Mars to stay?

[Joan Nyan]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150827/us-sci-buzz-aldrin-c7bc5ba293.html

Many prominent NASA people, including Buzz Aldrin, believe that by 2040, we should be sending people to Mars with the intention of colonizing. Specifically, they believe that the first humans to go to Mars should intend to stay there semi-permanently to build a colony, not just hop around for a day or 2 like the moon landings. The argument for this is that it would take over a year just to get to Mars, rather than the couple days it takes to get to the moon. It wouldn't make sense to spend a year and a half going to Mars, stay for a couple days, and spend another year and a half coming back.

Any thoughts? I guess you can discuss space colonization in general too, like the ethics of it and such.

EDIT: Poll added

 

[Zeorus]

The only legal obstacle I'm aware of is the treaty declaring outer space (including other planets and moons) neutral areas. Aside from that, a lot of interesting political questions open themselves up. If we were to colonize Mars, where would they stand politically? Would the colonies be subject to the laws of the nation which founded them or would they govern themselves? Would there be a second space race to delineate borders on Mars between the major powers of the world? Would we ever face inter-planetary war?

 

[Hat]

Space colonization seems like a misappropriation of time, effort, and money and an incredibly low priority. These scientists have their head in the clouds, as usual.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

The only legal obstacle I'm aware of is the treaty declaring outer space (including other planets and moons) neutral areas. Aside from that, a lot of interesting political questions open themselves up. If we were to colonize Mars, where would they stand politically? Would the colonies be subject to the laws of the nation which founded them or would they govern themselves? Would there be a second space race to delineate borders on Mars between the major powers of the world? Would we ever face inter-planetary war?

I imagine that the world will be unified before we get any substantial space colonization done and it will be mainly corporations colonizing

 

[Joan Nyan]

The only legal obstacle I'm aware of is the treaty declaring outer space (including other planets and moons) neutral areas. Aside from that, a lot of interesting political questions open themselves up. If we were to colonize Mars, where would they stand politically? Would the colonies be subject to the laws of the nation which founded them or would they govern themselves? Would there be a second space race to delineate borders on Mars between the major powers of the world? Would we ever face inter-planetary war?

Maybe this is optimistic as hell but I'd hope that people wouldn't fight over territory and that Mars would be used for peaceful research only. I mean, the Americans and Russians on the ISS aren't fighting about anything as far as I know.

 

[AnOminous]

The only legal obstacle I'm aware of is the treaty declaring outer space (including other planets and moons) neutral areas.

Any people of the future actually on Mars doing shit are going to care about treaties we made up about it before we were about as much as we care about the treaties between Rome and Carthage.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

The only legal obstacle I'm aware of is the treaty declaring outer space (including other planets and moons) neutral areas

As long as the permanent inhabitants don't aspire to take political control of the territory, they can stay long term. There's a similar agreement to leave Antarctica outside the control of any country but that doesn't mean countries can't build quite substantial permanent bases there.

 

[Cosmos]

Maybe this is optimistic as hell but I'd hope that people wouldn't fight over territory and that Mars would be used for peaceful research only. I mean, the Americans and Russians on the ISS aren't fighting about anything as far as I know.

As long as the permanent inhabitants don't aspire to take political control of the territory, they can stay long term. There's a similar agreement to leave Antarctica outside the control of any country but that doesn't mean countries can't build quite substantial permanent bases there.

I think it would be a great idea to treat Mars like Antarctica. You can't test nukes there, but you can do all the research you want.

And maybe this is idealistic, but I feel like once humanity begins expanding beyond Earth the less we'll obsess over the arbitrary political lines that divide us into countries. Or, at the very least, we'll think about what's best for humanity instead of just the humans who happen to live in a particular country.

I personally can't wait until the day when the first human steps foot on Mars. I believe the colonization of other planets is something that's vital for our survival.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

My thoughts on colinizing space: staying on one planet is like having all of one's eggs in one basket.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Space colonization seems like a misappropriation of time, effort, and money and an incredibly low priority. These scientists have their head in the clouds, as usual.

One some level I agree, but I also feel that space colonization is one of those things that will never happen if we wait until "the time is right." We are never going to be fully prepared and it will never be completely practical, but if we want to survive long term as a species, we gotta get our asses to Mars.

 

[Night Terror]

NASA doesn't get enough funding. Space travel is vitally important to our species, and the sooner we (safely!) get up there, the better.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

safely!

Oh, there's an idea we need to throw right out the window. Reaching the planet safely is one thing. Once we arrive and colonization starts all bets are off. Of course there will be protocols, plans in place, some sort of code of conduct, but it's pretty naive to expect that shit to last. Whatever goes on at the Mars colony will be way out of Earth's hands. We'll just have to hope we send the right people.

 

[Night Terror]

Oh, there's an idea we need to throw right out the window. Reaching the planet safely is one thing. Once we arrive and colonization starts all bets are off. Of course there will be protocols, plans in place, some sort of code of conduct, but it's pretty naive to expect that shit to last. Whatever goes on at the Mars colony will be way out of Earth's hands. We'll just have to hope we send the right people.

Reaching the planet is what I meant. I wanted to specify the safe part to go with the 'soon as possible', since sending guys there tomorrow with an inferior rocket will result in disaster, most likely. We need to perfect the technology and THEN send people as soon as it's ready.
Nobody has ever conquered the world with a beta version.

 

[AnOminous]

Reaching the planet is what I meant. I wanted to specify the safe part to go with the 'soon as possible', since sending guys there tomorrow with an inferior rocket will result in disaster, most likely. We need to perfect the technology and THEN send people as soon as it's ready.
Nobody has ever conquered the world with a beta version.

"As soon as practicable" or "as soon as practical" might be a better option. However, there's no such thing as a perfect technology and it will be risky to attempt any time in the near future. It should probably start as a more massive endeavor, though, with multiple vehicles and stages, in some way that it can't be politically derailed by an early disaster with fatalities causing people to chicken out.

 

[Hat]

I believe the colonization of other planets is something that's vital for our survival.

if we want to survive long term as a species, we gotta get our asses to Mars.

Space travel is vitally important to our species

You people have watched too much Star Trek.

 

[KatsuKitty]

Space colonization seems like a misappropriation of time, effort, and money and an incredibly low priority. These scientists have their head in the clouds, as usual.

The same could be said for explorers in the New World of antiquity. It has only hastened progress though, not stalled it.

The secondary effects of a well-developed space program cannot be understated. The 1960s were a time of dramatic technological progress in America, in no small part thanks to the space race. You may believe space travel is a misappropriation of effort, but the lessons learned and technologies developed provide a tremendous boom to society.

 

[XYZpdq]

You people have watched too much Star Trek.

I saw the movie about the dinosaurs going extinct when a giant random thing killed everything.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

You people have watched too much Star Trek.

You're not wrong. Even if we create a stable Mars colony there's no telling if permanent habitation is even possible. It could be a gigantic waste of money. Given the utter lack of communication from otherworldly civilizations, it could be that space-faring civilizations are too short-lived or unsustainable to last. Odds are humanity will die out before we ever set foot outside our solar system.

In which case, fuck it, let's go to Mars anyway! At least it will give us stories to tell while we wait for the end of the world.

 

[Cosmos]

The same could be said for explorers in the New World of antiquity. It has only hastened progress though, not stalled it.

The secondary effects of a well-developed space program cannot be understated. The 1960s were a time of dramatic technological progress in America, in no small part thanks to the space race. You may believe space travel is a misappropriation of effort, but the lessons learned and technologies developed provide a tremendous boom to society.

Yeah, seriously. How many items do we take for granted today that were originally developed by NASA or other space agencies? NASA lists about 1,800 "spinoff" products of theirs, which includes solar panels, baby formula, MRI and CAT scans, and lighter suits for firemen.

I just don't understand why people say NASA is a waste of money when there are a billion other things the government is needlessly throwing money at. At least NASA has produced some pretty great stuff.

 

[Dudeofteenage]

I think it would be a great idea to treat Mars like Antarctica. You can't test nukes there, but you can do all the research you want.

I think the risk of somebody testing nukes on Mars is basically zero.