It is more in the case of unavoidable catastrophe, like an asteroid to big to stop. Having a second self sustaining population on a different planet, no matter how advanced we have to make it, could be essential for the survival of humankind. Of course we have to fix the issues here on earth as well, but humanity should be able to do at least two things at once
I think we’ll see massive societal collapse far before we see permanent Mars residents. I don’t see it happening within the next 100 years that’s for sure, if ever.
This feels like an America-centric view. Just because the US or even the western world collapses, doesn't mean space programs will collapse. There are still big players in the world that see the advantages of space programs. And large international businesses have no patriotic qualms. If things collapse at all of course.
It will of course still be incredibly sad and a loss to everyone if democracy fails, but it is not the end of the world.
We’re seeing increased civil unrest and economic disaster around the world not to mention climate change is going to fuck us in every way possible. It’s not just the US that has a looming economic crisis (though I believe it’ll come out better than most around the world), China’s is going to be huge. If both the US and China get hit hard enough, everyone is screwed.
I dunno man. I don't really feel confident enough in my own knowledge and abilities to predicting anything near the scale you seem to be talking about.
Short of falling into the sun or the moon hitting the earth there is nothing that would ever make Mars a more hospitable place than earth. A human mars colony will never be able to exist on its own. No atmosphere and no magnetic field are pretty much incompatible with life.
Imagine earth gets hit by an extinction level asteroid. A massive explosion wipes out all life on said planet. In time life may return, like after the dinosaurs died out. But humans on earth is gone. Would it not be nice to have a second colony on mars, even if it is hard to do? In time we may even be able to return to earth :)
A solar flare or a radiation burst from a pulsar could wipe out all life on earth, and there would be nothing we could do to stop it. Creating a self sustaining colony on mars will be hard, but it’s definitely possible.
Those are science fiction threats. Solar flares aren't that strong and a pulsar burst strong or close enough to wipe out earth would do the same to mars.
I will be honest man, that is a really bad argument, it is super unclear what you actually mean. I assume by "science fiction threat" you mean that they are really rare? Or is it to counter them we need vastly more advanced technology than we have today?
The really rare argument is interesting. Should we not prepare for anything that we can? In my opinion, when it is the case for the survival of all of humanity, then I say we should do what we can, but of course not at the expense of fixing earth.
The advanced technology argument might boil down to not knowing that we can actually do this. With enough solar energy farms on Mars we could probably do most things. It would be wildly inefficient the way technology is today, but it is something we could work on.
With solar energy you could: melt ice, run indoor farms, run mines to get more minerals, and hopefully get a bare minimal industry up and working. It would be very hard, but i think doable today. It is probably smarter to work on better technology here on earth first, and run a non-self-supplied colony on Mars for some time. But this is absolutely a problem humans should work at.
At no point does the video state that it's probably impossible. The dude literally says that it's all theoretically possible and the "only" real problem might be the (political) will to do (and finance) it.
Not entirely true but you correctly point to the extreme difficulty of setting up any self sustaining colony. Most predictions I’ve read assume about 50-100 years or so of complete reliance on earth for supplies. In that time earth society needs to be stable enough to remain relatively peaceful; any large scale war or famine would threaten it massively. Personally I think we better bloody fix the lions share of climate change in the next 10 years if we don’t want problems like that lol
Not to mention we have little to no idea the effects Mars’ low gravity will have on the human body. Most likely it will be bone whittling and unsuitable for long stays or for raising children. Not saying we shouldn’t establish permanent bases, but the idea there will one day be large settlements on Mars is unrealistic… also super inefficient to place millions of people down into another gravity well if you’re trying to become a spacefaring species. Orbital cities in massive rotating toruses is where it’s at IMO
Self sustaining is key here. In an era that we produce a mineral in lets say Africa, send it over to the US fir refinement, then send to China to be used in manufacturing and afterwards anywhere in the world for consumption is going to make Mars logistics a tough beast to deal with.
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u/Nurw Oct 07 '22
It is more in the case of unavoidable catastrophe, like an asteroid to big to stop. Having a second self sustaining population on a different planet, no matter how advanced we have to make it, could be essential for the survival of humankind. Of course we have to fix the issues here on earth as well, but humanity should be able to do at least two things at once