LogFAQs > #959952244

ElatedVenusaur posted...

It's completely impractical for the foreseeable future. To maintain a colony on such an inhospitable planet would be an extremely difficult undertaking requiring our most advanced tech and a constant flow of supplies going from Earth to Mars. The supply chain would be of irregular length: it would be especially dangerous if a problem arose when Mars was furthest away and supplies(and help) would take the longest to get there. Like, you need to shield the colonists from radiation, keep them supplied with oxygen, food, tools, construction materials, etc. etc. And you have to somehow keep all that dust from mucking everything up. Just spitballing off the top of my head.

A moon colony would be easier, but only because the supply chain is shorter. It would still be near impossible at best with current tech and capabilities.

In both cases, the much weaker gravity would make returning to Earth difficult for colonists(if it's possible for them to adjust back to Earth gravity at all), and the long-term effects on a human body from living with such weak gravity aren't really known at all, but they're probably bad!

Interesting thoughts. Musk is definitely adventurous. I think had he said we need to colonize space and we are going to start with the moon i think it does not sound so outlandish. Building a city and investigating the moon, maybe terraforming it etc. All sound like great ideas already, but this guy wants to skip that and go to mars. I am pretty sure less than 100 people have been on the moon. Surely we would understand space travel much more if we had a base/city there. Then go to mars...doesnot make sense to me.