life on mars is possible

Just thought I'd add..

The problem with growing on Mars, well currently I'm pretty sure we
don't know that Terran life could'nt survive in protected Martian soil.

And, we could always genetically engineer the plants and animals and
people who are going to live there.

There are vast resources in our own solar system to, so building
colonies throughout the solar system, especially in the asteroid belt,
it would be economic, and be providing resources that have dwindled
on Earth.

Originally posted by iori_komei
Just thought I'd add..

The problem with growing on Mars, well currently I'm pretty sure we
don't know that Terran life could'nt survive in protected Martian soil.

There is no such thing as "Martian soil". Remember that Mars is covered by a regolith. It is inert. There are no bacteria. No worms. No dung beetles. ect....
There is no decayed vegetable matter. No nitrogen for fertilizer.

No plants of any kind can grow in a regolith. Try an experiment. Gather all the different kinds of rocks that you can find. Crush them up into a powder. Add sand and water. Plant any kind of seed or weed or bush that you want.

Guess what happens. I'll tell you. Absolutely nothing. Except that any plant will die.

And, we could always genetically engineer the plants and animals and
people who are going to live there.

That wouldn't work either. You cannot just "whip up" a batch of Martian ready freaks. Remember that evolution has taken a long time to fill the Earth with life.
You might create some sort of bacterial slime that "maybe" can survive on Mars but I doubt it.

There are vast resources in our own solar system to, so building
colonies throughout the solar system, especially in the asteroid belt,
it would be economic, and be providing resources that have dwindled
on Earth.

The resources of the asteroid belt and the other planets of our solar system don't amount to squat as far as is known.

You cannot fly out and harvest a load of grain or round up a load of sheep.

Most of what you would be able to retrieve would be water in the form of ice. Oxygen bound into rocks. Heavy metals such as iron, steel, and nickel.
That would be about it.
Anything that you would really need would require way too much energy to convert into useful products.

There is no coal, oil, or other "bio-fuels" out there either. Nuclear power plants would be about your only source of energy and it would be a bitch to build them.

For every hypothetical "Star Trek" idea that may be employed to try and convince someone that living offworld is possible there are a 100 real problems that there may be no solution to at all.

I would like to get off of this rock as much as anyone. Even if was a one way trip.

It ain't gonna happen though.

Originally posted by RecDude



You might create some sort of bacterial slime that "maybe" can survive on Mars

Yeah I think that is on the right track. First just release a fungus that gets its moisture from the air. There are millions of different types and surely there's one or two that could be sent to mars to live. After a few years they would have created a type of soil that other plants could live in.

We've got eternity to figure it all out. It's not like we have to find an answer straight away.