Mars colonies

This morning in my English lesson I was on the cnn.com space section. I found an article which was about a group planning on setting up colonies on the moon.

Company wants new Mars colony

I'm not sure what to make of it...it's a good idea but it sounds a bit rediculos as last time I checked we haven't even landed someone on Mars unless I'm in some kind of time warp....

Putting colonies on Mars isn't feasible for another 25-30 years in my opinion. Considering we haven't even put a base (or anything that would be needed for a long-term stay) on the moon and have a hard enough time surviving on Earth, we'll need some new techonology that isn't around yet to assist us. But within the next 10-15 years we will have a base/colony on the moon.

If we are going to put people on Mars we need to have a plan and we need to stick to it. In my opinion doing stuff that these companies are doing cheapens the whole idea of space travel. Come on, do we really need another theme park? What a bunch of jokers.

We still haven't mastered getting into orbit cheaply, let alone the moon! And to ask people to put up money for Mars is quite frankly a no starter when looking at it from a Business point of view. Who on earth is going to invest in this thing?

If I was going to do this, I would do it in a five stage plan.

1) Form a rocket company offering cheap low cost flights into orbit. Something along the lines of what this gentleman is doing. Mark my words, Ive read about his rocket and it is quite frankly excellent.

www.mg.co.za.../insight/insight__economy__business/

2) Next, extend this technology to allow tourist trips to the moon. Do not however actually land there. Just do fly bys... (lol "just" )

3) Next, establish a base on the moon to allow perfection of artificial environment technologies. If they fail, you can escape to Earth. In conjunction with this, develop plasma rocket technology to perfection.

4) Now you can attempt a Mars flyby! Several test runs could be performed. Heck it would be the first "deep" space cruise and with plasma rockets, the time spent in deep space would be greatly reduced. You can also drop off the first modules for the martian settlement.

5) Now we have learnt to walk. Along the way we have pushed the frontiers of space tourism in a logical fashion developing our technological know how along the way.

What do you guys think?

Im curious as to how plans are for terraforming Mars...

Before, under or after a base.

I don't think there are any feasable plans to terraform Mars. Spose we could melt the polar ice ( think there is some there ) with nukes but the fallout would be immense! Fusion nukes (i.e. ones that don't use fissiable elements) would work but clean nukes are a bad idea cos that makes people more likely to use them and the last thing we need now is better nukes.

Again I think this boils down to the whole learn to walk before running thing! How can we even consider terraforming a planet when we still build such crappy rockets?

The main problem with terraforming Mars is that it has no magnetic field. A magnetic field is needed to keep the atmosphere from leaving the planet.

Originally posted by Umbrax
The main problem with terraforming Mars is that it has no magnetic field. A magnetic field is needed to keep the atmosphere from leaving the planet.

Im not saying your wrong, Im just curious to know how you know this? What is the scientific basis?Id be interested to know.

I heard that Mars can't support a carbon cycle as it has only one tectonic plate, not many like earth meaning it is missing one of the key prequisites for life.

I know this because this subject has been talked about on ATS many, many times.

Here is a link to NASA. They can explain it much better than I could.

science.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Umbrax
I know this because this subject has been talked about on ATS many, many times.

Here is a link to NASA. They can explain it much better than I could.

science.nasa.gov...

Wow you learn something new everyday! Thanks for that one.

I think its interesting that plate techtonics is such a key issue when it comes to supporting life i.e. the carbon cycle, generation of magnetic fields to shield from solar wind etc.

Terraforming mars really depends on if you have enough underground aquifers to bring water to the surface. Its lack of Magnetic field is only part of the problem involved with terraforming the planet