Space Colonisation

With regards to terraforming and colonising Mars or The Moon or any other planet, would it not be short sighted to think that this would solve the problems we face on Earth?
I see the biggest threats on Earth as a meteor collision, depletion of fuel and energy, overpopulation or nuclear fallout.
All of these problems could and probably would occur on Mars or any other planet that humans colonised.
My suggestion would be a man made super-structure or structures which could avoid any potential collision, collect fuels and resources from any planet, and keep building more "space stations" as the population increases.
Does anyone else agree?

I agree to an extent, being new here I'm not exactly sure where to start, but keep in mind that colonization of mars probably won't happen until late in our lifetimes if at all in them. It would take hundreds of years in my opinion to terraform mars, and since its not exactly a hop skip and a jump away building some type of habitat or base there simply isn't feesable at the current technology we face. I think it would help with overpopulation, but only temporarily, since once it has also been colonized reproduction will occur there also.

Originally posted by Draskens
since its not exactly a hop skip and a jump away

Maybe it is if the government has some of the technology found in crashed UFO's

Given the enormous resources required for any such project, it might be more economically feasible direct such resources at improving the spaceship we already have, which is Earth. We can certainly improve agriculture, take care of pollution and maybe find a way to insure peace (I know I'm going on a limb now, but it's sad to be thinking that terraforming Mars is easier than findind an end to all that bloodshed here).

Unless we fix Earth, we achieve nothing by going to the stars. Our problems would simply go with us. We'll just pollute and overpopulate Mars etc, and start some seccessionist war (the Inpedendent Mars Movement)

What about the threat of a meteor impact? All of mankind wiped out in one hit!
Preservation of mankind should be the most important issue.

Originally posted by AllseeingEYE
With regards to terraforming and colonising Mars or The Moon or any other planet, would it not be short sighted to think that this would solve the problems we face on Earth?

i dont think anyone really intends for mars or the moon to solve Earth's problems, simply to help alleviate them. as Draskens points out, its no short trip. maybe well have reached the point of no return/salvation of some of our problems, maybe not. mars and the moon will provide a huge boon to the human race.

population will be helped. nuclear fallout wont be changed much if we have mars. depletion of fuel and energy shudnt be an issue once we evolve to clean, abundant resources. a mars mission wud only help, providing extra impetus for the research. meteor. taint nothin we can do to change that until a certain point, at the very least mars can give us a second vantage point, to help triangulate (with two points...? third on the moon) and find it 'sooner.'

I agree with others that taking care of Earth first is the priority. Colonising another planet either directly as it is or by terraforming is definitely only a stop gap solution if we just end up taking our polluting, war mongering ways with us.

We'll just end up with a war ravaged, polluted solar system instead of just a war ravaged, polluted planet. As Draskens pointed out, its going to be decades if not centuries before terraforming is a reality and even when we have the technology to do so it still may not work. So, keeping this point in mind; say we colonise by adaptation, we will always need Earth as a safe harbor to go back to. We still have no proof than we will find another planet so perfect for ourselves with regards to environment, and even if we found one who knows how long it would take for us to reach it in a timely manner unless we sent some 'no return' space ark out to inhabit it.

As far as asteroids and comets hitting us is concerned, well, I don't know what we can do, however, the proposal you made seems based on technology that is just as far out of our grasp as terraforming at this point. We may be threatened long before we could implement any such plan. And there is also the real possibility that we won't get hit by a signifigant life ending asteroid for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years. Humanoid beings have been living and evolving on this planet for roughly 2 million years without a cataclysmic event happening and the last one we know of happened 65 million years ago.

Modern media and the public's fascination with meteor strikes make it seem like an immediate problem. Before telescopes we never really thought of such scenario's but now that we have hundreds of truly powerful ones pointed at the sky looking for every asteroid possible we seem to be panicking all of a sudden.



[edit on 17-9-2004 by Weller]

I know many on this forum are idealist, but I must interject some reality to this discussion. The cost of space travel is nearly astronomical high, I know a possible solution is cheaper technology. The question where will this money come from to develop those technologies, and how long will it take to develop it. I know most of us have grown-up with the notions born in science fiction, but in the real world human put all their energies into killing one another, better fighter, frigates, aircraft carriers, MBT, national missle defence etc, etc un-infa-item. I hope I am wrong, but for right now HUMANS WILL NEVER BE A TRUE SPACE FARING SPECIES, not because we can't because we won't.

Originally posted by Harry12
but for right now HUMANS WILL NEVER BE A TRUE SPACE FARING SPECIES, not because we can't because we won't.

i bold the right now because you're right, right now we wont be. the distant-near to distant future, maybe it holds something for us. do i think well head out to new planets? nah. itd be nice to think so, but its unlikely, really, that whole speed of light thing. we could tour some places, alpha centauri, wolf 359, see the neighborhood, but a true space faring? nah. the fact remains, the moon and mars, while hard to get to, arent really true space.

itll take some time to get there, but in reality its like going to the corner store as opposed to costco. you dont get as good stuff, or as much, but its closer and pretty easy to just pop on over to.

Originally posted by Harry12
I know many on this forum are idealist, but I must interject some reality to this discussion. The cost of space travel is nearly astronomical high, I know a possible solution is cheaper technology. The question where will this money come from to develop those technologies, and how long will it take to develop it. I know most of us have grown-up with the notions born in science fiction, but in the real world human put all their energies into killing one another, better fighter, frigates, aircraft carriers, MBT, national missle defence etc, etc un-infa-item. I hope I am wrong, but for right now HUMANS WILL NEVER BE A TRUE SPACE FARING SPECIES, not because we can't because we won't.

You make a lot of sense and base on the world today no one could say your wrong. The one reason why space travel stalled is due to our exhaustion of chemical burning rockets to get us into space. Its the equivalent of sling shot technology compared to what we would need to to reach the outer solar system and beyond.

A major technological breakthrough is what most of are hoping for. But with the richest countries wasting most of their wealth on weapons to to destroy each other with the chase becomes stagnant. There are breakthroughs being made but it will take a major spark to get the funding needed to truly develop space travel.

I think most of us were assuming that technology would eventually mature...before we destroy ourselves. You make a good point though.

So what your basically saying is that colinizing a planet would be to difficult and colinizing space itself with gigantic space stations eh...Well that could be a problem. Why because then it could lead to a CIVIL WAR !!!! Between the Earth Forces and the Colonies OMG cant you see this would be just like the Anime Gundam Wing series!!!!!!!!Colonies will be destroyed with on shot from a mobile suit coutless people will die then they will retaliate then thousands more will die on earth and so on and so on!~!!!!...

Originally posted by SpockO_o
So what your basically saying is that colinizing a planet would be to difficult and colinizing space itself with gigantic space stations eh...Well that could be a problem. Why because then it could lead to a CIVIL WAR !!!! Between the Earth Forces and the Colonies OMG cant you see this would be just like the Anime Gundam Wing series!!!!!!!!Colonies will be destroyed with on shot from a mobile suit coutless people will die then they will retaliate then thousands more will die on earth and so on and so on!~!!!!...

Colonizing anywhere, planet or super-space-structure, would be difficult, but with a joint effort by all of humanity, it may be achievable in the next few centuries.
War's between different factions of humans are always inevitable. That is why humanity must be united, before such a venture would become likely.

Originally posted by AllseeingEYE
Colonizing anywhere, planet or super-space-structure, would be difficult, but with a joint effort by all of humanity, it may be achievable in the next few centuries.
War's between different factions of humans are always inevitable. That is why humanity must be united, before such a venture would become likely.

yeah, thats why most sci-fi books always have some sort of global government, or something that serves the function of one. one would be hard pressed to find a single nation capable of this. pre 9/11 america had a chance, pre recession america, but not right now. as long as our focus remains on making the world safe, we wont get any further from our world. a good focus, but nonetheless a difficult one to step around.

Given the enormous resources required for any such project, it might be more economically feasible direct such resources at improving the spaceship we already have, which is Earth. We can certainly improve agriculture, take care of pollution and maybe find a way to insure peace (I know I'm going on a limb now, but it's sad to be thinking that terraforming Mars is easier than findind an end to all that bloodshed here).

thanks Aelita!
Extremely relevant point!!!

i remember years ago some tv show which was about this big glass house in some desert somewhere that was totally self contained-including oxygen,also the soil on the ground.
After several months inside the building (containing many trees and oxygen producing plants)it stabilized its own atmosphere and small clouds would appear in its roof producing rain!! it was a functioning human life sustainig world within a world.
The programme ended by stating that this would be used to help develop bases on Mars.They would ship millions of tons of good quality soil,plants shrubs etc and establish 1000,s of bases across the martian surface,they would operate under slow control release systems allowing oxygen to seep in to the atmosphere and eventuall stabilize to the point where us humans could in habbit the surface.Cost? bit more than your average lottery win!! Ships to get the ingriedients there? Best to steal a few imperial star cruisers!! Chance of it happening in our life times? er...? More chance of Manchester City football club winning the Trebble!!!

Chance of it happening in our life times? er...? More chance of Manchester City football club winning the Trebble!!!

Who said it will happen in our lifetime? Mankind is more than any one person. We should be the pioneers of a future peace.