NASA wants you to suggest HOW TO LIVE on MARS and win 15K USD

[Newell Steamer]

Okay, so don't fuck up this time. People are destroying Earth's ecosystem too. We have the technology, just not enough research so far.

If they figure out how to build a self sustaining sealed environment while on Earth, it would make more sense to populate Earth's deserts and wastelands - and even the very ecosystems we've destroyed, not Mars.

 

[norseamd]

I've said this before in a similar thread; we'll have to dump cruise ship sized containers of water, materials and oxygen tanks, in the hundreds (if not thousands), each trip.

Are you aware that the ISS only gets replenished by a small capsule every so often and still does more or less perfectly fine?

Just send some unmanned cargo ships at regular intervals that also come back to Earth for reuse on the same missions. The core ships will never have to deal with launching or reentry and thus they will probably last quite a while and you will get a lot of reduction in cost and manhours that could be used for some other project.

You do not need to get full self-sufficiency just a major reduction in resources that are required to be imported from Earth or other locations.

 

[mmntech]

Biosphere 2 may have been a failure, but it did provide useful information because it was a failure. You learn from your mistakes and try again.

The Mars colony concepts, even the ones being put forth by NASA, seem a little too ambitious to me. I think we should be attempting a Lunar colony first. The Moon is much closer and would be a good staging ground to experiment with technology for future Mars missions. It would also be significantly easier to evacuate the crew should something go wrong. No one-way missions.

 

[norseamd]

The Mars colony concepts, even the ones being put forth by NASA, seem a little too ambitious to me. I think we should be attempting a Lunar colony first. The Moon is much closer and would be a good staging ground to experiment with technology for future Mars missions. It would also be significantly easier to evacuate the crew should something go wrong. No one-way missions.

Quite obviously and many in the space community agree but high politics is messing up this shit. Honestly I have the feeling that private space companies want to get NASA and the American government to pay them to do any work on the moon.

 

[Rakehellion]

If they figure out how to build a self sustaining sealed environment while on Earth, it would make more sense to populate Earth's deserts and wastelands - and even the very ecosystems we've destroyed, not Mars.

No, it would make more sense just to grow crops there, except no one wants to live in a shithole desert.

And yes, Earth has problems too, but that's waaaaaay off the topic of what we should do on Mars.

 

[Rakehellion]

The Moon is much closer and would be a good staging ground to experiment with technology for future Mars missions. It would also be significantly easier to evacuate the crew should something go wrong. No one-way missions.

Or you could just experiment on Earth and not spend 10 billion dollars and kill 20 people every time something goes wrong.

 

[clamum]

For starters, read The Case for Mars. I think if we had enough minds working on the problem, and seriously, as we did during the 60s for the Moon we could be sending people there now.

 

[IronWing]

What ya'll have against deserts? They're very pretty.

 

[Newell Steamer]

What ya'll have against deserts? They're very pretty.

Deserts with oxygen and things you can scrounge and live off of are OK.

Dead rocks floating in space are not OK.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Are you aware that the ISS only gets replenished by a small capsule every so often and still does more or less perfectly fine?

Mars (a planet) and ISS (a man made bucket of bolts floating above Earth) are two totally different animals. But, pitch your idea of sending small capsules to Mars and enjoy the $5K.

 

[Newell Steamer]

No, it would make more sense just to grow crops there, except no one wants to live in a shithole desert.

Deserts have life. Mars does not.

 

[norseamd]

Mars does not.

You know this?

 

[norseamd]

Mars (a planet) and ISS (a man made bucket of bolts floating above Earth) are two totally different animals. But, pitch your idea of sending small capsules to Mars and enjoy the $5K.

So just how many individuals are you requiring to be sustained as far as purposes for this discussion?

 

[Newell Steamer]

You know this?

I do not know this.

I do know there isn't any life (that we would need to survive) on the surface of Mars.

I would be more than happy to be proven wrong though. I even stated there may be something subterranean (mold, plants, water) on Mars we can use.

 

[Newell Steamer]

So just how many individuals are you requiring to be sustained as far as purposes for this discussion?

Again:

The Solver is asked to describe one or more Mars surface systems/capabilities and operations needed to achieve this goal that are, to the greatest extent possible, technically achievable, economically sustainable, and minimize (ideally, eliminate) reliance on support from Earth.

I don't see the bold going away, ever.

 

[norseamd]

I don't see the bold going away, ever.

Not any time soon and even then you would actually want a 2 way solar economy not individual colonies that are isolated and never conduct trade with any other colonies.