Why the Colonization of Mars is a Dumb Pursuit.

Late to the party, but I agree with everything you've said OP, and commend you for having the fortitude to speak your mind on such an important issue.

I just cannot fathom some of the responses read herein; looking at colonizing Mars
but could give a Fluorine-Uranium-Carbon-Kalium about Earth, now that they've
almost fully raped not only the planet, but most of its people for profit
- and for generations, no less...


We have also disgustingly littered up this planet something fierce, due to gross over-consumption, with space already having our junk in orbit - the same humanity that would see this world and others as their own personal garbage dump.


I liken it to an analogy of sports fans in their "Go Team - WE Won!!" chant.
No WE didn't win, the players won, parting you from your time=energy=$$ and in the off season, all YOU have is an empty football field.

When Mars is "won", Earth will be the new empty football field - a mined out empty shell of its former self and a garbage dump left to rot.
But at least your team "won" space, right?

That said, I really am all for space exploration, it is a noble pursuit - however once humanity learns to clean up its OWN backyard and do right by the people who live here in the NOW, and earn the respect of their offspring and future generations in taking care of the very PARADISE they were first entrusted with.


There is no honour in colonizing space, with your home planet in such a disgraceful state

- the very reference of where you've been already - and, what you're capable of.

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Till they can work out how to create an atmosphere thats not whipped away by solar winds by reviving the now dead magnetic field it won't be possible.

That is not completely necessary. There are terraforming theories were large orbiting shields deflect some of the solar wind and reduce the amount of radiation reaching the surface, preventing the atmosphere from being stripped.

a reply to: MoonBlossom

Agree, we can't even wipe our own asses here in good 'ol mum earth.....right?.....

a reply to: reddragon2015

Do you really think this guy cars about the environment at all? Selling an electric car for 80k a pop?

So because he charges $80 k for a car (which I presume is because of the tech and materials that go into it) that somehow he doesnt care for the environment? What leads you to say this, care to point to something?

TeIt's just so stupid to me, that we are wanting and investing time and money into a project to colonize a dead planet. All in the while, we have this beautiful planet, that is Earth, here and we are killing it!

And when Europe was going through wars, they still decided to search for new lands? Why does exploring space stop people from protecting the Earth? I fail to see your logic. Billions are spent fighting useless wars for resources. Why single out space exploration as being no productive.

a reply to: reddragon2015

What if the ancient people said "Gosh...we have such beautiful land here. We don't need to cross that water...or that mountain...or that desert?"

Mankind has always wanted to blaze new frontiers...to boldly go where no one has gone before!

a reply to: Sremmos80

I do wholeheartedly agree that we need to focus on saving the rock we are on on instead of moving to a new one

Do you make sure your rooms, kitchen bathroom toilets are spotless before you leave your house. Thought not. So a few 1000s or a million colonists head out to space, what makes you think the rest of the Earthlings won't keep cleaning the earth?

"Woe is the Universe, earthlings want to explore space and their backyard is not even clean!"

You're using a PC, imagine what the world would be like if we followed the mindset of IBM (Mainframes) or the Arpanet -
"it ain't for the masses"

a reply to: 3danimator2014

Should we stop all art, exploration, music, book writing, science etc... until all the world's problems are solved? Ridiculous.

And yet these same whiners still try the latest sandwich or soft drink fad or latest mobile device. Hypocrisy.

all that money could go to save this planet

Whats spent on space exploration is a drop in the ocean. Why single out explorers - what about all the billions spent in healthcare - maybe we should divert those funds to saving the planet, let everyone die when they reach say 70 years of age?

Sounds like communism - taking another mans money to fix up your own problems

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

It is not space that is the problem, actual square meters of space. That's not ever going to be an issue on this planet. The issue is resources. The amount of land that will be able to support some kind of agriculture, that will remain unpoisoned, that will remain verdant, rather than become scrub or find itself given over to barren desert is going to shrink over the coming decades, the oceans are becoming more wrecked every day, the very atmosphere is changing in dynamic and contents and this is all a massive risk to our species.

Look into bee populations. There are terrifying things happening to one of the most important pollenators you could hope to name!

This is not a matter of space, but a matter of how much population can be sustained on Earth without totally depleting its resources and sucking it dry of those resources to the detriment of all life on Earth. These are different issues. There may come a time when the only resources we have come from mined asteroids and by being hauled from Mars, or where a portion of the species has to relocate for its own sake, to another world. If you think that is wasteful, then you are welcome to your opinion, but it seems to me that such an opinion can only arise from not having possession of the right data, or enough of it.

originally posted by: MoonBlossom
Late to the party, but I agree with everything you've said OP, and commend you for having the fortitude to speak your mind on such an important issue.

I just cannot fathom some of the responses read herein; looking at colonizing Mars
but could give a Fluorine-Uranium-Carbon-Kalium about Earth, now that they've
almost fully raped not only the planet, but most of its people for profit
- and for generations, no less...

We have also disgustingly littered up this planet something fierce, due to gross over-consumption, with space already having our junk in orbit - the same humanity that would see this world and others as their own personal garbage dump.

I liken it to an analogy of sports fans in their "Go Team - WE Won!!" chant.
No WE didn't win, the players won, parting you from your time=energy=$$ and in the off season, all YOU have is an empty football field.

When Mars is "won", Earth will be the new empty football field - a mined out empty shell of its former self and a garbage dump left to rot.
But at least your team "won" space, right?

That said, I really am all for space exploration, it is a noble pursuit - however once humanity learns to clean up its OWN backyard and do right by the people who live here in the NOW, and earn the respect of their offspring and future generations in taking care of the very PARADISE they were first entrusted with.

There is no honour in colonizing space, with your home planet in such a disgraceful state

- the very reference of where you've been already - and, what you're capable of.

While I won't disagree that humans need to pick up after themselves, I will say that for every pic like yours, there are thousands like this...


It is misleading to say the whole earth is a dumpster.

a reply to: DOCHOLIDAZE1

exactly the kind of ignorance that is making earth go to sh"t

The only ignorance is coming from this new "climate change cult"

originally posted by: Misterlondon
Er.. colonising another planet would be a fantastic achievement for the human race.. It would also be a stepping stone to exploring further into space. .

That would be fantastic?

We can't even take care of the planet we live on, so perhaps polluting and ruining another planet would be awesome right?

Maybe we can dump trash, toxic waste and hazardous material there so no one can actually see it, because we are running out of room here.

a reply to: ladyteeny

could totally eradicate world hunger and probably even poverty worldwide.

And you've got the maths to prove this. The world produces enough food now. Its all a matter of allowing that food to get to where its needed. Rather than rely on another's money why dont you donate your own?

a reply to: TrueBrit
Hey TrueBrit, This is not all directed to you, but some of it touches on the idea of over-population that you seem to be concerned with, so I thought I would link.


One would think that so much ingenuity and inventing could happen right here to benefit Earth - but no, instead we are told that going to Mars is the only way that will happen, with all the new tech (of course) benefiting the Earth at a later date.

Ever wonder WHY the education system is dumbed down, trash tv is all the rage and people are unemployed and/or living in basements at home and cannot afford schooling?

I do.

There are a hell of a lot of people who have the intelligence to do more, the desire and passion to do more but are held back because money.
This is our collective loss. One certainly must admit it keeps a certain order of things well in check, and the knowledge limited to a manageable collective worldwide.

We are capable of so much more than current society dictates. I think if higher education were available and accessible for everyone, that as a collective intelligence of BILLIONS of people we would not only greatly enhance the ingenuity and tech on Earth, and have fixed all of its problems, like YESTERDAY - we'd currently be travelling onward to Mars.

Yet that hasn't happened. Think ahead to a hypothetical end game (themes which are all discussed often on ATS) - a two tiered planet system, one for the elite, and one for everyone else.
This planet, remaining a destroyed, contaminated and sink-holed, bombed out mess.

Logically, no one wants this to happen. But there is so much injustice, corruption and illogic already on this planet, that one would be a fool not to consider the full range of possibilities.

We are told that "oh noes! overpopulation!!" yet it's a no-brainer that bringing up quality of living for people in poverty, and education for all, changes the rate at which people reproduce. When people are educated and making MORE than enough for just bare survival, the whole world opens up to them and reproduction is no longer the first choice, as they then have other dreams to pursue. Just look at when women entered the workforce en masse - families got much, much smaller.

-There is also 3-D printing, which should at least be used in every city by now, so no one is homeless.
-Aquaponics and vertical gardens to feed the hungry, who still exist in spite of social programs.
None of this is being pursued on any massive basis, but let's do Mars?


This is a conspiracy site, last I checked, and the motto is to deny ignorance...supposedly.

Hmmmm, wonder if Monsanto will be terraforming Mars, or is the blessing of gmo's just for us mere earthings...

"This world is such perfection" (What a sight)
"It's just like paradise" (For my eyes)
"A truly grand creation" (What a sight)
"From up here it looks so nice" (For my eyes)

Here's where we keep the armies
Here's where we write their names
Here's where the money got us
Here's our famous hall of shame
Here's where we starve the hungry
Here's where we cheat the poor
Here's where we beat the children
Here is where we pay the whores
-Alice Cooper

www.azlyrics.com...

Heh, came across these lyrics randomly, seemed apropos to add them.

Tl;dr - Invest in the people of this world - and then NOTHING will be out of reach or have to wait decades.

Just as many hands make light work - many minds repair planets and discover galaxies.

originally posted by: gator2001
While I won't disagree that humans need to pick up after themselves, I will say that for every pic like yours, there are thousands like this...

It is misleading to say the whole earth is a dumpster.

Agreed - though technically I didn't say the entire Earth is a dumpster - though we are heading that way.

The current consumption patterns cannot be maintained.
It's very clear that we need to do some massive damage control.

I do however wish better for my friends in (for example) smog-filled China, or Japan - don't you?
We need to do MUCH better by the people who work, live and play on THIS planet.

a reply to: MoonBlossom

And while I accept that not all of that was aimed at me, the fact is that if we do not go multiplanetary as a species at the earliest possible chance, then as a species we are fools and morons, and should be snuffed out on this planet before we get anywhere else.

In having colonies on as many planets as possible, we would be safeguarding our species against extinction level events on any one world, like a comet impact on Earth, or a nuclear war to end all wars. On top of that, mankind is at its best, it's most impressive when it is about the business of the impossible or improbable. That cannot be denied, or even questioned, it is simply a fact.

We need off, we need out, and more importantly we need to stop compromising between doing things in space, and doing things on Earth. We need to do both, or accept that we are so inadequate that we deserve to perish in our ineptitude. This whole one or the other, binary equation nonsense HAS to stop. We should be cleaning the planet, AND colonising new ones, not picking one or the other, but insisting on doing EVERYTHING we need to do, all of the time, without ever compromising one for the other.

It's like the song goes. All or nothing, and it has to be. This is our species we are talking about, its future. Giving ourslelves all the options, never taking one off the table, and having many irons in the fire is the way you safeguard and futureproof a species. Relying on this one planet to not be hit by a hundred mile wide asteroid, or relying on its inhabitants not to nuke themselves into oblivion, is hideously unwise, when the fate of this whole species is concerned.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: zazzafrazz
Till they can work out how to create an atmosphere thats not whipped away by solar winds by reviving the now dead magnetic field it won't be possible.

That is not completely necessary. There are terraforming theories were large orbiting shields deflect some of the solar wind and reduce the amount of radiation reaching the surface, preventing the atmosphere from being stripped.

In order for them to be successflul "blockers" they need to be large, and that would block Mars special commodity sunlight, the shadow effect would cool the planet further. The strength of the sunlight on mars, there isn't much to start so you don't want to go casting giant shadows.

A defector shield wouldn't work, unless they synthesize magnetic fields. That would require so much power....again, easier to wait for a another goldilocks exo planet and viable space travel.

a reply to: reddragon2015

I truly believe that it is our destiny to walk in the light of foreign stars. The colonization of mars will be the second small step toward that giant leap.

a reply to: zazzafrazz

The proposal I was reading were for large, louvered arrays that were far enough away to deflect the solar wind but with enough spacing in the louvers to permit sunlight to reach the surface. I will see if can find this.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: MoonBlossom


We need off, we need out, and more importantly we need to stop compromising between doing things in space, and doing things on Earth. We need to do both, or accept that we are so inadequate that we deserve to perish in our ineptitude.

Hear Hear. Ive said as much many times. Colonising other planets and doing good on the Earth are not mutually exclusive.