Live and die on Mars?

[Scruffmonster]

Whoosh?

 

[Arch]

Obviously it will die eventually. But it's certainly not 'dying' using the construct of the original statement.

If it's going to die eventually, then by definition it's dying. Like we all are.

 

[Arch]

A great opportunity to start a better society, based on good sense, no conflict, and working communally and fairly. I guess that means it would only work if only non human creatures were sent....

Sounds like what they need is a community like the Amish (we watched Witness at the weekend, so they are on my mind). However I suspect that the Amish distaste for any transport beyond the horse (or bicycle) would make it hard to get them there.

I guess if it was just me, I'd think about going (especially if NT is!), but it would be hard on family left behind, like siblings and parents. Like bereavement, but without closure.

Pretty similar to the first settlers in the Americas and those transported to the Antipodes - they had little hope of coming home again - indeed, they weren't even sure they'd get there!

BTW, I gather NASA are using the term Sol for a Martian day, and referring to Yestersol etc in relation to the Curiosity rover.

 

[TheDoctor]

That's going to mess up songs.
[sings]
Yestersol
All my troubles seemed so far AWOL
Now it looks as though they're back, un-LOL
Oh, I believe in yestersol.
[/sings]

 

[Arch]

That's going to mess up songs.
[sings]
Yestersol
All my troubles seemed so far AWOL
Now it looks as though they're back, un-LOL
Oh, I believe in yestersol.
[/sings]

Very good!

 

[TheDoctor]

Ahem.
This whole Mars thing seems technically doable, any time someone stumps up the cash. NASA had a well-planned Mars mission for the '86 opportunity - chemical rockets and a Venus flyby en route, or straight there with NERVA. These proposals formed the basis of an excellent book by Stephen Baxter. Project Orion would let a good few hundred people go in something the size of a cross-channel ferry and be a handy way of using up a whole bunch of nuclear warheads.
I'd certainly think about going. Probably the only way I'm ever going to get to space.

 

[Arch]

Ahem.
This whole Mars thing seems technically doable, any time someone stumps up the cash. NASA had a well-planned Mars mission for the '86 opportunity - chemical rockets and a Venus flyby en route, or straight there with NERVA. These proposals formed the basis of an excellent book by Stephen Baxter. Project Orion would let a good few hundred people go in something the size of a cross-channel ferry and be a handy way of using up a whole bunch of nuclear warheads.
I'd certainly think about going. Probably the only way I'm ever going to get to space.

Now I've got a mental image of a RORO ferry in space. Would there be still be a special lounge for the lorry drivers?

 

[Matthew_T]

This whole Mars thing seems technically doable, any time someone stumps up the cash. NASA had a well-planned Mars mission for the '86 opportunity - chemical rockets and a Venus flyby en route, or straight there with NERVA. These proposals formed the basis of an excellent book by Stephen Baxter. Project Orion would let a good few hundred people go in something the size of a cross-channel ferry and be a handy way of using up a whole bunch of nuclear warheads.
I'd certainly think about going. Probably the only way I'm ever going to get to space.

I think the problem with nuclear is that safety is the issue. Nuclear, even used in small quantities isnt very safe.
We do have the technology to use nuclear, but we have been happy with rocket power for years and TBH it is a lot more basic than nuclear.

However, if the ship we were using was the size you mentioned, rockets wouldnt be powerful enough. It think that we could possibly be looking at something similar to the Star Treck film where they ejected the cores and detinated them.
In other words, an explosion to propel the vehicle.
Or something like the Back to the Future train, where is pushes the car and has a series of growing pressure explosions which propel the train faster and faster when it reaches a certain pressure in the boiler of the engine.

There are plenty of ways to propel the ship and I dont think technology or money are the real problems. It is the fact that we are sending people up there (and a large number of them) and we have to deal with the humanitarian opinions and media coverage. We also have to get permission (I have no idea why) to actually go into space (because apparently, the government own it?).

 

[TheDoctor]

Orion is indeed an explosion to propel the ship, or a whole buch of explosions. You have the ship itself, a pusher plate, and a really good shock absorber connecting the two. Fire off nuclear bombs under the plate at about one a second, and the ship goes up. Simples!!
Sadly, the treaty banning atmospheric tests of nukes put paid to the whole idea.
NERVA just relied on running hydrogen gas through a reactor to get it hot, then blasting it out of the back.
Both approaches release serious amounts of radiation in use.

 

[Arch]

I think the problem with nuclear is that safety is the issue. Nuclear, even used in small quantities isnt very safe.

Coz, rocket fuel is so safe, isn't it....

 

[02GF74]

I don't think it is going to happen, not for a very long time if ever.

how much food and water, not to mention air, does a single human get tnrough in a month, none of whcih is available on Mars. you would need a huge rocket to fly that out then multiply that by the number of people on the planet. then there is all the other stuff they would need like shelter, clothing, power etc.

look how far mankind has pogressed since 1969 and the moon landing - a space station, a space telescope and that's about it. more money has been spent on fighting each other than on interplanetary travel and colonisation.

at the rate we are using up the earth's natrual resources, there will come a point when there will not be energy to produce anything - oil, gas, coal as well a nuclear material is finite so we end up stuck on earth for ever..... unless we can harness the sun's or find alternative energy to fill the gap.

we're doomed.

 

[TheDoctor]

There's water on Mars, albeit in the form of ice.
There's sunlight and minerals.
Build a dome, grow some edible plants, and there's your oxygen supply and your food..

 

[RoyPSB]

I volunteer that odious daffodil Chris Moyles.

 

[Night Train]

I wonder what cycling on Mars would be like with only 38% of Earth gravity?

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Now I've got a mental image of a RORO ferry in space. Would there be still be a special lounge for the lorry drivers?

At least there wont be people being sick in the bogs (except for maybe at the start), but I bet that the onboard film will still be crap.

I wonder what cycling on Mars would be like with only 38% of Earth gravity?

Clipless moments would be larf wouldn't they?

I volunteer that odious **** Chris Moyles.

They might be going to die, but even THAT would be considered inhumane, come on!