Blogs For Victory

Pro Tip: if you throw any shade on the idea of colonizing Mars, a lot of people will jump on your social media TL to shout at you. It appears that the idea has become an article of faith in some areas.

My comment originated as a comment to a post Elon Musk had reposted about water ice on Mars. There is quite a lot of it. We’ve detected about 5 million cubic kilometers of it on or near the Martian surface. This ice isn’t probably suitable for your whiskey and soda – it may be massively toxic. But it might be fresh – that is, just good, old H20. Heck, there are some indications there might be liquid water a mile or so down in Mars…though this might be really no more than a salty, muddy slurry. But, still, pure or not, it is crucially important to any human activity on Mars…water to drink, oxygen to breath, hydrogen for fuel! But I decided to be a Debbie Downer and point out that, ice or no, Mars has nearly no atmosphere, the soil is poisonous, the gravity is much lower than Earth and it’s continuously bombarded by deadly solar radiation. It’s not actually a good spot for colonization. Big mistake!

The air pressure on the Martian surface is equal to 0.6% of Earth. Without a pressure suit, you die (quite horribly – the liquids in your body would almost instantly start to boil if you were exposed to the Martian atmosphere). Mars soil is filled with perchlorates, which are toxic to all known forms of life on Earth. The gravity is 38% that of Earth’s and while this would give some advantages (we could carry more around and build much larger structures of lighter materials) it is also less than the human body is used to – we know that after six months in zero g the human body suffers various problems. They are to an extent controllable but not entirely (for instance, normally about 70% of your blood is below your heart – gravity! But in zero g it just flows equally through your body…and that causes problems in your legs and feet). What would happen to the human body after, say, a year on Mars? We have no idea. And then there’s the problem of solar radiation – we’re in a happy, safe and warm bubble here on Earth – our magnetosphere keeps out harmful solar and cosmic radiation. Mars lost her magnetic field very early in her life and so is continually bombarded by radiation totally lethal to human and other life (Mars lost her atmosphere because of this – solar wind just ripped it away bit by bit until it was almost all gone…its still ripping away the Martian atmosphere).

So, anyways, I was just pointing out that this wasn’t going to be easy – and I got ripped to shreds in the comments. People have invested their mind and soul into this – and it seems to revolve around two ideas:

1. We must make humanity multi-planetary to avoid extinction.
2. We must become a sort of trans-human species.

The idea of saving us from extinction has some merit – and I’ve even got an outline for a novel about it: Survival. The premise is that the Earth is going to be destroyed and it is determined that in the time available sufficient craft can be created to bring 1,000 human beings, plus supplies, to Mars. Who gets to go? Who gets to decide? What would you do to be one of the thousand? How much effort would you put into saving others when you’re doomed? It’ll be cool – if I decide to write it. But story telling aside, there is some sense to it – but not much. The chances that Earth will get hit by something truly planet-killing are very small. Jupiter is out there still playing cosmic hoover for us and making sure anything large enough to do us in doesn’t get close. Its been a long while since even a really large impact – 65 million years! And life survived that – and human life would, too, with even minimal prep time.

As for the trans-human stuff: just weird. One comment had us building this gigantic platform in space to sustain millions of people and it just flies around the galaxy forever. I mean, sure – maybe we could build it. Why, though? Once again, makes for cool sci-fi but if we’re talking about having new lands for millions then lets just work out the ways and means of really fast and cheap water desalinzation and settle the Sahara along the banks of artificial rivers which have their water piped in from the Atlantic.

I do want us to go! And, in fact, we should already have gone. Except for very stupid budget decisions in the 70’s we probably would have had a permanent presence on the Moon in the 1980’s. And that, I think, is still where we have to go – after all, there may be ice on the Moon, as well. Main thing, its a heck of a lot closer – but also outside our magnetosphere thus allowing us to study that on humans and figure out the best methods to shield ourselves from it. Perhaps Musk can get his space ship to Mars…but I think we should stick to our neighborhood until we’re really mastered the art of long distance space travel.