Ridley Scotts new movie The Martian

[parsifal]

Ive always had an interest in space exploration and manned missions to Mars. Ever since the Apollo missions Ive watched with interest developments in Space technology. I always assumed that in 20-30 years after the last Apollo Mission we would just go to Mars, but now,, it might be 2050 before we get there, if at all.

Im interested to hear peoples opinions about this. Should we go, and if so, how do we go, and where should we go to the red planet.

This thread is motivated by me going to see the new Ridley Scott movie this weekend and of course the strong evidence of flowing water on our neighbour. I am curious to hear other peoples opinions.

My opinion, we should go, as early as is possible, with the ultimate goal of having a permanent presence on the red planet.

So what is the consensus?

 

[vikingBerserker]

I think it would be great to colonize another planet. It would be interesting to see mankind's evolution on it.

On a side note and a 3am random thought, I always wonder if Noah's ark was based on a space ship leaving a dying planet.

 

[Airframes]

Maybe colonise it with all the blood-thirsty, crazed loonies from some of the Middle Eastern counties, so they can truly have an I.S. !

 

[parsifal]

There is one glaring error that ive noticed just from the trailers. The mission is forced to abort because of a thundering storm......but Mars has virtually no atmosphere. oops.

The things that will be challenging to any mission will be radiation sickness for one thing. Also of course the costs. There have also been some concerns about the contents of the soil itself being toxic.....I forget the term.

Zubrin thinks all of these issues are essentially red herrings. I tend to agree.

In a different vein, what might be the benefits of a permanent presence on Mars, say in 100 years.

 

[GrauGeist]

...but Mars has virtually no atmosphere. oops.

Mars has enough of an atmosphere that during the "summer" months, violent dust storms rage across the equatorial regions.

When I was a kid, I read (ok, perhaps "consumed" is a better word) the works of Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlin and the rest...Mars was a fascinating frontier (as was Venus - but little did we know) and with the success of the Apollo missions, Mars seemed just a few years away.

The apathy of the 70's robbed us all of what "may have been" and it's taken quite a long time to play catch-up.

I was also going to mention that without an active iron core, Mars lacks the protective magnetic field that's needed to ward off the Sun's solar radiation...so how would any bio-organic organism survive in that wicked environment...including human visitors?