Has the idea of a mars colony been pre programmed into us?

Was just speculating on the idea that since the days of Edgar Rice Burroughs and beyond with all his tales of Barsoom etc and then the plethora of video games Red Faction to name but one and movies like the origional Total Recall and most other space movies there is always a Colony on Mars be it for mining the minerals there or a pit stop for travellers on their way out of the solar system,do you think it has all been prep work so that when the time comes to establish a base there we will just say "oh well why not the idea has been around for ages anyway" and hey presto a colony is born job done....or is it all just co incidence not that I mind though ,the world would be a boring place without stories and imagination.

Mars is popular for such things because it isn't a tumultuous gas giant or a raging furnace (like Venus). It just happens to be the most logical place to colonize after the Moon.

There is really no need to "program" people into starting a Mars colony unless they decide to destroy it or excommunicate the residents.

Probably so. I thought of those monkey's I saw on TV sometime ago that use rocks and such to crack things to eat. Oh, and the birds that drop things from up high to crack.

Even with lower animals (as we are animals also), somebody had to start the process.

Life is a mystery

reply to post by cookiemonster32


Not sure where you've seen how they construct these things, but there's no hey presto involved

I remember about 30 years ago hearing that it could take 40-50 years to develop the technology to actually have people living on the Martian surface as a colony, not just deployed workers.

Even now it's not something you want to just do. There is a lot involved, and we're there now looking around. No small feat to get that contraption there either, and that thing did not have living bodies on it to protect.

Mars has been influential on human imagination ever since man first looked up with the help of a glass and saw it.

That's all it is. Imagination. But from imagination come novel ideas. and when the necessity calls she is the mother of invention. without the imagination, we'd still be picking fruits and berries for dinner.

We will be on Mars one day, as a thriving society. I know this. I know it because we've made progress on this planet so astonishingly technologically amazing in my opinion, that short of us wiping ourselves out this century, it is inevitable that we will make those steps.

And beyond.. we will either be the disease this universe curses, spreading ourselves into every recess and polluting every place we go, or we'll end with nothing more than the remnants of civilisation left on the barren wasteland called earth, who self destructed when technology surpassed our feeble ability to control it.

Either way, I'll be old and senile if they achieve it in this life time. Damn kids, get all the fun...

Whats to say that there isnt a colony already on Mars and has been for the last 20-30 years?

Then just before the next election campaign, Obama will go on live tv to the world and announce that the secret US Mars program has been successfully self sustaining for the last 20 years, raised children there, been able to produce its own water and oxygen, plant life and food within the "dome" bases and now its time to expand the program to the rest of humanity in the form of corporations that would be interested in starting up mining there.


not impossible....secret space program has been discussed for years and is way advanced than the primitive rocket tech Nasa point and shoot into the sky in their civilian programs.

I think in a way you could say we are programmed to want to go there. It is just an innate yearning we have to explore. Always taking another step to understanding being human and what all this crazy stuff around us is about. Now is that programming by design or flaw? I can't pretend to know that.

Instead of all this talk about space, shouldn't we explore our own planet some more?

I've heard people say we know more about the moon than we know about our oceans. Also subterranean exploration is relatively untouched compared to the parts unexplored.

reply to post by winofiend


Heh heh yes indeed there is certainly no "hey presto" involved it would take an army of robots to pave the way before any human sets foot on Mars but we shouldn't despair about never seeing it because I'm pretty sure that they (scientists just in case someone askes who's they) will invent an anti ageing pill soon and then we will be designing a flag for the new colony ,hey that would be a cool thread to start maybe even a competition to design a martian colony flag I see something along the lines of Olympus Mons in the background and four dots/spheres symbolizing Mars's position in the solar system and absoloutely no red on the flag that would be sooooo cliched.... I wonder what the currency would be called? Ok I might be getting a bit ahead of things at the moment but these things will have to be discussed

reply to post by cookiemonster32
I think hell yeah! It's programmed into us since single-cells were sloshing around in the ocean millions of years ago. It's like the ant colonies spreading across the mediterranean or bacteria multiplying under a microscope.

I see our urge to go to other worlds as an expression of life's 'programming' to occupy new environments. The stories we dream of could be coming from life's own keening to keep spreading?

reply to post by mcx1942


Excellent point and that is precisely the reason why I am doing a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) course next year so I can pilot these vehicles underwater and start seeing for myself.

When I was a kid watching total recall I have always wondered how far off could it really be that there is ice on mars and and creating oxygen with the heating of the ground making stream ,

reply to post by Kandinsky


I could not agree more with you kinda adds new meaning to the term "Go forth and multiply" so basically we can't help ourselves we are compelled to explore and to colonize we just need more tech than ants . As a matter of interest what would you call a Mars currency? I vote for The Barsoom....

reply to post by cookiemonster32


Nice! I am extremely jealous! I wish I could explore like a boss!

Have a great time on that adventure friend!

IF anything, it is genitically imprinted in us to one day return to Mars

You see , my theory is we came from Mars originally.

So it makes sense that we long for our homeland

reply to post by mcx1942


Thanks rest assured that when I do find something interesting ATS is the first place I will be posting

reply to post by freedomSlave


Hopefully when we do this we won't be halfway down the side of a mountain on our backs gasping for air that is on its way with our eyes popping out of our heads... I always liked that movie especially the three breasted woman heh heh

Originally posted by cookiemonster32
reply to post by freedomSlave

 

Hopefully when we do this we won't be halfway down the side of a mountain on our backs gasping for air that is on its way with our eyes popping out of our heads... I always liked that movie especially the three breasted woman heh heh

You and me both. Hey did you know there IS a real 3 breasted woman? its true. Anyway..Mars is a cool place. Id like to go live there. so GET YOUR AZZ TO MAHHHHSSSSS QAID!!!

reply to post by yuppa


I'LL BE BAAACK .... Really there is a three breasted woman I would like to see that does she live anywhere near chernoybl or fukushima? I wonder