The Secret Story of Planet Mars - Documentary

I came across this interesting documentary on the necessity of the manned exploration and colonization of the planet Mars.


I think that the mere prospect of renewed manned flight to the Moon and Mars raises some very interesting possibilities and implications, as the new bases and colonies begin to take root at some point during the next 30 years, for many of us within our own lifetime (touch wood).

If given the opportunity to go, would you?

I'd love to take a trip to the moon and back. What an adventure that would be!

I think we ought to be setting our sights first on the moon, and then Mars, using the moon itself as a "blastoff" platform for all such travel whether to Mars or wherever else. Pieces of launch vehicles could be sent to the moon and assembled there for launch.

What are your thoughts?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

My thinking is as follows.

Mars must be landed, it must be inhabited, sooner rather than later. However, we must never send a mission to anywhere that we could not send a rapid rescue mission to. This DOES require that we build propulsion methods which reduce the minimum transit time from six months to a couple of weeks at most. Doing this would be cost effective for the following reason. A propulsion drive which can throw a ship to Mars in a couple of weeks, could attain orbit of other planets and moons in a much more orderly and prompt fashion than is currently possible, meaning that such a drive would not be a white elephant, good for Mars and for nothing else, but a useful, versatile mission platform that could be used to expand our ability to explore well beyond our current capabilities.

We should also think about making Mars, and not our Moon, the jumping off point to the rest of the solar system, and Pluto and its neighbour the jumping off point from the solar system to the rest of space, when even more advanced propulsion takes off in a few hundred years.

Laying the ground work now, getting that advanced propulsion off the blackboard and onto a mission vehicle, is CRITICAL. The urgency of Zubrin is absolutely founded in good sense, but it needs to be tempered with the practicality and patience necessary to see whatever mission comes of it, have uses as a test bed as much as anything else. We need to start using tomorrow's technology today, so that we can bring the future to our doorsteps.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Wise words. Do you believe said propulsion method exists now or in the near future? I am not educated enough in this field to keep track of what is science fact, science fiction, rumored black ops tech and pure conspiracy fantasy...and it seems to be changing all the time.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

Why do youtubers change movies and documentaries titles? Like this one, for example, the real title is 'The Mars Underground', no secret Mars, nothing secret about Mr Zubrin's ideas.

I have not watched this documentary and I will later on, it seems really interesting. If I didn't have children (and I was a bit younger) I would definitely sign up to go to Mars, to explore and colonize.

I will give you my review of the movie after I've watched it. Thanks for posting it!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Could a solar powered laser propel a ship to high speed?

How about a vacuum energy drive, what do you think of that idea?

To do what you're talking about a whole new drive is needed, or do you think that rocket fuel in one form or another will take us there?

What about electric? Is there anything that can use electricity?

As the show points out, you end up with problems of mass, if you want to use rocket fuel.

I'm not a physicist or a rocket scientist for that matter, but something tells me that we need to figure out how to extract electrical current from the zero point field and come up with some sort of electromagnetic engine. What do you think of that?

In the interim, I think we should be building a moon base. Call it "Moon Base Alpha" just for S's and G's.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

I find the idea of exploring planets interesting, but I could never get myself to travel there. I hate flying in planes let alone a space ship!

originally posted by: AnkhMorpork
In the interim, I think we should be building a moon base. Call it "Moon Base Alpha" just for S's and G's.

So long as they build Eagle landers im down with that. the guns were cool too.

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

A vehicle capable of reaching Mars might best be constructed in lunar orbit, perhaps at a Lagrange point near the Moon, rather than on the lunar surface itself.

Why haul all of if the parts needed for what would be a very large spaceship out of one gravity well (Earth) just to have to lift off the finished vehicle out of another, albeit significantly lesser, gravity well (the Moon)?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

What are your thoughts?

Simply put.... This planet is mankind's egg. We either hatch and move out into the universe or sit here and kill ourselves off one way or the other. It has been estimated that 98% of all species that have ever lived on planet earth have gone extinct given time... What makes our planners think the same thing cannot happen again ? Plenty of empires and even life forms like us are no more (extinct) if the fossil and written records are correct.

Certain segments of mankind will always have problems and need a helping hand.. Kinda like the Apollo missions that were canceled so that some of the money could be used to feed the poor and homeless.,,, Lyndon Johnson and his endeavor to create the nanny state has now given us generations of people who are nothing more than breeders for the social welfare system.

Like the video said; the moon by the 70s, Mars by the 80s and farther out thereafter... was the plan and I was there and heard it all. There was a feeling in the country that nothing was impossible if we put our minds to it.. Now it seems all we can do is pick on each other (race/religion) or fight other countries with a war of words or by bombing them.

I am to old to go gallivanting around the solar system unless something like the triangles are ours and can do a fairly large percentage of light speed... In that case sign me up !....... err I need to ask my wife first.... sorry...

a reply to: 727Sky

Love your avatar btw!

There's something about that rationale, unless we were concerned about a ELE meteor impact or thermonuclear war, that just doesn't sit right with me.

We must steward the Earth as our home before trying to leave it as some sort of precautionary measure.

I don't we should go anywhere until no one is left starving to death for no reason.

We've got to clean up our act before heading to the stars, imo.

originally posted by: Bhadhidar
a reply to: AnkhMorpork

A vehicle capable of reaching Mars might best be constructed in lunar orbit, perhaps at a Lagrange point near the Moon, rather than on the lunar surface itself.

Why haul all of if the parts needed for what would be a very large spaceship out of one gravity well (Earth) just to have to lift off the finished vehicle out of another, albeit significantly lesser, gravity well (the Moon)?

That makes more sense.

But then why send parts to the moon in the first place? Why not just assemble in Earth orbit?

a reply to: AnkhMorpork

The lunar gravity well is much shallower than the Terran gravity well, for one thing.

Remember that the assembled mass of the ship will have to escape whatever gravity well it is built in.

Far easier to escape the Moon's grip than the Earth's.

And there is always the possibility of using some of the Moon's resources to construct the ship as well.