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JoshuaACNewman t1_ixfi9et wrote

What planet is going to be easier to terraform than Earth?

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escodelrio t1_ixhgzaj wrote

As u/isaacarthur says often on his science show, you could nuke Earth until it glows in the dark and it would still be easier to colonize than Mars.

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cuddlefucker t1_ixj20z3 wrote

Sometimes practicality isn't the point of research. A Mars colony isn't about being a better place to live than earth. Moreso, what can we learn about living on Mars that would make life on earth easier. Further, if we ever get to a point where terraforming Mars is even viable on a generational scale you have an ecosystem that you can afford to experiment on instead of damaging your home planet. There's also the point about make humans multi planetary which makes us much more resilient to basically any kind of extinction event.

I really don't think anyone has ever made the point that colonizing Mars will be easy.

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escodelrio t1_ixj2805 wrote

Hey, I am team "Occupy Mars." Just stating the facts.

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DNathanHilliard t1_ixgrzkc wrote

Mars. Whatever entity ends up terraforming Mars isn't going to have to deal with a hundred countries refusing to fall in line or actively refusing to make the sacrifices necessary. Unlike Mars, here on Earth there will be forces actively sabotaging the effort every step of the way.

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Strange-Ad1209 t1_ixguxj9 wrote

You can't terraform a planet that has no protective magnetic field to prevent the Solar wind from blowing the atmosphere away, and irradiating anyone on the surface with high energy particles from the nuclear fusion bombs going off by the 100 billion H Bombs per minute as the Sun is. There is less atmosphere on surface of Mars than at 180,000 feet on Earth and no active volcanism to help renew atmospheric losses to space.

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Meta_or_Whatever t1_ixh752j wrote

I wish more people knew this and stopped parroting the terraforming colonizing of Mars line, it gets really old

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mfb- t1_ixhj2pn wrote

  • Atmospheric loss on Mars has a timescale of 100 million years or more. It's not a concern for a society that has the tools to give it an atmosphere over a reasonable timescale.
  • A magnetosphere reduces some losses but increases others. It's not critical for an atmosphere. See Venus, no global magnetic field and a very thick atmosphere. Mars doesn't hold an atmosphere over billions of years simply because it's too small.

See this comment for more details and references.

/u/Meta_or_Whatever I wish fewer people would parrot this misconception.

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dakd2 t1_iy1c9iu wrote

I guess nobody knows the reason why there is increase of magnetic field strengh on earth when there is stormy weather in space

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JoshuaACNewman t1_ixh7t6w wrote

Mars is about the size of the moon. But it has more dry land than earth. That’s because Earth is an ocean planet.

Your contempt for humans doesn’t match with the incomparable coöperative effort it would take to terraform Mars — a task for which we have a word but no actual concept of the scale of the project.

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grambell789 t1_iy1zq4l wrote

The same divisions you say doom earth will doom Mars too. Humans are inherently flawed. The Greeks knew that 2500 years ago

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