Colonizing Mars

[dogechode]

I'm afraid that Mars will be used as an mining platform, if in years to come we will establish a base (and I mean a big one like for several thousand people). The colonization of the Mars will still be impossible (lack atmosphere), so instead we will be gathering resources and sending them back to Earth.

I don't think that is a huge risk at the moment because bringing anything back from Mars is prohibitively expensive and difficult. Eventually we may develop ways of doing it economically but at that point I think asteroid mining will be just as lucrative. Also, anything we develop that would allow mined materials to be easily transported from Mars to Earth, would seemingly also make it cost-effective to transport a ton of stuff from Earth to Mars.

While I'm not particularly in favor of it, I don't think mining a bit of minerals from Mars would destroy the planet. We have been mining the Earth for thousands of years have we not?

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[hilariousandco]

I'm afraid that Mars will be used as an mining platform, if in years to come we will establish a base (and I mean a big one like for several thousand people). The colonization of the Mars will still be impossible (lack atmosphere), so instead we will be gathering resources and sending them back to Earth.

I don't think that is a huge risk at the moment because bringing anything back from Mars is prohibitively expensive and difficult. Eventually we may develop ways of doing it economically but at that point I think asteroid mining will be just as lucrative. Also, anything we develop that would allow mined materials to be easily transported from Mars to Earth, would seemingly also make it cost-effective to transport a ton of stuff from Earth to Mars.

While I'm not particularly in favor of it, I don't think mining a bit of minerals from Mars would destroy the planet. We have been mining the Earth for thousands of years have we not?

What's there to destroy exactly? It's just a planet of rock. It's not like we can fuck up the habitat and ozone. It looks like one big quarry and planet that was made to be mined  , but it's going to be a very long time if ever before it is either cost-effective or actually even feasible.

[Snorek]

I'm afraid that Mars will be used as an mining platform, if in years to come we will establish a base (and I mean a big one like for several thousand people). The colonization of the Mars will still be impossible (lack atmosphere), so instead we will be gathering resources and sending them back to Earth.

I don't think that is a huge risk at the moment because bringing anything back from Mars is prohibitively expensive and difficult. Eventually we may develop ways of doing it economically but at that point I think asteroid mining will be just as lucrative. Also, anything we develop that would allow mined materials to be easily transported from Mars to Earth, would seemingly also make it cost-effective to transport a ton of stuff from Earth to Mars.

While I'm not particularly in favor of it, I don't think mining a bit of minerals from Mars would destroy the planet. We have been mining the Earth for thousands of years have we not?

Asteroid mining wont be as effective as planet mining because of the characteristic of asteroids .We need to know when and where exactly an asteroid will be at certain time, what king of minerals are there on the current available asteroid, etc.

[hilariousandco]

I'm afraid that Mars will be used as an mining platform, if in years to come we will establish a base (and I mean a big one like for several thousand people). The colonization of the Mars will still be impossible (lack atmosphere), so instead we will be gathering resources and sending them back to Earth.

I don't think that is a huge risk at the moment because bringing anything back from Mars is prohibitively expensive and difficult. Eventually we may develop ways of doing it economically but at that point I think asteroid mining will be just as lucrative. Also, anything we develop that would allow mined materials to be easily transported from Mars to Earth, would seemingly also make it cost-effective to transport a ton of stuff from Earth to Mars.

While I'm not particularly in favor of it, I don't think mining a bit of minerals from Mars would destroy the planet. We have been mining the Earth for thousands of years have we not?

Asteroid mining wont be as effective as planet mining because of the characteristic of asteroids .We need to know when and where exactly an asteroid will be at certain time, what king of minerals are there on the current available asteroid, etc.

Is mining asteroids actually even possible? I'm no expert but I can't fathom how landing on a asteroid whizzing though space can be achieved. Seems very risky and dangerous too. Maybe I'll have to check out the science behind the movie Armageddon  .

[Snorek]

Is mining asteroids actually even possible? I'm no expert but I can't fathom how landing on a asteroid whizzing though space can be achieved. Seems very risky and dangerous too. Maybe I'll have to check out the science behind the movie Armageddon  .

Well on 12 February 2001 a probe landed on an asteroid (called Eros if I'm not mistaken)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker

In November 2005 a unmanned spacecraft called Hayabusa landed on another asteroid called Itokawa. On 13 June 2010 the Hayabusa managed to land on Earth bringing back some samples from Itokawa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa

[dogechode]

There are already companies getting ready to attempt asteroid mining fairly soon. I think it's going to happen way sooner than mining from Mars.

Asteroid mining seems like it would involve some amount of trial and error and guesswork. I doubt they are going to wait until they can somehow precisely calculate exactly what the makeup of an asteroid is. Think of it more like gold prospecting before the advent of modern technology.

As far as intercepting the asteroid... that is child's play at this point. And it has already be done multiple times as the above posted mentioned.

[Lauda]

Asteroid mining wont be as effective as planet mining because of the characteristic of asteroids .We need to know when and where exactly an asteroid will be at certain time, what king of minerals are there on the current available asteroid, etc.

What if the Asteroid contains something that is very rare on Earth and (possibly) rare in the star system? Wouldn't you want to mine that? This might happen sooner than we all think.

[Trashbat]

Can't help but think of Armageddon lol.

[guybrushthreepwood]

Mining asteroids still sounds like pure science fiction to me. I wonder how far were actually away from doing it?

Asteroid mining wont be as effective as planet mining because of the characteristic of asteroids .We need to know when and where exactly an asteroid will be at certain time, what king of minerals are there on the current available asteroid, etc.

What if the Asteroid contains something that is very rare on Earth and (possibly) rare in the star system? Wouldn't you want to mine that? This might happen sooner than we all think.

What could be found on an asteriod that cant be found on a planet? There wont be any gases I dont think.

[TheDoors]

I don't think that colonizing Mars is going to happen soon. As long as it is commercially unprofitable we won't see Mars soon, at least non-billionaires. But idea is great-it would give a chance to some people to start their own business and will create a lot of working places!

[bumblebeee]

Its great, we can travel in space and all these things.

But realistically, when we do it id be dead.

[guybrushthreepwood]

Its great, we can travel in space and all these things.

But realistically, when we do it id be dead.

lol. Depends how far you want to go into space. I'm sure there'll be proper commerical orbital space flights within our generation. They might not be affordable for everyone, bu if you start saving now you might make it lol

[dogechode]

I think this is all coming a lot sooner than most of you think. Like in the next 10 years or so.

[sana8410]

Hmm I read an article somewhere saying that gold came from outerspace and asteroids, but if this was true wont material get burnt up in the atomosphere before it hits the ground, you will need it to be a doomsday asteroid if you wanted to collect some good material.

[Hasher99]

If the mission will start after 10 or even 20 years, I'll probably see It and I'm really excited about that, that would be such a historical  phase. And the people that are going to fly to the mars wont be just regular people, in the mean while they are trained and at the start of the mission they'll be researchers  and they will research a lot of things on mars their self.

[dogechode]

I don't think there is a need to bring the asteroids into the Earth's atmosphere to mine them.

But, it looks like the main company that was seriously looking into doing this has decided to go in a different direction for now:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303417104579544072639525550

[kuroman]

I don't think there is a need to bring the asteroids into the Earth's atmosphere to mine them.

But, it looks like the main company that was seriously looking into doing this has decided to go in a different direction for now:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303417104579544072639525550

isn't there a different source for this article it is asking for a log in to be able to read the whole article

Anyway http://www.planetaryresources.com/ was the project and it's still underway from what I'm seeing

[dogechode]

isn't there a different source for this article it is asking for a log in to be able to read the whole article

Anyway http://www.planetaryresources.com/ was the project and it's still underway from what I'm seeing

That is really strange it showed the whole article the first time I looked at it but now if I go back it asks for login. Hmmm.... Basically said they have changed their plan and are not really trying to harvest rare minerals from asteroids to bring to Earth anymore (at this time.)

[nthunder]

Colonizing Mars is quite a challenge. Maybe a first step would be to colonize the oceans and then take that technology to other planets. It might be easier this way because a lot of the challenges you face on another planet (hostile environment, atmosphere, isolation) you can find in the deep here on Earth. And when you had enough you can always come back to the surface whereas on another planet transportation might be a bit more tricky.

The biggest challenges on Mars are probably pressure (the atmosphere on Mars is very thin), magnetic field (protects from cosmic radiation), atmosphere (terraforming perhaps).

Another big issue might be indigenous life. Throughout Earth's history there have been multiple (132 to be more precise) small meteors that landed here on Earth that came from Mars. It is concisely possible that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs (or another one perhaps) projected a piece of rock from Earth to Mars containing Earth microbes or bacteria. These can be either dormant or active and they can pose a big hazard to humans (having their evolutionary paths so different from our).

[dogechode]

Nthunder, I agree but my concern is that the more we find intermediary projects to focus on, the more we ultimately delay colonizing Mars. They could spend decades perfecting underwater colonies before much of the work would be perfected to the point of being applicable to planetary colonization. Underwater colonies would mitigate some of the risk of the human race being wiped out in the event of some catastrophic events, but not all. They would also seem to be highly vulnerable to certain underwater events (what happens if there is an earthquake or other seismic event in the area?)

As far as life on Mars, precautions should be taken but I think the odds of finding life there (let alone hostile life) now are very low given the environment conditions. Evidence of former life? Perhaps.

In any event, the rovers there now will likely find clues if there is anything moving around up there...