current rate of usage, the window we still have to find a solution is very, very small. Yet, we keep wasting our efforts on bullshit wastes of time like politics and non-beneficial business, instead of dedicating all of our resources to extend our limited time in the universe, and to explore space. It just makes me so mad to know that I'll never see mankind have a real future...
