If Mars had always been a hospitable planet

[Jeff7]

I imagine even our religions would be drastically different, right? Who knows how that would have affected our history.

Interplanetary religious wars.

 

[BUTCH1]

Plural? Colonies?! Look how much it took to send up the space shuttle to LOW earth orbit. Look at the size of the rockets that it took to send TWO people at a time to the surface of the moon.

http://www.pbchistoryonline.org/middle-school-lessons/023-Cape_Canaveral/NASA-rockets.jpg

Space shuttle was pretty dinky compared to the Saturn rockets. And those sent up 3 people. How many Saturn rockets would it take to have colonies? 100 rockets = 300 people at that rate. But wait - you need supplies on the rocket for a multi-month trip, not to mention supplies for when you get there, etc.

Though, I suspect that if there was some place to actually go, there would be a hell of a lot more research dollars spent on developing a material that could serve as the tether for a space elevator. Being able to get stuff into space for 1% the current cost (per pound) and having a reason to put a LOT of stuff in space would make the development a lot more practical.

But, if it was hospitable - it WOULD be worth doing. But, Mars is NOT hospitable. There's no reason to send humans there, other than to say "hey, look what we did."

The only method would involve sending up "parts" of the interplanetary craft in LEO, then assemble it there. Then you can start sending up payloads of fuel and water and food rations but as already mentioned proper shielding has not been developed yet from radiation and I don't think a spacecraft made from lead would be very practical!..

 

[Anonemous]

Not really. But eventually, there would be so many people living there they would consider that home and they wouldn't have a need to leave. It could be a good opportunity to start a brand new civilization with science at its center, free from the historical baggage that we carry here. Educated, rational people would start the civilization and it would have a better chance of developing in a more positive way than things went here. Mars could start with all of the good that earth has to offer without any of the garbage religion and bad politics.
It would be awesome to live in a clean, virgin world with lots of new things to discover while maintaining the knowledge that we have learned.

Yea but realistically all it would take is one unstable person with a gun/knife/weapon to ruin it all.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

If Mars was a planet that happened to be just as hospitable as Earth (as in once we get there, we can just step out and breath and live without any special equipment) we'd definitely be there by now.

 

[jmarti445]

Lets start taking care of our planet before we go and wreck other ones...ok, that out of the way, I don't believe Mars even if it had a sufficient amount of water or breatheable air would make a very good planet to live on, the gravity difference between it and our planet would make going to mars possible but on the return the increased gravity would make it difficult to shuttle back and forth between planets. Venus if it wasn't lead melting hot and if it had an atmosphere comparable to earth would be a much better choice. Mars I believe isn't even tectonically active.

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

Nope. We wouldn't be able to survive there anymore than we can now.

The bacteria and viruses would fucking murder us.

 

[thejunglegod]

Quote from the source: Humans on Earth are shielded from radiation by the planet's atmosphere as well as a belt of charged particles – the Van Allen radiation belt – that is held in place around Earth by its magnetic field. Damaging radiation comes both from solar flares as well as cosmic rays ejected by distant exploding stars called supernova. Beyond low-Earth orbit a spacecraft would have no protection from either of these sources of radiation. “We are years away from having something that would be operationally relevant to protect astronauts,” said Dr. Marcelo Vazquez , a senior scientist with National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston.

Weren't such radiation present during the manned mission to the moon as well? Isn't this point one of the many conspiracy theories?

The bacteria and viruses would fucking murder us.

There's bacteria and viruses on Mars?
:O

 

[dawp]

what about a floating colony on venus? I forget what altitude but there is a zone where it could be possible.

 

[Vic Vega]

If Mars supported complex life it would probably have its own equivalent species to humans. If these people possessed a similar intelligence to humans things could be pretty interesting.

 

[Farang]

what about a floating colony on venus? I forget what altitude but there is a zone where it could be possible.

yes, and our atmosphere would float like helium there so you'd just tether that sucker down and find a way to replenish the atmosphere constantly

 

[Bateluer]

Hospitable, as in Earth-like? But without sapient life? First humans would have landed on Mars in the early 1980s for certain. There'd be a couple small colonies, probably from the US, Russia, China, and the ESA. But the total numbers would be very low.

The technology for manned space flight to Mars and back has been around for a long time, its just that every lacks the political will to make it happen.

Too many pessimists, naysayers, and armchair scientists on Internet forums don't help either.

 

[Jeff7]

Weren't such radiation present during the manned mission to the moon as well? Isn't this point one of the many conspiracy theories?

They weren't out there too long, and they were simply lucky that the Sun didn't burp out anything dangerous.

There's bacteria and viruses on Mars?
:O

The premise of the thread is "If Mars had always been a hospitable planet."

 

[SillyOReilly]

If Mars supported complex life it would probably have its own equivalent species to humans. If these people possessed a similar intelligence to humans things could be pretty interesting.

Now here's someone that takes the Star Trek Universe seriously.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Nope. We wouldn't be able to survive there anymore than we can now.

The bacteria and viruses would fucking murder us.

Viruses would be no problem. Viruses are rather specific, and the ones on Mars would not have evolved to attack us.
Bacteria would probably be a different story, but we are also a lot better at treating bacterial infections, and we have a fairly robust immune system that the bacteria on Mars would not have evolved to get around.