POLL: would you support human-made life on mars???

They don't call it the Red Planet for nothing!

I can see it! The Great Wall of Mars! The Martian Terracota Soldiers!

Soon Very Long March Rocket will land on Mars. yes.




"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a foolish samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword, stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future, where my evil is law. Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku."

Originally posted by Tartessian
"Long ago in a distant land, I, Aku, the shape-shifting master of darkness, unleashed an unspeakable evil. But a foolish samurai warrior, wielding a magic sword, stepped forth to oppose me. Before the final blow was struck, I tore open a portal in time, and flung him into the future, where my evil is law. Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is Aku."

uhh, is this your sig.???

if so, it is in the wrong spot...

funny though...

samari jack...

damn im wrong???

anyway, i STILL think it will be cheaper because what is cheaper:

going down into mines (on the moon) OR just going to the poles (of mars)???

And what is cheaper? Sending a 1 million Lb 1rs gen interplanetary ship half a million miles or sending that ship tens of millions of miles? You can also recycle water...

Also, all this talk about ruining Mars, I think it will be necessary at first just to create an atmosphere even after the first cities or bases are established... There is probably no useable oil on Mars and by the time we get there we won�t be oil dependant. There will be time in the transition from Earth to Mars and beyond to think before we act... I know you guys are smarter then this... We aren�t going to utterly destroy another planet. even if that where to happen I, and many others believe that by the end of this century that space travel will be common place and with that comes massive technological breakthroughs. We may be talking about speedy interstellar travel within the next 876000 hours... I'm counting!

Who owns Mars?

Any attempt to dominate space would result in war on Earth

It would be ironic if a debate regarding life in Mars would escalate into a war of anihilation on Earth.

I support the colonization of Mars if done by the Chinese.

Anyone else, get the hell away from it.

Well, if you mesure it by military might then the U.S. currently does and has BIG plans for future military occupation of space...

[edit on 11-12-2004 by ChrisRT]

Anyone thought of it that we actualy might have put life on Mars already?

The big argument at the moment seems to be that when retrieving mars rocks directly from mars we might bring back unknown microbial lifeforms from mars to earth, which could be hazardous for human life since they are unknowns.

The same thing goes the other way imho, with all the equipment we sent up in space and the rovers and satelites we sent to mars, theres a good chance we sent microbial lifeforms over there already.

Offcource we don't know if these lifeforms could survive there for sure, seeying the incredible adaptability of microbes and viri and the fact scientists have proven microbial lifeforms are able to piggy back rides in space with just a very basic chemical soup to live of, would suggest there is a rather good chance that we already planted earth based microbes in Mars' ecosystem.

The Chinese on Mars? Bah Let them colonise the sun. I hear it's nice there year-round.

Originally posted by Mephorium
The Chinese on Mars? Bah Let them colonise the sun. I hear it's nice there year-round.

!!! Dude, I almost ruined my computer with spit and water!

ChrisRT, Mephorium and thematrix...

what are your votes???

also thematrix, i think that NASA "cleaned" the rovers of earth microbes before sending them to mars...

Yes

If indeed its totally bereft of life! however I think terraforming a planet is beyond us, even if its possible I would expect it to take hundreds of years!

Originally posted by Amuk
I would support it even if it displaced native life (non-intelegent) I would be happy to be in the first wave

With that attitude my friend, I'd be happy to wave you off!

Yes, but only if they checked to make sure we were not destroying anything with intelligence.

Although how would they know? A simple microorganism might be in its early developments before becoming the one sole life force that could bring peace all over the universe. And there we are interfering, for what?

I would definitely support it ! we NEED TO LEAVE THIS PLANET AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and this might be the first step in that process, hopefully!
As soon as man can terra form MARS and can sustain himself independently there that is the time we should move ! EARTH ISN"T BIG ENOUGH FOR ALL OF US - WE KEEP FIGHTING ALL THE TIME !!
The amount of knowledge about terra forming we will learn from this is incalculable we willl be GODS in essence! We should ultimately learn to terraform any planet we like to match our needs - Imagine that custom PLANETS = they'll have PLANET DESIGNERS! Every nation could buy their own planet and design it the way they want !

As I stated before, I vote yes. I also vote that we, Americans, start our own public space agency. One funded by people who advocate the expansion of our society, and the development of new technology that will take us farther into the galaxy. And maybe one day beyond it.

ChrisRT, Mephorium and thematrix...

I'm all for it! We aren�t going to be in any less danger from extinction by just sitting here and wondering. I'm definite there will be hundreds of billions more opportunities such as this in humanities space exploration future. We need to take the proper steps now to ensure that we will make it into that future...

If indeed its totally bereft of life! however I think terraforming a planet is beyond us, even if its possible I would expect it to take hundreds of years!

We think... Thing sometimes surprise us... We are still learning with every mission to Mars. There may be certain chemicals undiscovered or not know that may help speed up the process. There is also the idea of blowing the planet to its core with nukes as part of a fast 'n cheap process.

I would support it even if it displaced native life (non-intelegent) I would be happy to be in the first wave

So... It�s just going to be you and a can of microbes?

PLANETS = they'll have PLANET DESIGNERS! Every nation could buy their own planet and design it the way they want !

Yep! And some hotass like me comes along and buys a resource rich planet, builds a dominant military and takes everyone hostage; at least that is what you think. My double is taking everyone hostage while I board my star ship and orbit a population center. Uhm, yeah...

As I stated before, I vote yes. I also vote that we, Americans, start our own public space agency. One funded by people who advocate the expansion of our society, and the development of new technology that will take us farther into the galaxy. And maybe one day beyond it.

Sir that is by far one of the smartest things I have read to date. If you ever run for president you have my vote!

To the cryogenics lab!

[edit on 11-12-2004 by ChrisRT]

Originally posted by ChrisRT

So... It�s just going to be you and a can of microbes?

According to everything so far the BEST as far as life goes on Mars would be "a can of microbes". What I am saying is IF, and that is a big if, a few microbes were found we should not let that stop us from colonizing the planet. If there is mircobes you can bet that they will be a bunch of tree huggers that will start the "save the Germs" movement.

Besides life begets life the more habitable it becomes the better off the "Natives" should be. After all you would have to be one tough germ to have evolved there.

Originally posted by they see ALL
so here is the question:

would you support human-made life on mars???

please answer with a clear yes or no and then you can add whatever you want...

Yes

Though we would need to first create an atmosphere so that life could be supported. This will take god knows how many thousands of years. While they are waiting for the atmosphere, research could be done on any past life on Mars.


[edit on 11-12-2004 by Hurdy Gurdy]

Originally posted by Hurdy Gurdy
Though we would need to first create an atmosphere so that life could be supported. This will take god knows how many thousands of years. While they are waiting for the atmosphere, research could be done on any past life on Mars.

Not necessarily, Crashing a few comets into it would thicken the atmosphere quickly. It might support a few simple earth lifeforms now, and defiantly could after the atmosphere was thickened a bit. It will be a long time, if ever, before humans could walk the surface without an oxygen tank.

There are ENORMOUS amounts of water and CO2 in some if not all comets. A few big ones and bingo instant atmosphere. We could engineer plants and animals to live on the surface fairly easily after that.

Nice one Amuk. I never heard of the mars terraforming comet theory before. It certainly sounds like the fastest way to create an atmosphere on mars.

In The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps, Marshall Savage suggests diverting a comet to a collision course with Mars. Explosives (probably nuclear) would be used to break it up just before impact since many small collisions would yield a much better result than one big impact. Peppering the surface with a shower of small meteors would liberate water from the icy comets and carbon dioxide (as well as water) from the Martian permafrost. These gases would fortify the thin Martian atmosphere and initiate a rampant greenhouse effect, producing--over only a few decades--surface temperatures above the melting point of ice and an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, ready to support earth-derived plants for oxygen production.

www.distant-star.com...

Originally posted by Hurdy Gurdy
Nice one Amuk.

That is where I heard it first.

I would suggest the book for anyone serious about space exploration. I couldnt put it down and still have it.

You can get it on Amazon cheap and is WELL worth the price

That would most likely solve the atmosphere problem as well as supply the planet with more water. What about the magnetosphere?

Yeah that�s another hurdle that would need to be overcome if terraforming Mars is going to be a success. What a waste of time and energy it would be if you created an atmosphere only to have it evaporate into space.