I think musk is right, we should nuke mars. Mars it self is already radioactive and that bomb will not change much in that aspect, but creating a nuclear winter is one of the best ways to terraform the planet and one of the few choices to make life possible
We want to colonize Mars so if we get smacked by a 6-10+ mile comet we don't all die; it's a contingency plan.
Also... Venus is a fucking hellhole and would be MUCH harder to colonize. We may eventually be able to float around in the atmosphere, but we would be able to terraform Mars 3x over before we could terraform Venus. It's not technically rain either since it never hits the ground (it boils and evaporates back up before).... but the ground can melt lead... so... no.... fuck that.
3
·
Edited 6 years ago
deleted
· 6 years ago
Of course you wouldn't go to the surface that's a given, but there are a lot of things cloud cities on Venus would be better for compared to Mars. Point number 1, it's half the distance to get to Venus. Point 2, Venus actually has a good atmosphere with co2 which we can extract oxygen from. Point 3, Venus has .9 times the gravity of earth where Mars has .4 times the gravity of earth so that makes Venus actually viable as a long term colony. Point 4, in the sky the temperature is around 150 degrees Fahrenheit which is a lot more manageable than Mars's temperature. Point 5, going along your acid rain comment, it's nowhere near as big of a problem in the sky.
We can't build a cloud city on Venus yet. Once we can mine asteroids we might be able to, but right now it's easier to build a colony on Mars JUST because of a surface. That makes things a lot easier... we can launch equipment and robots there and remotely build the habitats before people go. That's impossible to do with Venus right now. Also, Mars has lava tubes, which is the best bet for larger colonies that would be town to city sized eventually. In time we should do both though.
1
deleted
· 6 years ago
The lack of gravity alone hurts the chances of an actual mars colony just due to the fact that you couldn't live there long at all without irreversible damage to your bones. Plus NASA is already finding a solution with the HAVOC project. (Give me a sec to find the link)
That is just for a 2 person, 30 day mission though. Don't get me wrong, we need to do both. You're right about the gravity, but at .4g's you could stay there for 5-10 years and have about the same effects as staying on the ISS for a year, maybe even less.. 0g's is a lot worse on muscle mass and bone density than .4g's so the colony could have rotating crews. Or who knows, people might have to accept a reduced lifespan if they want to go and live there. You'd be able to live long enough to produce children at least. It would be interesting to watch the adaptation changes in whatever plants and animals we farm there, then we can probably figure out ways to stay even longer.
...in 3 years. We went back.
NASA: I'm coming over
Also... Venus is a fucking hellhole and would be MUCH harder to colonize. We may eventually be able to float around in the atmosphere, but we would be able to terraform Mars 3x over before we could terraform Venus. It's not technically rain either since it never hits the ground (it boils and evaporates back up before).... but the ground can melt lead... so... no.... fuck that.