Why a Mars Colony is a Dangerous and Stupid Idea

[@carriewilson1006]

Elon said something that’s make this MUCH worse “if you can’t afford the trip you can just take our a loan and work it off there” he literally said he wants indentured servants to work in his mars colony.

[@Kakarot64.]

If you've already signed up it doesn't make much of a difference either way at that point you're cut of from Earth on a one way trip you either put in the work and......... err I mean or die.

[@eoinh]

Space physicist here, technically the launch windows you talked about at the start of the video aren't for the *fastest* trips, but for the most fuel efficient trips (which is not the same thing, because orbital mechanics can be unintuitive). So if you were able to bring and burn *a lot* more fuel, you could go in a more or less straight line and it would be much faster. But there's a good reason why we never do that. Also yes, the moon is obviously a much better candidate. While all this is going on, ESA are currently developing plans for a lunar colony in the next few decades, with actual scientific goals and achievable deadlines. So that's the space colony news I'd recommend you follow, if any.

[@laurentiusmichaelgeorge1118]

Thanks for the heads-up mate. As a kid, I was always confused to why people jumped from the Moon colonization to Mars. It just made more sense (even for kids). Come to think about it, maybe it's because Mars is attractively red whereas Moon is dullishly grey. Had Elon campaigned his pump and dump, publicity-stunt scheme revolving around Moon colonization, he might have had more success.

[@SorowFame]

@@laurentiusmichaelgeorge1118 I think it might be that there is some water on Mars or something

[@mateuszwrobel1919]

@@SorowFame Isn't water present on moon too?

[@SorowFame]

@@mateuszwrobel1919 I don’t know, I just think the Moon is a better target because it’s closer

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

@@laurentiusmichaelgeorge1118 Which campaign is that?

[@ninjaswordtothehead]

The idea of uber-rich people trying to escape a problem they created, only to find themselves in an unimaginable hell, kind of makes me smile. Not gonna lie.

[@CABOOSEBOB]

It’s the idea of gated neighborhoods but a million times more hellish, instead of just isolating it’s just awful

[@kween.khairaaa]

Yep, hopefully they try & do some kind of documentary there & we get to watch it descend into a reality tv show where they slowly lose their sanity & turn into the Hunger Games

[@DehnusNorder]

Well these are folks that believe Ayn Rand was a great philosopher and Atlas Shrugged a "Great philosophical theory", so of course they think they can "just escape and everything will be as it was" :P .

[@Nefariously_ignorant]

Didn't that make you realise the scam? They have no intention to achieve this or even attempt it Elon played gullible people to boost stock in SpaceX, like Adam something said

[@HateTheIRS]

This whole video revolves around you people hating rich people Like god can you appreciate the fact that humanity is trying to go to places other than earth?

[@Chobo077]

Gotta love how Elon literally said he would be the man who makes the mars laws. No earth laws. What could go wrong

[@taleseylad1249]

It will be fine man. . . he definitely won't be corrupt or anything like that

[@BennieTarrMusic]

A White South African who grew up surrounded by older elites who still continue to mourn the death of apartheid... Surely he'll be a good dictator to a whole planet.

[@Victoria_Huot]

We can trust our corporate overlords, surely they’ll always have our best interests at heart! When have they ever not done what’s best for us?

[@aidanmoyer3383]

"only the top 1% will be able to go" "someone will go crazy within a month, and 1 fire/depressurization/etc would kill everyone" yknow this sounds like a great idea for the 1% to pursue!

[@Ethan5I5]

And not many people would miss them as they would think.

[@Little-Buster]

It would be like "Among Us"

[@pirualado47]

@@Ethan5I5 oh but we would

[@andyabreu5627]

@@pirualado47 not at all

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

nobody among the 1% wants to go to Mars. A few might want to do an adventure trip, but none of them wants to live on Marls. I don't get how people can have the stupid idea that they want to leave earth. They'll be living in the best places of the last hapitable zones on earth. And Mars will at best only become a mining colony. If the colony is built before robots have advanced enough they might send some poor desperate folks to go mining on Mars to make money.

[@alexanderchristiansen1664]

Pollution on Earth as an argument for space colonies have always baffled me. If you can make something like Mars habitable, you can unfuck whatever pollution you have on Earth.

[@chihirostargazer6573]

This is the insanity, delusion and egomania of the human race.

[@ianglenn2821]

"Doing a test cut always baffles me! If you have a saw, why not just cut the wood right where it should be the first time? Practicing to make sure you get it right, and discover new ways it might fail? That's something only a dumb engineer would suggest, probably a musk fanboy."

[@TheTwoTwelve]

@@ianglenn2821 Well you know what they say: "measure once cut twice"

[@soruseek]

@@ianglenn2821 That isn't really his point. He's only contesting the pollution argument for colonizing Mars, not the test-run argument.

[@lonewolf645]

It's like mars isn't suffering enough already.

[@jamesmoore3879]

"Travelling to Mars would be miserable, expensive, and life-threatening for anybody involved" I am no longer in favor of space travel to mars "Only billionaires would be able to go anyway" I am once again in favor of space travel to mars

[@cptKamina]

My thoughts exactly when he mentioned an increase in cancer risk.

[@DarkDestinybyC]

@@cptKamina but then they'll buy all the available organs to replace the damaged ones

[@jeremypnet]

For about five years now I’ve been saying the sooner Elon Musk fucks off to Mars, the better it will be for everybody.

[@jerrywang8945]

Please send Jeff, Elon and whom ever is the embodiment of capitalistic cruelty to Mars

[@ThaYowza]

Same tho. 57 million less greedy assholes who don't even do anything productive nor intuitive would be a godsend for humanity and the earth if we let em all go to Mars and colonize there.

[@IainLambert]

I’m just trying to imagine a world where climate change is so bad that fixing it is harder than terraforming Mars, and I can’t.

[@johnsmith-cw3wo]

this whole bullshit have only one reason... For Elon Fanboys to pump up SpaceX, and Tesla stonks. 🤡🤡🤡

[@ghostygamerz4800]

The reson why is becuase in order to terraform mars you need to cause global warming ON PURPOSE

[@oldcowbb]

in the word of NDT, if we can terraform mars to earth, we can terraform earth back to earth

[@danielmethner6847]

It depends, the greatest difficulty of fixing climate change on earth is of political nature. Once you remove that issue, it becomes a lot easier.

[@Beanskiiii]

@@danielmethner6847 which absolutely is never going to happen because you need government and structure to fix a problem as big as climate change. No one cares enough about climate change

[@tayzonday]

The moon is a way better target. We will develop lots of technologies from a permanent moon colony.

[@844SteamFan]

That’s what I was thinking lol

[@KateeAngel]

The only things which make sense on Moon or Mars are small scientific bases like in the Antarctic, not permanent settlements.

[@blackmage1276]

@@KateeAngel those scientific bases are permanent

[@winstonsmith6618]

Why haven’t we gone back to the moon?

[@winstonsmith6618]

@@KateeAngel a mission to mars would be one way…

[@D4wid01]

"Following 5 years of work the project is already in the CGI stage" Lmfao literally every "futuristic" project

[@DyslexicMitochondria]

False promises

[@sterlingarcher8041]

@@DyslexicMitochondria hey bro i watch your videos. Love your channel

[@slevinchannel7589]

@@DyslexicMitochondria Overpopulation and the Housing Crisis can be easily fixed, as BritMonkey and Second-Thought pointed out and proved. Earth doesnt newed to be escaped from, we need to fix it; please support KZbinrs that show that.

[@Jayc5001]

People do realize us is a multi generational project bigger in scope than anything humans have ever done right? In just these few years more progress has been done than ever before. People bust be blind. This isn't CGI this is real. Unless we get some serious life extension none of us will live to see its completion. But it needs to be done eventual. And we final have the technology to make it happen. And it will cost basically nothing for its scope.

[@PeterPanopticum]

Awesome roast. I remember all those new fancy CGI space station we are going to habe in the next 10 years.

[@danielschein6845]

Every time I hear about a colony on Mars, I remember the story of the early Jamestown colonists. 1. 80% of them died. 2. The survivors wrote passages in their diaries saying things like, "I'd give up my legs to go back. Better to be a crippled beggar on the streets if London." Virginia was far more accessible and habitable to 17th century Englishmen than Mars is to us.

[@yuvrajbanerjee8578]

And yet, where did the hardship lead? To a thriving and prosperous nation that is a superpower of the world.

[@danielschein6845]

@@yuvrajbanerjee8578 Good point. So a Mars colonist needs to ask himself if he's willing to suffer like that so that in the unlikely event that he survives, his great grandchildren will be the elite of a prosperous nation on Mars.

[@Neogears1312]

@@yuvrajbanerjee8578 except Virginia has room to move, gravity that doesn’t lead to extreme bone degradation and breathable fucking air. The average person could live a frontiersman’s life. The amount of hyper management to live in a space colony is so extreme most people would die from the stress it puts on you and that’s implying they’re competent enough to keep the metaphorical ship from sinking.

[@danielross1340]

@@danielschein6845 Without hesitation I would go. My life on earth is full of suffering, so why not suffer on mars instead? At least that way my death could possibly contribute to the advancement of science.

[@rdsasuke1]

@@yuvrajbanerjee8578 That's some bs propaganda.

[@AnAshenSpirit]

the idea of a bunch of people on a reality tv show on mars having to entertain people to fund their own survival seems like a pretty good premise for a show or movie actually

[@AtomicAlchemist]

Definitely entertaining, but also definitely morally questionable

[@memeboy8207]

There is a anime with a similar concept, starship operators, but thats i bit of a stretch. I guess the Martian can also technically count

[@Bustermachine]

@@memeboy8207 Starship Operators involved the crew selling TV rights in order to finance their one ship war against their planet's invaders. They, at least, could always have surrendered peacefully. In fact, the offer was made several times.

[@SeattlePioneer]

It would certainly start out with great ratings. But how many episodes, or seasons, before it got cancelled. And what happens THEN?

[@mgold700]

Name: The Popularity Games

[@smileytrashbag6713]

I'm honestly shocked that the time that (I think) Elon proposed a deal to send people to Mars for cheap on the condition that they pay off their debt once they get colonyside, basically turning a Mars colony into debtor's prison, wasn't mentioned at all here

[@Dinnyeify]

Australia 2: Now the LACK of wildlife is killing you

[@critawakets3138]

COLD, THE AIR AND WATER FLOWING

[@stonedguyy]

@@critawakets3138 HARD, THE LAND WE CALL OUR HOME.

[@uglystupidloser]

actually, kind of a plausible idea. those with extreme debt in the future could enter a contract with corporations to work on the moon or mars... interesting sci fi dystopia concept at least.

[@Cha-Khia]

@CRITAWALETS Wasn't that on Venus though?

[@kagakai7729]

"And a remote-controlled self-destruct mechanism if colonists ever try to unionize" Damn, he really planned this one out. I'm convinced.

[@philipdillard1581]

Nah just proves the biased opinion rather than an objective viewpoint based on science

[@Alex-0597]

@@philipdillard1581 "You make a joke about Elon Musk? You're biased and can't be trusted to explain the innumerable problems with colonizing Mars with our current technology."

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

@John Grigg you make it sound like Elon would be the last boss after defeating a bunch of possessed cultists and demons

[@michaelsommers2356]

A self-destruct mechanism is unnecessary. If the colonists try to unionize, all Musk has to do is stop sending supplies, and they will all die.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@philipdillard1581 Very funny. What actual science, as opposed to science fiction, supports the idea of a self-sufficient Mars colony?

[@QDWhite]

The scariest thing I heard was when Musk said he wouldn’t recognize any of Earths laws on Mars because “it’s out of Earth’s jurisdiction”. Could you imagine being basically owned by a company that also gets to decide your basic human rights? If you think Twitter’s employees are being treated badly right now (or any employee of any of Musk’s company for that matter), imagine how they would be treated if no regulator was pushing back against Musk.

[@theviniso]

That's a horror movie plot waiting to be written

[@QDWhite]

@@theviniso Total Recall

[@mrvespuccia.k.ameganite1747]

Q.D. White if that’s the case then it’s completely possible that in the future mars isnt colonized like the u.s but instead like brazil and the American south where a rich upper class transports a bunch of peasants or slaves to mars and forces then to do manual labor with low wages, long hours, and zero rights. So now not only would a mars colonist be living in a dangerous environment thousands of miles away from any help but they would also be slaves to the company that brought them there in the first place with no escape Edit: now that I thought about it a more accurate comparison of how a mars colony would turn out would be with argentina or the old american company towns

[@angryface6]

@@mrvespuccia.k.ameganite1747 you're saying that Brazilians are slaves?

[@joiceraiana]

​@@mrvespuccia.k.ameganite1747 the US was also colonized with a bunch of slaves. Let's not forget they even had a war to keep that. The difference is that the US used their power to keep every other nation on the global south under their thumb since they become free from their colonizers. Don't act like they're more civilized.

[@orangebot_4211]

I had been wondering about humanity on Mars for a long time, but it never donned on me that the Martian surface would be incredibly depressing to live on after the initial hype. Imagine waking up to orange dust under your feet, orange rocks on the horizon, and an orange sky above you. Every day for the rest of your life. You'd never realize what you left behind until it was too late.

[@Eat_shit--die_mad]

Why dos everyone act like you can't go back? It would be the most efficient for workers to travel to and from Mars, back to earth or a orbital station

[@Daniko2]

@@Eat_shit--die_mad In a word: fuel. Even though Mars' gravity is significantly less than Earth's, it's still enough of a gravity well that getting back off the planet takes serious energy. Other than maybe, possibly finding some fissile materials once mining is developed, Mars is singularly lacking in energy dense resources. It has a whole lot less solar energy than Earth, not enough atmosphere to create significant wind power, no surface water from which to acquire hydrogen or motive power (not to mention needing that water to stay alive), no reservoirs full of coal, methane or oil, and little geothermal heat. So any round trip would require the travelers to carry enough fuel to return, making it nearly logistically impossible and cost prohibitive to allow travelers (other than possibly a few scientist/astronauts once the capabilities of rovers are exhausted) to return once they've landed.

[@sdrc92126]

Remember the hype around the ISS space station? How'd that turn out?

[@mariodamian103]

@@Eat_shit--die_mad well it will take like 5 year to build stations and rockets and fuel and the material for the rocket or the couragous people and teste for them or crew hmm?...

[@stevenlitvintchouk3131]

You should see where I live now. Mars would be a distinct improvement. No car thieves. No nasty neighbors.

[@tanure]

Seeing as how Mars is such a nice environment, it's a refreshing idea to send all Earth's billionaires to live there.

[@marzllc]

victimization mentality

[@dampintellect]

one way trip of course

[@williamsonah5667]

@@marzllc exactly

[@R41Ryan]

@@marzllc uh... no... he's just telling people to fk off.

[@jillmartin5734]

Yes, great idea the one who is pushing this idea and has the mo yea to do it should be the first one to go.

[@masterplusmargarita]

"Following 5 years of feverish work the project is already at the CGI rendering stage" actually has me in stitches. Thank you Adam.

[@dont-touch-mepg1392]

Well considering Elon and everyone involved state it will be decades before its even possible maybe judging the world's richest man and 1 of the smartest who is trying to save the planet by leading the way in microchips for ppl with disorders, to electric cars, freedom of speech and free internet for the poorest countries around is a stupid thing to do because a youtuber says so and doesn't say anything that gos against his narrative.

[@stellathefoxgirl3648]

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 dude it’s just a funny quote

[@Anactualfungus]

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 your favorite trust fund billionaire is not going to save the world. This is embarrassing

[@vontrances4667]

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 y'all look at this guy's comment history on this channel 😂😂😂

[@masterplusmargarita]

@@dont-touch-mepg1392 This comment is close to being as funny as the quote. Thanks dude.

[@Thulzor]

When you said that the "powerful elite" will go to Mars I changed my mind and now support the project. We can just send them ASAP just in case.

[@futurize456]

Yes, might aswell send all entrepeneurs there, so there are no actual smart, hard working people left, and also to make sure no one creates jobs anymore. Socialist mindset 🤡

[@daviscarl3766]

Ah ah ah? Nope we have to send our petro-dollar slaves to pave our under domes

[@JRCounsel78]

Exactly my thought 🤣

[@ricksanchez4045]

Wow, i am thinking about same. All capitalist should go there.

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Why would they? Did the Queen of England and her buddies move to Alanta Goeria after it was founded leaving the British Isles to the poor folks who rebuilbt it as the United States the current world foremost Superpower?

[@ziqi92]

Just recently spoke with a manager at JPL - NASA. He ranted briefly about how stupid it was that they’re being forced to spend money on the Mars colony project for this exact same reason. Our elected representatives are also easily bamboozled by the likes of Elon Musk. After all, they weren’t immune to Elizabeth Holmes either.

[@madshorn5826]

Mars One ticks all the boxes of a con. We need to become a lot better to discern between 'theoretically possible' and 'practically possible'. And between 'feasible' and 'practical'. Fusion is theoretically possible, but will most likely not be practical in this century. The Concorde was feasible, but not environmentally or economically viable. Let's save the world and play later.

[@SkySong6161]

I figure it's less "bamboozled" and more "bribed."

[@Aetherblade-z4o]

​@@madshorn5826 I would be careful when stating opinions like that Elon has defied many previous projections and dismissive people saying his ideas won't work there is certainly room for much constructive criticism but to rule out the Mars colony outright. Is a bit excessive and while it does have it's cons we must at least make an attempt before saying no the the idea completely

[@sihamhamda47]

​@@madshorn5826 The most "successful" fusion power test so far lasted for only 7 seconds Yes it's not impossible but it would take centuries or even a thousand years of development to become practically usable

[@madshorn5826]

@@Aetherblade-z4o I am not being merely dismissive, I am saying that a Mars colony is a con. That it is possible to put a handful of people on Mars doesn't prove Musk right. If he can sell the idea to naïve investors he will be able to make money for a short while (~ a decade or three), but not anything meaningful in the long run. Mars is arid, near vacuum, riddled by ultrafine dust plugging everything, meaningful air travel is not possible due to the thin atmosphere, there is no available energy due to the thin atmosphere and the distance to the sun, there is no protection from cosmic radiation on the surface, ... The list goes on and on and on. This is not skepticism, this is hard science. The Gobi desert is _way_ more hospitable and accessible. Until we run out of space there, Mars will be meaningless economically.

[@KhAnubis]

Honestly I'm really surprised the Moon-first angle isn't considered nearly as often as it should be. Even if we want to put Mars above all else, having a presence on the lunar surface can allow us to build new spacecraft and base modules so they don't have to be launched from Earth. And even if we hold off on colonizing Mars, the ideas you brought up are honestly reason enough to at least give it a shot. Honestly this was kinda more of a rant from me, Mars is cool but I think more people need to be on #TeamLuna

[@vijaykumarjha7822]

I think We should first be able to save our planet from various climate issue then move on to any other place in space

[@Melonist]

@@vijaykumarjha7822 tech developed in space is often what gets us out of our messes. Plus, if we can mine resources off-planet, it means that we'll no longer have to dig stuff out of the ground on earth, with all the consequences that entails

[@alicorn3924]

@@vijaykumarjha7822 Lunar mining and asteroid mining solves a large pollution problem.

[@alicorn3924]

#TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna #TeamLuna LET'S GET THIS TRENDING BOYS AND GALS WOOOO WEEEEAH

[@marcusaustralius2416]

Plus, orbital manufacturing in zero gravity allows for better quality products, such as imperfection-free fibre optical cables, lenses or building materials which are invaluable

[@kyubey3961]

I always loved the fact that the "we can terraform Mars" argument completely undermines the "we need to escape climate change" argument. Like, dude, if you have the technology required to make Mars somewhat livable for humans, then don't worry about climate change, cooling the Earth by a few degrees isn't even a challenge if you can terraform Mars...

[@Whatamood]

Thinking about our lil mr putin there are many more man made problems than just climate change. I honestly dont wanna know what will happen when natural ressources like oil and gas run out but i can almost promise you that it will end up in war

[@LeFacteurK]

It's like, yeah we'll be able to make a terrible effort to do something impossible when we are not even capable of doing the least for something at our grasp...

[@sameerak244]

Not just climate change, nuclear war is more likely

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

​@@LeFacteurK Exactly! If people can't go vegan and stop having kids, because their penises and vaginas have urges, then no way are we going into space.

[@balkloth]

Bill Gates was seriously proposing shooting a ridiculous amount of dust into the atmosphere to cool global temperatures, and I guarantee that proposal will get floated more often as climate disasters increase. They absolutely are considering terraforming projects here

[@julians7613]

The fact that people cannot live in Antartica for long periods of times due to declining mental health just speaks volumes on how ridiculous it would be for regular human civilians mental health living on an entirely different planet millions of miles away from your planet of origin

[@slowfudgeballs9517]

@@alexbernier7903 People with autism love being alone. It's how we recharge our social battery.

[@lurgee1706]

I mean, if we're talking a full fledged colony of at least several hundreds colonists and not a couple of pressurized shacks it would be less of a problem. Yes, it might be super uncomfortable for claustrophobic people, but other than that, if it features recreational areas with plants and whatnot, they might do just fine.

[@distantraveller9876]

@@alexbernier7903This has nothing to do with psychological fortitude. A *quick* mission to Mars (as in reaching Mars and immediately heading back to Earth) would take years and be in itself insanely challenging and stressful for everyone involved, not only from a financial and logistic point of view but also in terms of the astronauts survivability. There would be an endless amount of hurdles for the astronauts to overcome, from limited fuel reserves to the long term effects of weightlessness on the human body. Establishing an entire colony on Mars would be the hardest, most difficult and technologically demanding feat of engineering humans have ever achieved. With current technology it would essentially be a suicide mission with a 95% chance of complete catastrophe.

[@zxKAOS1]

They never got the memo that "you never go full retard" :D

[@distantraveller9876]

@@lurgee1706 Recreational areas? They are not opening a hotel over there. Fuel for this mission will have to be counted to the very last drop, any extra weight being carried by the spacecraft will have a direct influence on how much fuel is needed to get to Mars, not to mention the fact this would be a one way mission to Mars without the possibility of the astronauts ever coming home. Any miscalculations with regards to fuel and supplies would result in the death of all the astronauts involved. I don't think lay people understand just how dangerous and unlikely this mission is to succeed with current day technology. We're simply not there yet.

[@Blackread]

Giving the billionaires a one-way ticket to Mars doesn't sound like such a bad idea tbh.

[@PortmanRd]

Non-refundable 😂

[@BennieTarrMusic]

Since the Americans refuse to just arrest and execute the parasites... Their drama queen mentality makes them think about mars instead.

[@JJR93]

I remember Neil de Grasse Tyson & Bill Nye basically explaining to folks that the technology and effort required to terraform Mars would be far better spent mitigating climate disaster on Earth....and much more realizable as a goal.

[@Ludwig1625]

OK, Jeff Bezos' super yacht would far better be spent feeding starving African kids, along with that iPhone you have

[@cosmoscenti5173]

@@Ludwig1625 yetyouparticipateinsocietyiamveryintelligent.jpg

[@hoppeananc]

@@Ludwig1625 Yatchs can't feed people, neither can paper.

[@kevinthiago413]

terraforming is a whole new game, the "going to mars is dumb" thing is just because mars is at our level of tech unterraformable, and yeah, before we terraform mars we will use it to solve earth problems, but the technology has to be invented first

[@Sew_OzzyWar_Made_This]

Dead-fucking-ass. This whole Mars mission is frustrating. 🤬😤😾

[@d_trich]

Kinda surprised Adam would use "trainwreck" to describe something made by a guy who hates trains More of a Tesla pileup IMO

[@liamholcroft7212]

Tesla pileup in a tunnel designed to stop traffic and car accidents, which is also too small to be able to open your car doors, so you get cooked alive in your shitty EV when its battery spontaneously combusts.

[@BladedAngel]

I'm now using Tesla Pileup as part of my vocab in honor of Trains being infinitely better.

[@Chronically_Bored]

When trainwrecks is an understatement, we move to tesla pileup lmao

[@audibleseekz]

More of a huge hyperloop.

[@abdullahtshabal9522]

Tesla pileup-driven Loop tunnel inferno

[@entity-36572-b]

I would like to add to the hazards of a mars colony with this: mars frequently suffers major dust storms which can obscure the already faint sunlight for long periods of time; and since our first mission there we have already seen planet spanning dust storms six times, often blackening the sky for 9 months or longer. Beyond the obvious danger to permanent structures on the surface, this will also put a major strain on every colonist's psyche and make solar power an unreliable source of energy.

[@mhplayer]

Also i read somewhere (someone fact check this plz) that mars' sand has a tendency to stick to everything and be really hard to clean. Might seem like a small issue but since going out would be dangerous, everything would need to be done with mecanical units, whom use a variety of sensors and cameras who would just either not work or be obscured by the sand

[@memereview305]

@@mhplayer ah yes, radioactive sticky sand

[@jazzfeline5970]

@MH player I've also heard that the sand and dust is so thin on mars that it can damage lungs.

[@LillyP-xs5qe]

I mean you don't need to worry about that in Venus at least. It's the atmospheric pressure over 90 times greater than earth, avarge temperatures of 464 C°, days that are 243 earth days long (night-time for 121.5 days, yay!), Sulfuric acid rain... I mean at least you don't need to worry about microgravity or micro astroids...

[@royhuang9715]

@@mhplayer Dust on Mars is tinier than dust on earth thanks to billions of years of grinding.

[@Ro_Gaming]

The worst part is the cloud cities on Venus works out to be smarter than a Mars Base. To be honest, though, I think it's probably just easier to save what we currently have.

[@samr.england613]

And if we're ever able to actually terraform another world, Venus would be the better choice. At least it has a gravity (.82 g) approaching Mother Earth's gravity, and it's just inside the habitable zone. If we could somehow get rid of all that C02, add nitrogen and oxygen and cool the planet, we could go from there.

[@RLACDC2000]

but then giant mega corportations will only be able to make slightly less trillions/billions of dollars in profit 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[@mrvespuccia.k.ameganite1747]

Sam R. England What’s even better is that if we colonize Venus first then we could use all the co2 from Venus to help terraform other planets and even certain moons on Jupiter

[@Skankhunt668]

​​Venus is way close to the sun right?

[@brettrobinson2901]

Boooooooorrring.....I WANT MARS!

[@Ryan_Wiseman]

"A self destruct button in case colonists unionize", you say it as a joke, but I feel it could be less of a joke than you think it is given this dystopia always seems to bear the worst outcomes

[@joaoribeiro1693]

The Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare campaign basicly

[@mercurywoodrose]

just cut off theiroxygen supply. totalrecall.

[@melelconquistador]

A self-destruct button is unnecessary, they just got to deny service to the colony and it should implode on its own.

[@redemissarium]

ahh yeah, unionize and there is riot and create an archduchy in space as their heart no longer pulled down by earth gravity

[@AshutoshSingh-sl7cg]

@@joaoribeiro1693 Titanfall campaign basically

[@trashcrow]

fun fact: I actually got fairly far into the process with Mars One back in 2012, and you're correct - I was not emotionally balanced at the time 😅

[@benholroyd5221]

What were your motivations, just out of interest?

[@sieevansetiawan4792]

Tell us more, please...

[@MrBizteck]

Yes please!

[@trashcrow]

I was coming out of a very traumatic teenage-hood in which I was heavily medicated for a misdiagnosis of bipolar. I had finally stopped taking all the meds which essentially chemically lobotomized me, made me sleep for 18+ hours a day, and made me so fUCKIN HUNGRY that I had gained over 100 pounds in a year alone. It would take me years to develop and reach equilibrium because I was emotionally stuck at 15, the age I was when I started the meds, even though I was 19 when I stopped them (20 at the time of Mars One). By 2012, I had discovered that I actually was kinda smart, and actually loved things, and I had fallen hard for outer space so I had started pursuing a degree in astrophysics. So, yeah, Mars One was the kind of thing where hey, this is probably a scam, but I should try!!!!! It was a very on-the-nose sort of escapism, you could say. I wasn't super pleased with how my short life had gone so far, and hey, I could be on MARS! For how I am now, turns out I have ADHD and anxiety, along with a chronic illness which makes my adrenaline spike super hard making that anxiety extra bad sometimes, but Adderall does more for me than 4 simultaneous antipsychotics ever did. I've been married for 4 years and have 3 cats now, so I wouldn't change anything that's gotten me to where I am now because I'm exceptionally happy. 2012 and Mars One exists in my memory as a time of bittersweet cringe, much like I imagine most people think about their teen years 😅

[@benholroyd5221]

@@trashcrow so today's you wouldn't recommend 2012 you to go to Mars then. I could never understand why someone would want a one way ticket to Mars. Yes at first blush it seems cool and all, but essentially you'd be stuck in a tin can for the rest of your shortened life. If you want to get away, anywhere on earth is more hospitable than Mars.

[@lucashall8761]

As Neil DeGrasse Tyson said: *"If we could terraform Mars, why wouldn't we just do the same thing to Earth?"*

[@thomasappelflap4433]

He said it even better, instead of making Mars earth like let’s keep earth earth like

[@alittlebitgone]

And that protects us from an asteroid how?

[@LimeyLassen]

@@alittlebitgone for one thing, it would teach us how terraforming works

[@Wave1dave]

@@alittlebitgone And air and water pollution protects us from asteroids how?

[@TheEriandus]

@@Wave1dave even extinction level asteroids likely would leave earth more habitable than mars, I'd imagine. Don't even think that's much of a stretch to assume

[@Luthiart]

Anyone remember "Biosphere II", and how well that worked? 😄 All the scientists started to turn on each other (they called it: "Irrational Adversarial Syndrome"), and they sabotaged each other's projects, until they could no longer support themselves without outside intervention. And that was without the stress of a seven month space flight, or living with the looming threat of certain death right outside your door every day.

[@dfgpl]

Not to mention it was build on easy mode using cranes, materials could be easily transported on land from factories and assembled on site and weight was not an issue. Domes didn't have to withstand pressure difference etc. And yet they still couldn't make it sufficiently airtight.

[@placeholdername0000]

@@dfgpl Literally the wrong issue. The problem was that materials used in the manufacture were leaking and/or absorbing atmospheric gases, like many human made materials do. This is the same reason the ISS is recieving regular supplies of water, food and gas for the atmosphere. This is why the rover that landed in 2020 carried a small oxygen generator. It is capable of refining oxygen from Martian CO2. Thus you don't really care that you loose a few kg of oxygen every week, you just make some more. The same goes for water, atmospheric nitrogen and minerals needed for fertilizer. We don't need to achieve a closed loop, because mining is a thing.

[@Ziedmac]

i actually visited biosphere II, what happened there is incredibly unfortunate but the facility itself is ridiculously cool and impressive, the environments inside of it are amazing in person.

[@Civil_Ian]

I remember the excellent documentary about it called Bio-Dome.

[@Bustermachine]

@@Ziedmac It's also what I like to think of as a 'successful failure' since it revealed just how complicated maintaining a tiny ecosystem would really be.

[@cdribeiro82]

As for terraforming, since Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere like earth, it seems that it was the main reason that it's atmosphere is so thin, simply because of the solar winds blowing the atmosphere out of mars and into space. So, if someone tries to terraform Mars, first has to address this issue. Otherwise it will be like trying to inflate a tire with a massive hole in it

[@sovo1212]

Look for NASA's Jim Green proposal to put a magnetic dipole at Mars-Sun L1 lagrange point. This should rebuild Mars' atmosphere in just decades, theoretically.

[@cdribeiro82]

@@sovo1212 and how much time to develop such a device? How much time to create the necessary conditions for it to work in mars? And how many trips to mars would it take to assemble such a structure? In theory everything is simple, but overcoming the tecnical challenges is a whole other story. Just look at fusion, theoretically, the way to use fusion to power our society is almost 100 years old, yet we weren't able to overcome the technical challenges needed to build a viable fusion reactor

[@sovo1212]

@@cdribeiro82 From what I read, the device should be the size of 2 MRI machines (i.e. not that big and certainly not unfeasible). I'd say it can be done in 1 single Starship trip. The only issue is the L1 orbit itself, which is not 100% stable, so you will need to refuel or replace the device every 10-15 years. The closest thing is the James Webb telescope, this would be a little bit more challenging, given the distance. But still doable.

[@killamazilla3835]

@@sovo1212 you know all this yet work at burger king

[@sovo1212]

@@killamazilla3835 LMAO, not Burger King, but still couldn't be farther to anything related to astrophysics.

[@Sembazuru]

Ok, one difference between colonizing Mars vs. colonizing Antarctica. My experience reference is I've been to South Pole station 3 times, but never as a winter-over. I.E. I had the sun (both the poles only have one solar day per year) and daily flights (weather permitting) available in case of emergency. The South Pole is at a high altitude (2,835 m (9,301 ft) according to WikiPedia), but because of atmospheric dynamics and weather effects I experienced pressure altitudes in the range between 10kft and 12kft. Yes, that is livable, but a the edge of livable. One of the (many) things that visitors are briefed on for safety is monitoring oneself and others for the signs of altitude sickness. None of the buildings (except for the emergency hyperbaric chamber in the medical facility) are intentionally pressurized. So one is constantly living at the edge of livable atmospheric pressure. This plays havok with mental facilities and is one of the many contributing factors to the "Winter-Over syndrome" and for the non-winter-overs a general mental fog affecting cognition, memory, and critical thinking skills (simple mental math is really hard, for example). On the hypothetical Mars base all the buildings must be pressurized. If pressurized to close to 1 atmosphere then that contributing factor to psychology and physiology effects would be greatly minimized. Though the isolation effects on Mars will be much worse than even winter-overs experience. Winter-overs, at least, know that they will be leaving the pole in less than 1 year even though flights (read this as escape) are impossible through the entire winter... (There is a "joke" among the recurring staff in Antarctica. The first year you go to Antarctica is for the adventure. The second year is for the money. After that you keep going because you don't fit in anywhere else.) While researching this comment (to make sure I remembered the facts correctly), I ran across some interesting articles. Here is a sample: www.livescience.com/antarctic-expedition-changes-the-brain.html It seems that researchers working at Neumayer Station III experienced shrinkage of portions of the brain, with the hippocampus called out in the article. This station is at nearly sea level, so those researchers are probably a closer match to colonists on Mars living in pressurized environments than researchers (and station personnel) living at South Pole station because of the above discussed pressure altitude reasons.

[@sunspot42]

It’s highly unlikely a Mars colony would be pressurized to a full atmosphere. They’d probably keep it closer to air pressure at about 5,000 feet, more like Denver than sea level. You’d want to minimize strain on your hull and seals.

[@z33r0now3]

Great comment, interesting read. Thx

[@ConnorwithanO]

@@sunspot42 Even more likely, they would keep a pure oxygen atmosphere at ~0.2 atm, as they've been doing since the early Apollo missions. This reduces the amount of gas you need to transport to Mars 5 fold. It also reduces the amount of construction materials you need to bring to Mars, since the structures can be lighter to handle less strain.

[@paddyjoe1884]

Is it true that on the first night in Antarctica they put on the film "the Thing" for newbies...then point out no we don't keep flame throwers on the base

[@orangenostril]

@@paddyjoe1884 There's no doubt in my mind there won't be a Musk flamethrower on the ship for no reason

[@r4dios1lence92]

In short: the idea is great, because we send the 1% away on a one-way-trip to certain psychological horror and irradiated death.

[@brendawilliams8062]

lol 😂

[@antondovydaitis2261]

Musk plans on killing the colonists and using the rockets to dispose of the bodies after stripping them of their wealth. Then "colony" would be simulated using deep fake video and GPT-7 AI chat hiding the computations behind the communication lag to and from Mars.

[@grahamstevenson1740]

10% would be better still !

[@brendawilliams8062]

@@antondovydaitis2261 the plot thickens. 😂 lol

[@brendawilliams8062]

@@grahamstevenson1740 terraformed is something the cosmos takes care of within it’s own parameters. A grafted branch may take for a while, but don’t you always need a horticulturist?

[@emmahardesty4330]

Excellent debunking. It's nutty to call it "colonizing" since there can never be any actual interaction with the planet; living inside space pods that will need continuous repair is really just being buried alive.

[@carultch]

Exactly. Until we can walk on the surface in nothing but street clothing, we aren't really colonizing anything.

[@nataschavisser573]

Accounts of antarctic winter madness are really interesting to read. An Argentinian medical officer actually set their base on fire so that they were forced to evacuate him. Russians have attacked each other with axes over chess. People go really weird and enter a state of semi-awake hibernation. This mental condition combined with the hazards of Mars would result in multiple deaths in short order.

[@krzbrew]

@BearSeek Berserker The shape-shifting alien was caused by delirium tremens...

[@HaganeNoGijutsushi]

> Russians have attacked each other with axes over chess. Wait, you mean the Voorhees Gambit is NOT considered a legal move outside of Antarctica?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Stick 400 open sea sailors and 2500 ready-for-combat soldiers on a 600 foot long ship for six months... pick any contiguous six months... and see what happens. The U.S. Navy calls it a Med-Cruise on a Gator Freighter... It's not unusual to watch people's minds deteriorate and fracture... and that's with regular stops all over the place for touristy BS and souvenirs... between floats and war games and drills and patrols... with plenty to do... and free time for "self care"... Antarctica ain't no joke, but you hardly need to get extreme circumstances to notice issues with depression, anxiety, psychosis... and there's relatively little done and what IS to be done is primitive at the best of times. ;o)

[@АртурСтрах-е7ж]

Average SS13 round

[@Freshbott2]

@BearSeek Berserker the shape shifting Alien was Russians

[@harrisonofcolorado8886]

I saw this one A.I. generated quote that said,"They can force you to exercise regularly, but they can't force you to travel to Mars", and honestly, exercising regularly sounds better to me than traveling to Mars.

[@georgewright4285]

People don't do that already? I can't live without my Jim-induced dopamine hit

[@generalrubbish9513]

If you did the latter, you'd probably have to do the former as well to stave off bone and muscle atrophy, the way astronauts do on the ISS. Especially on the 7-9 month flight over, which you'll presumably spend in zero-G unless your ship has some kind of rotating hab ring that simulates gravity via centrifugal force.

[@kubli365]

wow what a profound thing to say really gotteem this time

[@amirulshyakir9221]

@@georgewright4285 WE GO JIM

[@xhagast]

Sorry, the quote is wrong. They CAN force you to travel to Mars but they CANNOT force to exercise regularly. Just look at Americans.

[@marufhassan634]

If you really want to feel how Mars feel like, go visit the Gobi Desert. It has everything that mars has except for low gravity and bonus point is that you can breathe there normally without any equipments.

[@TM450FI]

@Balaram Chakrabarty or asteroids... Gobi wins

[@MensHominis]

The whole "Plan B" argument is just ridiculous, it's so childishly naïve that I'm in awe how anyone could ever accept it. I mean, even if climate change hits us with ten times the brutality that science is expecting, that would still be nothing compared to the fucking Mars desert. If it's about bunkers: we could have that on earth, too, minus the need for constant radiation protection.

[@mydeadsaint]

minus point : china

[@nordic24]

@@mydeadsaint 💀

[@SkinpShorts]

The whole point is exploration, this is like saying why go and explore the depths of the ocean when you can go in the hot tub? It's so warm and bubbly guys

[@thewestisthebest6608]

A thriller movie about a Mars colony where everything slowly starts going wrong and everyone goes crazy with loneliness actually sounds like a pretty great blockbuster

[@noahjhs]

The only thing wrong with that thriller is the absurdity of the premise that such a project could ever even begin.

[@denisborzov8406]

I mean, the book and movie "The Martian" exists, but not exactly the same.

[@tonydai782]

Terraforming the Sahara: "No, that's too hard" Terraforming space Sahara: "Sign me up!"

[@danishsyed1068]

Well the former is an already existing ecosystem and well frankly I don't want any more changes to the planet that isn't undoing what we've done with Mars there are no long-term risks to civilization

[@tonydai782]

@@danishsyed1068 It's not as if human's have never lived in a world with a green Sahara. 11,000-5,000 years ago, the Continent was in a humid period, turning the Sahara green. What downsides are there to greening the Sahara, that are worse than trying to do it for Mars? To be clear, I'm not suggesting that we do it, but simply saying that terraforming Mars is stupid and inefficient.

[@marklavoine8502]

I think we can move up the colney date May be 50 years or so is more realistic..by then the Sara will be all green and have a lot of water for everything and every one....

[@partypooper8198]

@@danishsyed1068 please just stop. you're making yourself look silly

[@LisaAnn777]

You can't just terraform the Sahara and not expect it to have drastic consequences all over earth. Terraforming a dead planet doesnt effect us. Really is this really that difficult for people to understand? Amazing how many keep proposing "terraforming the Sahara" like that's some brilliant idea lol

[@francodegasperi3814]

"And a remote control self-destruct mechanism in case colonist try to unionize" I laughed so hard then I started to doubt if it was actually true

[@doylethelovely2555]

The first thing you have to do when unionizing Mars colony is disable it

[@schizophrenicgaming365]

People giving shit for musk not unionizing are dumb. He pays good anyway.

[@ArcturusOTE]

Someone's been playing the Red Faction games

[@AcidiFy574]

@@schizophrenicgaming365 well he doesn't though He recently fired an engineer for proving that Tesla's Self-driving system was an utter mess

[@AcidiFy574]

@@Watchmanskey ever seen "The Expanse" ?

[@scarpfish]

You're an optimist Adam. I think these folks are going to die long before they get anywhere close to Mars.

[@calibula95]

Radiation will do a little trolling to them.

[@Mr.Noob1]

You're also an optimist, I don't think they'll be even on their way to Mars.

[@kevley26]

Yeah, months of interplanetary radiation is no joke. This problem has not been worked out yet.

[@slevinchannel7589]

Overpopulation and the Housing Crisis can be easily fixed, as BritMonkey and Second-Thought pointed out and proved.

[@scarpfish]

I just checked the duration of the Apollo missions and from what I can find, no human being has gone beyond 20 days outside of low earth orbit.

[@samrobbins9571]

One major reason to build on the moon is that the lunar surface is rich in Helium 3. This isotope is rare on earth because our magnetic field deflects the solar wind (which is full of the stuff) but in places with no such protection (the moon) that are also close to the sun (not mars) it is everywhere. The kick is that Helium 3 is a perfect fuel for nuclear fusion. If fusion is to dominate the grid a moon colony may be our best bet.

[@widodoakrom3938]

Nice

[@chrisrendon461]

Nuclear fusion is at least 40-50 years away

[@samrobbins9571]

@@chrisrendon461 and building a full-on moon colony isn't?

[@chrisrendon461]

@@samrobbins9571 well its very expensive and dangerous … my thing is would it even be beneficial to go to mars it cost 100s of billions of dollars just to have the space program … now we have to build 100s of billions of dollars of nuclear fusion reactors that may or may not work….in the best foresight in 50 years we may have nuclear fusion but would it even be worth it to go to the moon just for the fuel? I dont know possibly🤷🏽

[@samrobbins9571]

@@chrisrendon461 okay, you have a point, but moon dust is rich in iron, aluminum, titanium, and silicon as well.

[@ValkisCalmor]

Anyone who accuses Elon's projects of being a "train wreck" clearly doesn't understand even the basic principles behind his plans. It's a POD wreck. Get it right.

[@robertborland5083]

Or a "rloop" week. (The hype died out long ago.)

[@nottsoserious]

What's a tr*in? I only know about conjoined pods

[@grahamsmith5396]

POD wreck??

[@Treegona]

A multi-pod pile-up.

[@annoyedbipolar7424]

Now, this is pod racing!

[@ThePinkMan]

Even if humanity does absolutely nothing about climate change, the Earth of the future would still be infinitely more habitable than Mars.

[@buceoApulmon]

The bottom of the Marianna Trench is still much more habitable than Mars.

[@coledibiase5971]

How about this, so what? Why are you against humanity expanding? Why do you hate humanity so much that you think we don't deserve to explore and colonize the stars.

[@omercreon9465]

@@coledibiase5971 because it is fucking pointless. At least colonizing the deep sea would bring knowledge about OUR planet and maybe also ressources.

[@KingslayerSrb]

@@coledibiase5971 why do YOU hate Earth so much? if you can "colonize the stars" (lol), surely you can also stop destroying Earth? "Humanity expanding" lol how about you and your pals start supporting unions so people don't have to die of starvation and astronomical (pun not intended) medical bills? Or just be honest and say "humanity==top 0.05% of richest people", in which case I wonder who the fck is going to clean up toilets of these mfers in space, because the idea of a billionaire doing it is somehow the biggest sci-fi in all of this

[@ThePinkMan]

​@@coledibiase5971 I'm not against humanity exploring the stars, I'm against the idiotic notion that colonizing Mars could actually be a way to escape the ravages of climate change. Elon Musk doesn't actually have any intention of going through with his colonization plan, and anybody who believes him doesn't know anything about science.

[@WearyKirin]

I think people underestimate how hard making Mars actually self sufficient. You'd need to be able to manufacture every single part used to create the colony in the first place from scratch

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

Yea exactly, and even at that, everything will be made of iron. Mars is rich in iron, it covers its entire surface. We can't just make everything out of iron lmao. It'd be like the dark ages

[@partypooper8198]

there isnt even a self sufficient city on planet earth.

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

@@partypooper8198 Lmao, you're right. Modern life is so intertwined with the cooperation of all the other civilized areas.

[@lubricustheslippery5028]

Modern supply chains to build anything is very long and complex. A colony on mars needs to be "high tech" and self sufficient on most stuff. So first we have to figure out how that could work within just a colony. On earth where we are evolved to survive some can survive with just stone age tech but that don't work on Mars. So how do we build everything and repair/maintain all the tools and machines with a low number of people (few specialists) and the materials available on Mars. So we have to start figuring out how to shorten and simplify supply chains.

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

@@lubricustheslippery5028 I was watching a documentary once, not related to going to Mars, but it did eventually bring that in. Anyways, they had this geologist on there who was talking about Mars. I guess it's entire surface is covered in iron. The guy was pretty much saying that since we have so much iron, building infrastructure won't be a problem. Super confident rights? So in my head I'm kinda joking with myself. We're basically gonna send up a bunch of blacksmiths in spacesuits who have to build out shelters with enough oxygen to run a forge, and they're gonna build out Mars for us. Better start recruiting the Iron Workers Union, be sure to send up enough hard alcohol with them. I know that's not how it'll actually be done but another part of me thinks it might also not be far from the truth. This was just my joke take on it. I'd hope they would take up plenty of modern technology with them to make the whole process easier. But in all intellectual honesty, I'll bet some scientists are banking on the fact that it's so rich in iron. Would be funny (not really) if they got there and found out they can't actually use the iron due to atmospheric differences.

[@demon_xd_]

There's something you missed Adam, there's actually ONE reason for a tiny mars colony built with our current level of technology, populated by billionaires and financed with a reality show: Seeing said billionaires suffer in a literal dead world for our amusement after all, Mars/Ares was named after the god of war due to its blood-like color, and after a few thousand years, I feel like it could use a fresh coat of paint...

[@tombowen9861]

AHHH! that paint comment killed me. :D

[@ViridisAmbrosia]

After the billionaires move there they can be stranded there 😊

[@Bruhza5870]

Venus is a better planet to colonize than Mars

[@demon_xd_]

@@Bruhza5870 probably also a better suffering factory, but with our current tech they'd just get crushed by the atmosphere instantly, and that's no fun

[@Bruhza5870]

@@demon_xd_ oh if you’re talking about a suffering factory, just make a enclosed space station 3 times the size of iss and send it far near the asteroid belt. That’ll be a fun show to watch

[@Welgeldiguniekalias]

Fun fact: The Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural products (by value), after the US, despite the high population density.

[@houseplant1016]

Ah Dutch people being perfect again, greetings from your less perfect neighbours....

[@RichardBoomsma]

But our co2 emission per person is also really high.. we would need multiple planet earth if everybody lived like us...

[@phillipanselmo8540]

@@RichardBoomsma the emission isn't _really high_ it's just above the (european) average, bigger countries like the us and china much higher emissions and we still don't need a new planet (yet)

[@chemicalfrankie1030]

You look at the data like a 5yo would… it is just because goods are brought to NL and shipped overseas from there, not because they produce them.

[@pitdarkangel2961]

Fun fact: A lot of those agricultural products are actually flowers

[@bigbadwulf5785]

Looks at Earth: "Why would anyone live in the sahara desert? its only sand, rocks and death. " Looks at mars: "OMG it would be so cool to live in a planet where there is space desert, space rocks and space death!"

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

Yes exactly, imagine even just the mental toll of looking out and only seeing desert instead of trees and ponds. I will never leave this beautiful blue and green planet that literally has everything on it that we need to survive and prosper.

[@erikm8372]

Yes but even the Sahara has vastly made more opportunities for survival. If Mars has any, we haven't found them yet! At least in the Sahara you can hopefully hunt some wild animals, if they havent been hunter to fkn extinction yet. And depending on where you are, it's not all sand dunes, such as the Atlas Mountains. You could theoretically shelter in the canyons and find water, plants and animals. Just sayin. If any living thing exists on Mars, no one has been told about it or we haven't found it... and you kinda have to wonder, if you were a Mars colonist, "what IS out there?" For all they know, there really are 300-ft sand worms coming to eat the whole group. Maybe there really are Hutts, Bantha, sarlacc, Jawas, and Tusken raiders. You don't wanna get there and find out😂😂😂

[@kousand9917]

@@loturzelrestaurant anouther basically elon worshiper but also not really is everyday astronaut, he went from talking about space to interviewing Elon and streaming about the starships every fucking second

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

@@erikm8372 Lmao, good point, we'll have to send the Mandalorian and Grogu to find out.

[@loturzelrestaurant]

@@kousand9917 OK, i check him out. And you meanwhile an give Hbomberguy a Try. His legendary Vaccine-Video and the Pickup-Artist Video should combine into a very good Giveaway for his Style and who he is. Those videos combine to give you a real Impression.

[@creeeamy7133]

The idea that Mars could be used to save humanity is stupid as shit. Imagine earth but every square inch is nuked and the earth is stuck in a deep nuclear winter. Make that about 5 times as worse and then have 0 chance of recovery, and that's Mars.

[@icantthinkofaname4265]

I think we need to go to Mars to expand in general. This planet will eventually die. Might as well try and become space faring.

[@Nexnaught]

I've never considered that, but you actually make a really good point. Even in the worst-case scenario, I can't imagine how we could possibly fuck up so badly that the living conditions on Mars are actually more attractive than here on Earth. We would have to: - somehow eliminate over 99% of our atmosphere and remove ALL of the oxygen - somehow cool our planet's iron core such that it no longer produces a magnetic field - somehow get rid of ALL our planet's surface and atmospheric water (where would it even go??) I just don't see how that's physically possible. Even if the entire earth is an irradiated wasteland and we have to resort to living in underground bunkers, we would still have the two most important necessities (water and oxygen) that we could extract from the environment in order to sustain ourselves.

[@mioc7741]

@@icantthinkofaname4265 I mean sure eventually, when we have better technology. But right now it’s silly.

[@nicomoron001]

@@icantthinkofaname4265 but why mars? why not just... orbit? we can even make artificial gravity by spinning the space station.

[@icantthinkofaname4265]

@@nicomoron001 idk tbh. Maybe Mars is just easier to sell the public on lol.

[@stevederp9801]

As many others have said. I’m actually happy that all of these billionaires are going to go to mars. They can live in hell and when they realize how stupid they were and there’s no way to get back. We can all laugh at how their entire life being driven by arrogance resulted in such a perfect result for them

[@michalsoukup1021]

We would be having new billionaires and they probably would be even worse than the current one

[@SeattlePioneer]

Give them a bargain rate to get TO Mars, then inflate the cost to $1billion to get back to earth.

[@snakezase2998]

@@michalsoukup1021you really think the current ones are going to let that happen

[@samr.england613]

Oh no! Don't be fooled! The Billionaires are not going to go to Mars themselves, they're going to try and send us peons to Mars so that we can make money for them, um, somehow. After all, one cannot sail his yacht on Mars, as liquid water cannot exist on its surface. Why would a Billionaire or Millionaire, or, for that matter, the reasonably well-off, ever want to live on the Death World of Mars? For that matter, why would a ditch-digger?

[@bobbybooshay5388]

one of my first thoughts when seeing the Shield Helicarrier was actually "that's cool as hell but it would never fly."

[@Skyerzen]

I thought the Helicarrier was dumb and this is why. Have you ever noticed that China doesn't have that many aircraft carriers? Do you know why that is? Because they don't need to. If we ever went to war, they would send a shit storm of anti carrier cruise missiles at each one of our carriers and overwhelm their defenses.

[@TheRyderShotgunn]

lol yeah. and even if it did fly, it literally has zero backup plans for when the engines fail.

[@bobbybooshay5388]

@@TheRyderShotgunn In hindsight. Why was IronMan Help Us! the backup plan for an engine failure?

[@unclefrogy743]

my first thought was "man that thing would be loud!"

[@thatman6916]

@@unclefrogy743 exactly

[@generalrubbish9513]

I think the main problem with a Mars colony is thinking of it as, well, a colony - a place where people come to live, work, have kids, that sort of thing. I think instead, we should be thinking of it as something much more akin to those Antarctic outposts Adam mentioned - places meant to sustain a small crew of highly trained scientists who have undergone extensive psychological screening. And instead of staying forever, they would be rotated out as often as launch windows allow, limiting their exposure to Mars' high radiation levels and low gravity and hopefully alleviating the psychological impact of their stay, too, since they only have to endure life on Mars for like two years instead of the rest of their lives.

[@shanekeenaNYC]

One could also argue that a sporadic presence in a given theater eventually leads up to a continuous presence, and that one must walk before they can run. Sure, we haven't had a continuous presence in space save the ISS, but eventually we will find solutions to the problems of low gravity, high radiation levels and psychological strain. Two of those problems can at least be solved up on the moon, namely the "cabin fever" and low gravity problem. We also have to be optimistic that something will be discovered up there that allows the moon to become more heavily industrialized long-term, and by so doing, expanding the livable space up there.

[@ferdievanschalkwyk1669]

exactly. I am all for Mars as a research outpost. arguably we should establish on on the moon first as they can get better support from earth.

[@TheZoltan-42]

Exactly. First missions will be return missions with just a handful of people. Then for many years, "outposts" with a few dozen highly trained and selected people doing research and building infrastructure. There won't be traditional colonies for decades at least. And by colony, I mean a population of at least thousands with families, and maybe kids born there. (We don't even know the long-term low gravity effects on things like pregnancy. So, whoever is stating actual deadlines is lying and nobody knows. This includes those that say it will never happen.)

[@Vorname_Nachname_]

@@shanekeenaNYC As a side note: There have been plenty of other space stations, not just ISS.

[@shanekeenaNYC]

@@Vorname_Nachname_ I know.

[@dichebach]

If you haven't yet "colonized" the high Antarctic, and achieved a sustainable closed arcology (that doesn't even need local air but makes its own from indoor plants) then you are not yet ready to colonize the Moon, much less Mars.

[@KingslayerSrb]

yeah, and also the whole notion of "this planet is doomed, therefore we need to spread out" is comical. Who doomed it in the first place, pray tell? And if you have the technology to fix an unhospitable hellhole into a living space, surely you can also fix the original planet as well? Oh and also, what makes us think these same humans that created a society on earth that destroyed the planet, would be capable of creating a new society from scratch that wouldn't destroy that second planet too? And if you can create a "good" society on Mars, what's stopping you from doing the same on Earth? And most importantly, who the fck is going to clean up toilets on Mars?? Will those 20 richest people on earth that migrate to Mars clean up their own shit suddenly? Somehow thats the biggest sci-fi in all of this

[@cultureddoggo5606]

i'm thinking the same reason we want people semi-permanent on moon would be research related similar as to why we put people on the antarctic although one of them is a lot more expensive and could go terribly wrong but then the planet we live on is dangerous doubly so outside of it

[@dichebach]

@S S There is not a single human facility in the Antarctic which is anywhere hear 50% "self-sufficient," much less completely self-contained and 100% sustainable as any off world colony ideally should be. I think you are not comprehending what the term means. Self-sufficient in this context means: after a certain period of construction, setup and provisioning, the facility LITERALLY does not need anything from Earth and can sustain itself more-or-less permanently only with the resources immediately available in the immediate setting. Critical resources include: air, drinking water, sanitary water, food, medicine, materials for construction, fabrication and repair and all the facilities, tools, and equipment needed to perform all of these functions of self-sustenance. All Antarctic facilities require routine supply deliveries of virtually everything needed for people to survive and work there. Breathable air is obviously something for which Antarctica IS self-sustaining (thus the privoso that the proof-of-concept Antarctic Mars Demonstration Base needs to be sealed in and only use air from indoor plants), and possibly for water. Everything else must be brought to the base on a routine basis, twice yearly or more, if memory serves.

[@dichebach]

@S S Full 100% sustainability of an enclosed human habitation is a topic which has been explored among those interested in the concept of an "Arcology," which is technically a related but not identical concept, which gets used as a short-hand to refer to the concept of "100% self-contained and self-sufficient human habitation facility/settlement." If you do some searching on the term "arcology" you'll find some edifying discussions. The Earth-Moon-Sun system IS a self-contained, and self-sufficient system, or as close to 100% as can be imagined. Over evolutionary time, Earth would never have evolved the way it has had it not been for the various large icy and metalic asteroids populating the rest of the proto-planetary disk and early solar system, so to be more accurate we'd have to say that the "Sol solar system" is 99.9999% self-contained and self-sufficient" (leaving aside a tiny fraction to reflect the chance that the organics or other trace elements which proved to be crucial to life on Earth were introduced after the early Sol molecular cloud began to form into a pre-Solar nebula. All of which is to say: depending on the time-scale and physical-scale there actually is no such thing as a completely self-contained and self-sufficient ecological framework, but this is primarily an academic point to clarify the caveat that: most arcologies which we might imagine producing within the next 1,000 or so years, will only approach true self-contained self-sufficiency never actually achieve it. In sum: the degree to which "off-world human habitation or settlement" is self-contained and self-sufficient reflects a set of objective physical and operational parameters which can easily be quantified and aggregated into a score and compared to Earth itself, which achieves 99.99%. Endurance, i.e., the timeframe during which such an off-world settlement can sustain life and normal operations without introduction of supplies or assistance from Earth would also be part of such an assessment. My understanding is that the ISS achieves only about 1 to 5% self-sufficiency over the time frame of 1 to 2 months. Beyond that endurance range the facilities capacity to sustain human life and normal operations will decline without replenishment from Earth. So, that is the level of our ability to actually do what Musk projects doing: create a colony on Mars. Personally, I would like to see humanity become a true multi-world species (which is not the same as multi-planet and is a more inclusive concept, which is to say: space habitats may well be a much more sensible approach than "colonizing" any of the presently accessible planets or moons apart from Earth). So I appreciate Musk ostensible vision and goal. But his approach to it is ridiculously simplistic and dumb. We may eventually have the ability to create self-sustaining self-contained habitats on Earth which in the 6 month endurance range, and that would be a good "first step." A good second step would be to improve reliability, efficiency and redundancy in those initial designs and to extend them to harsh Earthly settings like Antarctica where the prospect of a catastrophe does not equate with death of all personnel. Once such a phase two arcology achieves a high level of self-sustenance for something like 9 to 18 months; it all depends on what systems exist to provide rescue and the timeline of affording such under worst-case scenarios. In short, the settlement should be able to cope with worst-case scenarios long enough to be rescued, whether that means at least 6 months or 24 months of endurance at 99.99% self-contained self-sufficiency. Once the design works in one of the harshest contexts on Earth--relatively controlled and safe conditions--then it would be replicated/adapted for an orbital habitat. Once that showed success for a sufficient period of time, then the next logical step would be to produce more, bigger and better orbital or LaGrange facilities where centrifugation can provide "normal" gravity and to explore scaling up the designs. A parallel track could also pursue applying the proven arcology technology, designs, principles, protocols and processes to a Moon base, which could then eventually lead to further elaborations for more remote and inhospitable locales.

[@genius1a]

A very compact and still accurate description! I'd say this is something, that should be done now, parallel to the development of better rocket technology. I'm pretty sure, if they used 4 Billion Dollars for the development of such remote closed arcology structures, we could have a more fundamental understanding of the neccessary facitilties. Biosphere II showed interesting ecologic connections - let's heve more of that from different approaches and sizes. Could be as interesting as the ISS broadcasts.

[@GamingSkeptic]

Why people think rich people are smart is beyond me

[@oddtomato1049]

Even after a climate disaster, Earth would still be a better place to live in than Mars.

[@Louzifien]

having a breathable atmosphere rocks!

[@Nastalas]

@@Louzifien not sure if in a disaster the atmosphere survives

[@oddtomato1049]

@@Nastalas The atmosphere can't just disappear like that. This is Earth, and not Mars.

[@Nastalas]

@@oddtomato1049 well earth already lost a big part of the atmosphere, check dinosaurs

[@oddtomato1049]

@@Nastalas The Earth getting into a heated argument with the Sun, and having a space rock hurled into the planet are two entirely different disasters.

[@PhoenixianThe]

When it comes to the psychological problems of living on Mars, (or the Moon,) I wonder how much additional insight could be gleaned by looking at the psychological problems faced by sailors at sea. Especially those voyages modern and historic that happened to be particularly, or unexpectedly, long. Because months in a boat with a bunch of people who you shall soon get to know very well indeed, at the complete mercy elements all around you seems to me like it would bear some passing resemblance to months on another world with only people who you shall soon know very well indeed at the complete mercy of the element of the relative vacuum.

[@pasqualelandolfo3732]

i think scientist are already looking at psychological problems faced by people who are on the ISS and people who have already being in space in the past.

[@rowiian]

Good idea! I was also thinking of people working in submarines, or any other kind of isolated work areas, like oil platforms. And astronauts stationed on the international space station, obviously

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

@@rowiian but while in a boat or a submarine you know you could always escape somehow and survive, on Mars your lifepod would be your entire universe. There is no escape if the only thing providing life ceases to work.

[@AndrewmanGaming]

Are you telling me Mars shantys will become a thing? Thereeeeee once was a ship that put to Mars The name of the ship was the Billy of Stars There was no wind, or atmosphere Oh blow, my bully boys blow Soon may the resupply come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, if something goes wrong we have nowhere to go...

[@michaelsommers2356]

They're not really comparable. However bad things might be at sea, you know that the voyage will end in at most a few months. Except in a submarine, you can always go outside. Not at all the same as being locked inside for the rest of your life.

[@maninalift]

The idea that completely engineering the atmosphere of Mars is achievable when we haven't figured out how to make a 1% adjustment to earth's atmosphere is so dumb. Even if we could freely transport any equipment that we wanted to Mars it would be it would be crazy.

[@SilverDragonJay]

I know right? If we had the technology to terraform Mars then why is climate change such a problem still? You wouldn't have to escape Earth you could just reset its atmosphere to optimal, pre-industrial levels.

[@wheatley1866]

Well it looks like in recent years we've found that we're pretty good at warming up the climate

[@bjiornbjiorn]

Adjusting the atmosphere on earth is difficult because of all the pesky humans that are in the way. On Mars we could take our current understanding of atmospheric engineering to ludicrous extremes that would be very hazardous on an inhabited planet. Think dropping ice bearing asteroids from orbit to increase water levels. There's a great Kurzgesagt video on the topic which agrees with Adam that it's unwise to build a colony but also goes into what might be possible.

[@niccosalonga9009]

Oh no, we've been adjusting our atmosphere for ages... Badly 😆

[@falseprophet1024]

We are actually pretty good at changing our atmosphere, aren't we? Isnt that the basis for climate change?

[@gabiausten8774]

I’d rather live in a nuclear wasteland with fallout winter than on Mars… Fleeing to Mars because of climate change, is like resettling from a house filled with smoke to a dynamite factory on fire…

[@MysteryKar]

mars bases will be important in the (very distant) future, but a lunar base is both more realistic and will make future space travel (mars bases included) much easier due to stuff like the resources, industry not having to worry about pollution, launching stuff into space being easier with no atmosphere and weaker gravity, etc

[@KateeAngel]

They'll be like Antarctic bases, no one person would stay there for too long.

[@arronalt]

@@KateeAngel they could always come back because the travel time is a week or so

[@MysteryKar]

@@KateeAngel at least initially, more self dependent and permanent bases could be established, same way it would be done on the moon

[@Bumi-90]

The Moon is a good Gateway, but a colony on the Moon isn't much different from a space station. A selfsustaining colony is much more propable on mars. But I will wait until NASA ESA or the like work on it, before expecting much of a success. Elon has the money and know how to get there, but if he want's to stay there he would need way too many scientists that have to be willing to devote the rest of their life to this mission.

[@lwy230597]

Yeah, in the far future when asteroid mining is more economically viable than Earth mining, I think Mars would become a massive staging point for interplanetary transits.

[@ZENDASIAN]

"If you had the power of geoengineering to terraform Mars into Earth, then you have the power of geoengineering to turn Earth back into Earth. So the argument that if we trash Earth we need another planet doesn’t work. I am not convinced that escaping Earth and leaving others behind to die is the most sensible solution out there" ~ The Neil DeGrasse Tyson

[@dankmemes8254]

Honestly doesn't take a genius to figure if you have a a technology that terraforms planets then you have the technology to fix a planet with climate issues

[@MeMelster]

No one cares about terraforming, it's about expanding to other planets. That's the main goal and the reason people want to do that is because they like that idea, all those listed downsides only make it more interesting.

[@selfishbeats]

@@MeMelster these idiots don't get that. But everybody isn't a genius statistically so in all likelihood if the general populace agrees it's probably short-sighted and wrong as it has been in the past.

[@scottthewaterwarrior]

@@MeMelster If some huge meteor hits Earth it I agree it would be nice to have a backup, but without terraforming it is unlikely any colony would be self sufficient for long. Food and oxygen could be done sure, but over decades the actual living structures would begin to fail and you would need factories and the like to make replacements.

[@Alex-vl1mk]

Rare Neil DeGrasse Tyson W

[@JamNaco]

Mars is basically what people fear earth will look like if we don’t fix climate change. Never understood why people want to escape to a desert planet because they fear that earth will turn into a desert planet.

[@jmc28J17]

you gotta start somewhere. I do think the moon should be first to be colonized before mars. However, if humans are to survive as a species we need to travel into space. The vid makes good points however, there were haters even when explorers wanted to explore more of earth when we didn't know what was on the other side of the atlantic. Those people were called crazy who wanted to explore, same concept as this guy calls Elon "crazy." I do believe in the future we will colonize the moon, mars and titan. It will not be in our lifetime full colonization, but it will happen. Mars can also be terraformed but that won't happen in our lifetime obviously.

[@Anonymous-qb4vc]

Goal is to make humans multi planetry specie

[@JamNaco]

@@jmc28J17 yeah that's true. Originally I wanted to add to my comment that the only reason why I would think it would make sense is as a "training" for other more hospitable planets. But I think the biggest problem at this point is that we neither have the ability to travel to earth-like planets that could sustain life nor the ability to terraform Mars. We would probably have no real use for the knowledge we could gain in the foreseeable future. So the risks/costs (especially in human lives) outweigh the gains in my opinion.

[@ifrit1937]

Would say that Venus would be more likely what Earth would look like as like Earth Venus still has most of its Atmosphere and Magnetosphere...Mars is what would happen if Earth would lose both and fairly certain humans won't be able to outright remove either no matter what we try to do....hell if we had the ability to do that we'd likely have the ability to blow the planet apart completely.

[@Anonymous-qb4vc]

@@ifrit1937 🔥

[@cmf1402]

You forgot to mention that all airlocks in areas the workers occupy and their space suits will simultaneously open up when the word "union" is said.

[@schwarzwolfram7925]

I remember watching the Kurzgesagt video about what it would take to colonize Mars and the very first disclaimer they mention is to assume that we already have a stage 3 Lunar colony that is economically self-sufficient to act as a mission control; since rockets launching from the Lunar surface don't need nearly as much fuel for a given payload to reach low orbit. We don't have a moon colony, let alone, started one yet.

[@pedrolmlkzk]

All thanks to am*rican politics

[@cpiantes]

@@pedrolmlkzk Nobody's stopping the rest of the world from colonizing the Moon or Mars. Have at it!

[@recombinantgestalt]

Really glad you brought up "the Moon is better" as a point. Especially if we're going to eventually colonize Mars or do anything in the solar system, a moon facility to launch from would be incredibly useful.

[@robertcarmosino6563]

You need to learn to walk before you can run ...

[@Dayanto]

The irony of this is that NASA will be using Starship as their lander for the Artemis/HLS mission(s) to the moon.

[@ThresholdGaming]

Mars spins at a pretty reasonable rate. Its day is just over 24 hours long, so a day on Mars would be roughly equivalent to a day on Earth. A day on the moon lasts as long as 28 Earth days, which would take a fair bit of adjustment.

[@ThresholdGaming]

Also, because Mars’ day is relatively short, the day-to-night temperature difference is not too dramatic. On the moon, the day is very hot and the night is very cold. There is an almost 300 degrees Celsius, or 572 degrees Fahrenheit, temperature difference between the day and night temperatures on the moon. Such a large day-to-night temperature difference can make it really difficult to engineer the right living systems, such as habitats and cars for moving around and space suits for going outside. Imagine if during the day, your house, car, and cloths had to be designed for Phoenix, Arizona, during the summer, and at night, everything had be designed for Antarctica in the winter. That would be tough!

[@ThresholdGaming]

Mars has an atmosphere. It’s not really a great atmosphere, but at least it is one. It is mostly carbon dioxide, which is great for plants, but really sucks for us humans. The atmosphere allows wind to blow, which helps to equalize the day-to-night temperature differences-but causes a lot of dust to move around, too. The atmosphere also means that we can pressurize domes and structures using air from outside.

[@Marconius6]

Honestly the whole "let's colonize Mars to make sure we don't go extinct" mindset is the same "techbros will save us with their future technology!" attitude a lot of people seem to have for climate change as well... Like, we could do stuff to make life on Earth better, right now, with the technology we have. You don't need to go all crazy sci-fi, but I guess big, flashy, one-shot solution are more attractive to people than just "hey, let's build more solar panels and maybe stop working people to a stress-filled grave".

[@zenoliskcore3115]

Why can't we make the Earth better and explore space? I don't understand why so many people think we can only have one. Anyway the earth can get fried by a gamma ray burst, get hit by a extinction level meteor or anything else so its better to have backup planets. Even if space colonization is extremely dangerous and will probably remain that way for a long time, there are always people willing to risk being pioneers and robots could have already been used to set up some sort of base on other planets.

[@Marconius6]

@@zenoliskcore3115 We CAN do both, that's fine. The problem is many of these people seem to be suggesting colonizing Mars INSTEAD of doing something about Earth.

[@ArcXDZ]

@@Marconius6 Well, these people that you're talking about are only normal civilian life people. You should've directed your question towards the elderly that's running most countries on earth right now. Oh and yeah, ask the oil lords (definitely not saudi Arabia)so that the USA & others can stop polluting the atmosphere ✌️

[@gaiusjuliuspleaser]

@@zenoliskcore3115 If your concern is your planet being rendered inhabitable, you don't go colonize other planets where the same might happen. You build habitats in space that you can move around as desired.

[@JG_Wentworth]

@@gaiusjuliuspleaser "Just make your own planet lmao" I don't disagree but I just think that sentiment is funny

[@MrSaemichlaus]

The idea of escaping a climate catastrophe by colonizing Mars is so bizarre. It's like you encounter a dangerous animals while stranded on an island in the middle of an ocean and you decide to row out into the ocean on a wood plank.

[@siguy715]

Imagine if the wealthy elite actually escaped Earth to live on Mars or anywhere else. And let's pretend there's actually a viable place to live... Who would do all the work once they get there?! Those people don't know how to work.

[@matpit5136]

Logically, there is no way wealthy elite will escape Earth for Mars. Mars condition need to be better than Earth for that to happen, which won't for a long time. Living in Mars for couple first decades will be like living in ISS, cramped living place suited only for hardened people. Most materials will be brought from earth, there won't be 7 star hotel or paradise beach or mega yacht around.

[@emiriye]

they would bring slaves with them.

[@jessepinkman7417]

robots with AI

[@boijone8440]

AI/machines, too expensive to be used to replace humans as of now. not a problom for the millionaires though

[@deebte__]

they'll just bring a bunch of mexican guys who know how to do hard work

[@5th_decile]

11:25 I'm not so sure whether terraforming the Sahara desert would be such a good idea. The dust which blows up from there contains a lot of minerals (especially iron is important) that fertilizes the ocean or the soil where-ever it settles. Agriculture in Europe would probably suffer and the whales and ocean biodiversity would never recover...

[@GalacticNovaOverlord]

Yeah...

[@nobbynoris]

Granted, but terraforming our deserts, which cover a colossal area of the earth's surface, is the best way to deal with our increasing population. I mean, let's face it, deserts do fuck all, they just take up space the size of continents that could be better utilised. And while You make a good point about the loss to bio-diversity, that and worse is going to happen anyway the way we're currently going.

[@5th_decile]

​@@nobbynoris No no no... if you worry about displacement of people, worry about sea level rise. The size of the population isn't increasing that quickly anymore and as the videos of Adam so aptly show, well-organized mega-cities can deal with whatever small increase is coming at us. Concerning good farmland, it's so much smarter to stick to it where-ever it is presently available and wisely take care of it... An escapist exoticist doctrine is the fastest way to starvation there. The Sahara is maybe a bit large and struggle against it at its borders makes sense, but for the core issue at hand I'll just stick to my guns: I like some nice patches of desert here and there and I'd rather keep them.

[@ethanstyant9704]

Still more environmentally friendly and cheaper than blasting shit to Mars though

[@slowfudgeballs9517]

@@nobbynoris There are plenty of other places to settle, South America, he rest of Africa, China, the USA, Canada, Russia, and the Amazon are all mostly considered "uninhabited" because so much of it doesn't have a living person on it. There are lots more people there than the EU, but population density is another thing these countries lack. If we run out of room for people, the Sahara is the last place we have available.

[@0ptera]

Sending the top 1% including Musk to mars seems like a worthwhile project. ;)

[@saumyacow4435]

Heck, sending 0.001% of the Earth's population could improve this planet no end :)

[@skiller736]

dude. Top 1% is just 60k$ salary

[@saumyacow4435]

@@skiller736 Top 1% of incomes in the US is more than $597k - Forbes. Not that it matters. To be an "early adopter" in Elon's scheme means coughing up billions to tens of billions, each

[@skiller736]

@@saumyacow4435 World is also beyond US

[@saumyacow4435]

@@skiller736 Sure but his original point was about getting rid of people who think they're special because they lucked their way into mega-wealth.

[@ElysiumCreator]

A better thing about the Moon Colony, is that the launch window is much more forgiving, a rescue mission leaving from Earth would prob need only a day at max to line up a trajectory, instead of two years

[@blakksheep736]

As a science overenthusiast, I am quite satisfied with the conclusion "it's a stupid idea, for the time being at least".

[@donDanDeNiro]

We've got advancing tech and it will reach terraforming sooner than you think

[@archmad]

everything is stupid until it's not. that's how human progress works

[@cole2839]

@@archmad I'm not having high hopes for your comment in the future.

[@whitedawn2122]

@@archmad Didnt people think the wright brothers were stupid and going to fail before they succeeded? Statistically its massively against spaceX or any company but human nature is to keep throwing yourself (or others) at the problem until its gone

[@jesse19981014]

I feel like establishing a moon colony would be far more useful and realistic, Idk if elon has ever considered doing that instead.

[@halyoalex8942]

“If we did send humans to mars, it would be the top 1%” “Living on mars would be awful” SOUNDS WONDERFUL, LET’S DO IT! :D

[@verttikoo2052]

Yeah. Me too thinks that Adam missed this positive thing completely 🤔We have to encourage Elon to go there and take all his buddies like Peter Thiel with him 🥳

[@ddzwiedziu]

Yep! Convinced! There was a old polish anarchist magazine, called "Maćpariadka", and on one their issues in the late 90' they stated "Life on Mars? [There] Will be! [Send] Politicians to Mars!".

[@andrewking6178]

Where can I donate to this?

[@cholling1]

We start with the hairdressers and telephone sanitizers...

[@chotenque6877]

It baffles me that elonbros expect it to be easier to make an uninhabitable planet inhabitable than maintain an already inhabitable planet.

[@imsmolandangery4274]

Actual mechanics versus fucking magic, I think it's the same instinct that makes them believe in self driving cars more that city planning and robust public transport to reduce traffic

[@timobrenn]

It's not that hard to maintain an already inhabitable planet, we could probably do it right now if people wanted it. But everyone is overly scared of Geoengineering so we have to use less efficient ways of reducing our climate impact

[@chemicalfrankie1030]

No one said that. Mars colonization, now or in 50 or in 200 years is needed for mankind survival, regardless of climate change (which is not going to wipe out the human species btw). Is it necessary and unavoidable to get to Mars.

[@neeneko]

besides assuming tech is a lot better than it is (keep in mind, they don't think ChemEs or MSEs are real engineers like the EEs and CoEs are), the big thing they picture making it 'easier' is the people. They imagine it being made up only of 'makers' who are constantly held back by the 'takers' on earth. they picture a eugenics solution will fix everything, and settling mars lets them make that argument without all that killing or sterilization.

[@timobrenn]

@@chemicalfrankie1030 it is not necessary, there are alternatives to mars that dont have as many downsides. Big space habitats like o'Neil cylinders for instance. you wouldnt have to deal with a pesky gravity well there. another alternative is the moon. I do think we should get to mars eventually, but it doesnt have to be in a few years, we can do it after establishing a more robust orbital infrastructure making travel from mars back to earth possible

[@yoshisarethebomb]

Rich people ultimate plan 1. Pollute Earth for your own gain 2. Move to new planet while keeping the poor behind 3. Pollute that planet for your own gain again 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 indefinitely

[@maxrutc09]

A key motivator behind the Mars interest is the idea that 'we' haven't done anything since Apollo. However, probes, rovers and telescopes have significantly deepened our understanding of the universe since then. Apollo's anomalous nature is not widely understood - a manned moon landing was enormously more difficult than any prior space mission, but it was politically incentivised thus allocated massive resources. Furthermore, it was only capable of achieving its political goal and could not be adapted alternate/long-term applications. If you project the timeline of spaceflight up to and including Apollo, a Mars landing in the 80s/90s seems plausible. However, without Apollo the progress of spaceflight follows a much steadier progression-after several decades of long-term space inhabitation and unmanned research, the technology for 'proper' manned lunar exploration is almost there. I am often frustrated by the shadow of Apollo, as the very exciting projects occurring since then (Voyager, Juno, Hubble etc), seem relatively 'small fry'. The future space mission I am most interested in is Dragonfly, set to arrive in the Saturn system in 2038!

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

When asked by the government how much it would cost to put humans on the moon in a decade, James Webb asked his engineers to make a realistic assessment of the costs. He then took that number, doubled it, and that was the cost he presented to the congress. Wise guy.

[@StefanReich]

Well, and even Apollo didn't actually happen. No humans have set foot on any rock in space except earth yet.

[@colanoska]

@@StefanReich It did happen landing denier.

[@hermescarraro3393]

Mmmm. Yesss. That sounds great!

[@pearly1789]

@@StefanReich you can literally take a telescope and look at the lunar landing site ffs

[@ShieldAre]

My general position is that Mars is indeed like Antarctica. 1. Crewed scientific expeditions to Mars: Reasonably good idea. It is dangerous for the astronauts and fairly expensive, but there is only so much robots can do especially with the communication delay to Mars, and having actual humans there would be very useful for a lot of important scientific research. 2. Manned research station: Same as above, but with a more permanent presence. It can focus on research, including long-term research that a brief stay couldn't do, and it doesn't have to try to grow its own food and do other tasks that are far more difficult on Mars. 3. Huge colony: About as sensible as a huge colony on Antarctica. What would be the point of doing that when there are so many much better places to live? I do like the idea of one day having a Mars colony and working to terraform Mars. I don't want to reject that as a potential future goal for humankind. But it is basically impossible with current technology and we have far more urgent problems to solve, and we know they can actually be solved with reasonable effort. Also, in any case, surely we should first have a crewed research station for a while to learn a lot of important information about how exactly a larger colony and terraforming would work, and also discover reasons (e.g. rare minerals) for why we would want to have a colony in the first place. Moon colony instead of Mars is a good idea. Much easier to set up, much easier communications, much closer to resupply and return to Earth if something goes wrong. Much lower chance of people being doomed to live on the Moon for the rest of their life. Useful for further exploration of the solar system, for example by allowing for the construction of rockets that don't have to start out in Earth's deep gravity well. Possibly useful materials for things like fusion power. Maybe it could even become self-sufficient enough to fill the role of a "back-up" in case Earth undergoes some catastrophic event that takes a while to clear up.

[@ozmiumYT]

I'm inclined to agree with you. There is a lot to learn on Mars beyond just "unlivable rocks" that Adam seems to imply here. It could bring massive insights into a bunch of scientific fields, not just geology and astronomy. There's only so much that robots can do. Scientific Expeditions and temporary research outposts would be feasible in the near future, but those aren't intended to be permanent presences like a fully fledged colony. That being said, a *colony* is a little stupid for a very long time. I think there would be a benefit for long term presence against temporary expeditions, but they're vastly overshadowed by the problems that Adam goes over in the video. Maybe in the far future, but I think a colony should be relegated to science fiction for now. Sending scientists to Mars for the purposes you described is, in my opinion, a goal we should be reaching for in the coming decade. It's ambitious, but I wholeheartedly believe it'd be well worth it.

[@STG44musikmeister]

I agree a doing a moon research colony first would be a much better idea. Would provide much needed knowledge through experience which would make the prospect of a Mars colony a lot more feasible and safe when we get to it someday.

[@videomontaggenerator]

I think putting humans on Mars is great boost for science as whole. It is hard to get funding and attention when you don't have a "cool goal"(even fixing earth. Humans are stupid, yes) But, "Let's colonize Mars" is so "cool", mind grabbing idea, a "meme" in it's original definiton, that it can give science more money, attention and smart people (inspired kids, who want to study) that every other science branches will benefit. Also it will probably unite people and countries under common goal. And even if it will create competition, it will be healthy competition, not fucking war.

[@GuyJustCool]

I completely disagree, the primary goal of mars colony is solving the humanity’s scary potential of destroying itself. Moon will never be self-sufficient because of reasons upon reasons, i will not bother elaborating, its googlable. Simple version is: it doesn’t have enough resources and does not support terraforming, in case everything does go FUBAR on earth. So mars is first and best candidate as such backup plan. And you dont seem to understand the simple fact that humanity’s self-destruction is not an if. Its a when. We already have all the symptoms of a dying civilization: demographic pit, hedonistic lifestyles, huge wealth gap, disconnection of newer generations from basic understanding of the way world works, and dissolving of gender and social borders. On top of that we have two major superpowers duking it out by participating in smaller conflicts dially. Humans have still not figured out that war is bad, and we had millions of years for that. How do you expect earth to survive 21st? This colony is needed as a chance, and the faster it comes to life, the better.

[@videomontaggenerator]

Not saying "Colonizing Mars" is not stupid idea right now. But power of it is what make worth trying to do it

[@douglasphillips5870]

The one benefit of hype about a Mars colony is that it builds interest for the space infrastructure you would need for such a project, including space stations, and a moon base or two.

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

then they start to militarize the moon :/ i think we should just stay down here on earth till we figure out how not to kill each other...

[@florin-titusniculescu5871]

a bigger benefit would be honesty about goals , as 50 years ago when " we'll get to the Moon " actually meant exactly that , a tad later .

[@craigstephenson7676]

@@florin-titusniculescu5871 it wasnt a tad later Kennedy said before the decade was over the moon landings were on time

[@grahamstevenson1740]

There isn't going to be any space infrastructure. We can't even get Earth sorted despite knowing how to.

[@General12th]

@@megalonoobiacinc4863 I have a strong suspicion that learning how to live in space will be part of what helps us figure out how to not kill each other.

[@vVRichardVv]

"Its day 80 of the LiF/Ve On Mars reality show!" "James is black out drunk for the 76th consecutive day!" MF kept his cool for 4 fucking days

[@manospondylus]

The movie Total Recall I feel showed pretty well why a privately owned Mars colony is so attractive for a crazy billionaire: If you own something as essential as the air that your inhabitants/employees need to breathe, you can exercise almost absolute power with no consequences. In the movie the colonists were only able to topple Cohaagen because they found an almost magic alien terraforming device, which would not be an option in real life.

[@sgbench]

I don't think Musk envisions a privately owned Mars colony. He's consistently expressed the opinion that direct democracy would be its ideal form of government.

[@jacksonkisling1684]

I was one of the top 1000 contestants in Mars One, made it to the top 650 or so as people dropped out. At the time of my selection, I did not even have a bachelor's degree! I made what (at least I thought) was a funny application video, and I was in! It was actually a really fun experience, getting to know misanthropic geeks from all over the world. Honestly I was relieved at being bounced after the quiz show-like interview with Norbert Kraft. Everything Adam says about them is true, and I agree that colonizing Mars in particular is pointless and unworkable, at least at our current level of technology. There's no reason to go there with people. Our squishy human bodies are barely adapted to our home planet.

[@a.p.2356]

Another point in favor of the moon vs mars as a potential colony site: while the martian atmosphere is too thin to do much of anything useful (like, ya know, blocking meteorites or keeping you alive), it *is* thick enough to be a problem. Wind storms and dust accumulation would be serious problems for a martian colony, both of which would be completely eliminated on the moon. Really, the only thing mars has going for it is its greater gravity, and the fact that we are much more interested in studying whether it had live at some point. Which, incidentally, is a downside of the stupid mars colony idea: planetary contamination. No one is going to be able to step foot on Mars until we're very, very confident that life does not exist there. A huge amount of effort is expended trying to avoid contaminating possible alien worlds with terrestrial microbes, and there's simply no way to send a human without contaminating the shit out of everything in the area. The moon is a lifeless rock, so there's no need to worry about that. You could shit and piss on whatever you wanted on the moon, and no one would care.

[@kabobawsome]

Love to bring back the ultra-deadly mega-viral Mars Plauge.

[@rfw204]

*goes to drop a hot deuce on the apollo 11 lander*

[@KuroiReaper]

Nah you missed most important point why is Mars being main focus and not the Moon. On Mars you can make fuel for rockets you dont need to bring it for return trip.

[@HaganeNoGijutsushi]

@@KuroiReaper you can do that on the Moon too, there should be ice underground in some areas.

[@antonpershin998]

Lunar dust can levitate.

[@LaraPosting]

Terraforming the Sahara would be unironically an ecological disaster

[@samr.england613]

It definitely would be an ecological disaster, but, what do you mean by "unironically"?

[@JOZiable]

Elon: "We've got to escape to mars to escape overpopulation and pollution" Also Elon: "We need to have more babies and environmental standards are bullshit"

[@theagemaway]

I don't know where you're getting this from, Elon has reiterated over and over that Mars is not an "escape", it's a second base to help ensure the survival of the human species.

[@lj2265]

He really just wants a disposable planet to use up and throw away. That trope about invasive parasite aliens that basically do the same thing is Elon Musk in a nutshell. That is the kind of spacefaring society we should avoid creating. If we do, literally every other species in the universe would be better off making sure we never come anywhere near them lol

[@arronalt]

@@theagemaway he could put it on the moon not mars

[@breznknedl]

@@arronalt he should fly himself to mars so we can cut his supplies and are finally free of these "inventions"

[@dentonholmgren4886]

@@arronalt you could probably even do both

[@atrus3823]

To add to the point about "overpopulation" (ignoring all the troubling implications that come with the whole concept), population growth is kind of like traffic: you don't fix it by increasing capacity. If we could get a sustainable colony going on Mars, that would just move some of the current population while actually accelerated overall growth. Once Earth is back to its current population, we'll just be right back where we were, but with an exploding population on Mars 🏆

[@jakemon4550]

Elon never said he was using mars as a way to fight over population, that is just being mis-implied by adam. Elon just had an interview where he said the earth can easily support more humans. Elons main reasoning for going to mars is because one day, either by a rock smashing into earth, or a super volcano erupting, all large life forms on earth will go extinct, like they have many times before. If we have a self sustaining colony on mars than at least a portion of humanity will live on. Elon has already said many times it has nothing to do with climate change or over population

[@DudokX]

We need parental procreation permits bing chilling

[@reneharkamp4309]

SO at last we will have a space war.... BUILD A WALL no return tickets for them

[@leonstansfield]

no-one in any space exploration seriously thinks space exploration is a fix for overpopulation.

[@nathaniellindner313]

Right, high living densities in Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands in the Renaissance didn't cause Rotterdam or Barcelona to depopulate themselves or even really impact the size of their families when they established New World colonies; it's crazy to think that something like that would happen with a Mars base. High population might motivate individuals to want to leave, but even if we could throw up a perfectly viable colony that could fit a million people on it tomorrow, it wouldn't really change Earth demographics on more than a microscopic level.

[@theexam7394]

11:28 Little note for those not in the know: Terraforming the *entire* Sahara is a dangerous idea in itself already. Equatorial winds regularly carry mineral dusts across the ocean from the Sahara to the Amazon; apparently those dusts are crucial for maintaining the ecosystem of South America's famed jungle as they can serve as fertilizer. Terraforming the entire Sahara would surely affect this, potentially even making the situation in the Amazon worse than it already is. Edit: In case it isn't obvious, what I said is of course a simplification. Being accurate such as by referencing numerous scientific articles is going to make my simple *YT comment* look like a bible. That said, just search up related articles by yourselves if you wanna learn more of this system.

[@256shadesofgrey]

Exactly. And this is not the only negative side effect this might have. Practicing terraforming on earth would mean potentially destroying habitable places. On mars nobody would care, so we could experiment with no negative consequences.

[@ValkisCalmor]

Right, not to mention even the Sahara has uniquely adapted organisms that you'd be wiping out and other, less extreme deserts are actually pretty diverse. Ideally terraforming Earth would mean putting things back the way they were before we screwed them up, so the Amazon is a much better example. Then again most of the damage to the Amazon is simply clearing it for land usage, so I don't think they'll be wanting to put that back any time soon.

[@kingslushie1018]

I actually knew this,, thanks weather and climate class!

[@novastar6112]

Today I fucking learned that a fucking megadesert feeds the fucking megajungle because fucking winds are a fucking thing. Fuck.

[@sicksock435446]

The amount of Saharan dust that reaches the amazon each year is negligible. Researchers estimated 20 tonnes per year, which is an unbelievably small amount given the over 6 million square kilometers of amazon. The story got picked up by pop science writers though so the myth of the sahara nourishing the amazon was born.

[@FeedMeSalt]

The man couldn't handle twitter and blew it up trying to take it "premium" And we expect him to actually provide anything of value to a mars mission?

[@MegaphoneMan0]

Moon first makes SO MUCH SENSE. It has practically all of the "benefits" of mars (ie doing stuff too dangerous or impractical to do on earth) with very little of the downside. It makes no sense that we would go to mars first. I think it's not thought of because it's harder to imagine terraforming it, but as you pointed out, we basically can't terraform mars, so, kind of moot.

[@HaganeNoGijutsushi]

Not to mention, it works as a better launchpad TO Mars.

[@writershard5065]

Isn't that what NASA is doing? I'm finding it surprising that no one in the comments is talking about Project Artemis.

[@siyasithole7995]

@@writershard5065 same isn't that the whole point of the Artemis program while space x is entirely focused on Mars Nasa is focused on the moon

[@SkinpShorts]

Clearly have no idea what your talking about, video creator included, they are literally doing moon base as we speak. The long term goal is Mars.

[@siyasithole7995]

@@SkinpShorts we should also consider Venus

[@TheKrstff]

The number one problem no one ever mentions about colonizing Mars is gravity. Every other problem we could theoretically fix. Air, food, water, etc. But there is no way to overcome the 38% of Earth gravity you'll find on Mars. Any long term habitant will suffer from bone and muscle loss, along with a whole host of other conditions we don't even know about yet.

[@HicSvntDracones]

Lets not forget the crazy amount of poisonous perchlorates in the regolith... say goodbye to veggies grown in Martian soil, or ever bringing your spacesuit inside.

[@TheKrstff]

@@HicSvntDracones Perchlorates can be removed from Martian soil by running water through it since perchlorates dissolve in water. There are even processes for removing perchlorates from water. Most of those processes produce oxygen as a byproduct actually. So cleaning the soil for farming could result in oxygen production, which can be used to either make more water, or provide oxygen for plants.

[@jingus59]

This is why we need venus sky colonies

[@arekka4440]

I don't view Mars as a planet we could someday call home, but as a way to know how to do it right next time.

[@dumpsterfire4269]

@@HicSvntDracones Martian soil is 0.6% Perchlorates according to NASA's wet chemical analysis with the Curiousity rover. Veggies on average absorb around 2-3mg of Perchlorates assuming it was grown with martian soil, that is well below lethal levels, a study showed a subject that consumed 35mg of Perchlorates for about 18 months and the subject was well and healthy. So inconclusion, perchlorates in our food would be the least of our problems in our possible journey to mars.

[@pigking188]

I find the idea of Mars being some kind of failsafe hilarious. Like even the absolute worst case scenario climate disaster/nuclear war/zombie apocalypse scenario on earth would still be millions of times more habitable than Mars.

[@igvc1876]

it's not about being more habitable - it's about reducing chance of mass extinction by spreading humanity across multiple planets. Being on one planet is inherently more risky - it's as close to "putting all your eggs in one basket" as you can get for that analogy. An asteroid not much bigger than what killed dinosaurs will kill all humanity in one fell swoop.

[@lubieplacki2772]

@@igvc1876 Why would anyone spread humanity and DNA that comes with us?

[@lsfornells]

@@igvc1876 Now read what you just wrote and think again. Particularly consider a time for that to be possible, like keeping human life sustainable on Mars (or the moon) AFTER human life on earth have disappeared.

[@igvc1876]

@@lubieplacki2772 you don't want humanity to persist?

[@theBrid-gv8je]

@@igvc1876 I think making a big missile that shoots asteroids would be far easier than living in Mars honestly

[@cleberva]

I remember learning about the Mars One project in elementary school, we had questions like: Would you consider living on Mars without the possibility of coming back to Earth? I just thought it was crazy that people were willing to throw their life away for some crazy, destined-to-fail, Mars project It makes me a little happy that they went bankrupt

[@Lena-xz1xw]

Also for a Mars colony to make sense from an "escaping from climate change" pov, we'd have to destroy the earth's climate like... a lot. I think even with floods and pollution it's gonna be cozier on earth than on fricking Mars.

[@johnstrawb3521]

@Lena Sounds about right. Earth's atmosphere would have to be literally unbreathable for Mars to even conceivably be your preferred alternative. And even then, finding / creating enough oxygen on Earth to breathe would probably be a better bet than doing so on Mars.

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

I agree. I will never leave this beautiful blue and green planet that literally has everything we need to survive and prosper. No way, doesn't make sense. Imagine the mental toll of looking out and seeing desert. Not for me

[@jensenraylight8011]

@@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky dude, if everyone have the same mindset as you, we probably still live in a Cave and fetching water from the river, probably eaten by the bear at the way home. you can use internet and access youtube today because someone who you called an idiot in the past actually have the guts to change the world. nobody asking you any money or any brainpower, you owe nothing. they are the one who use their own money from their own pocket to actually do something about it. you have no right to insult someone, because you didn't took any world changing action in your lifetime

[@bear532]

even if earth’s atmosphere becomes completely deadly, it would still be easier to revert earth’s atmosphere than colonize mars. As long as earth has a magnetic field it will always be the easiest planet in our solar system to live on.

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

@@bear532 Agreed. We're not going anywhere. This is all just a publicity stunt by Elon. He'd be the last person to leave because he knows how stupid this is. It's funny, going through these comments, quite a few NASA engineers must be here because everyone has the answer of how to exist on Mars. Hahahahaha, maybe NASA will start recruiting from the YT comment section 🤣🤣

[@HladniSjeverniVjetar]

I support SpaceX and Elon fully, i hope he starts shipping as much people as he can as soon as he can. The life will be really nice here on Earth.

[@blyatman5891]

Had me in the first half, not gonna lie.

[@PikaRaichupikapika]

We need one way rockets to Mars with false promises of food and water only enough food water and oxygen to get there and false promises to bring more resources soon after the rocket leaves earth so they have constant supply

[@flow185]

Same I support them a lot. I can't wait til they finish and go first

[@ChrisJohnson-yw2ky]

Elon knows it's a stupid idea, that's what makes this whole thing hilarious. His end goal must be to ship people off of Earth

[@dodo_solj]

The top 1% might as well be the test subjects

[@PalmelaHanderson]

I remember reading that the thrust required to propel the helicarrier from the Avengers would basically annihilate everything it flew over. The only way an airborne aircraft/troop transport could ever work physically would be to make it orbital, which would of course make getting material to/from it ridiculously expensive. I'm surprised we haven't heard of a billionaire trying to build a helicarrier yet, anyway.

[@carlosjavierpalacios6194]

because even in the movie it got destroyed half an hour later after his introduction and they never revisited the concept again, proving that even the writers knew it was a dead end

[@alexpkeaton4471]

It would probably be a bit difficult to just stand there on deck too. "Stand on a helicarrier" is probably a common superpower in the MCU.

[@wuugaa6776]

You could also just build a lighter than air vehicle, like those two carrier airships the US had in the interwar years

[@PalmelaHanderson]

@@alexpkeaton4471 I hadn't thought of that, that's also a good point.

[@userofthetube2701]

It can work as an airship, which was actually already done in the 1930's. Look up USS Akron and USS Macon. They were not very successful as both were lost due to bad weather, but they certainly proved that the concept is possible, although pretty useless in practice.

[@bigwheelsturning]

First you have to make a "launch platform" that can be used more than once. And not have it damage the rocket when it takes off as it explodes in a shower of concrete chunks.

[@samr.england613]

Haha!

[@plucas1]

Even an Earth suffering through the worst case scenarios of current climate change models would still be far more habitable than Mars, so the 'planet B'rationalization has always been extremely stupid.

[@beegyyoshi]

what about asteroid impacts, he forgot talk about those or maybe nuclear war. that's what it is the plan b for, asteroids can be seriously damaging.

[@shminz6093]

As I have understood it, the planet B idea is about ensuring humanity survives in the event of an Earth impact event (XL asteroid). But I agree, I've heard people arguing for it as a backup for climate change, even though worst case scenario climate future, quality of life on Earth is so obviously waaayyyy better than it could be anywhere else. Humanity is guaranteed to survive on Earth no matter how much we abuse it (millions/billions will die but not everyone), but a big enough impactor could end humanity if we don't have a sustainable, large population elsewhere

[@pinkman4928]

@@beegyyoshi what about that shit happening, but on MARS

[@beegyyoshi]

@@pinkman4928 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnyqq5mmlq-ZeNE

[@teecee1827]

@@beegyyoshi even the worse volcanic eruptions would still leave earth more livable than Mars. The only thing that would make it less vivable would be global thermonuclear war or a sudden supernova flare.

[@AreaNeofob]

If we actually had the technology to terraform Mars or the moon, that technology probably could be used to fix all climate problems here on Earth. It seems reasonable to think that it's way easier to fix a planet that actually already can sustain the life that exists there than a planet that has no current chance to do thay whatsoever.

[@pedrolmlkzk]

It's far easier to hit a 10% margin to be considered habitable than to justify using 10x the energy we used in the last 10 years for a 1% change in the climate of the planet

[@zinjanthropus322]

There's nothing wrong with earth. There is however something wrong with humans that no amount of resources can fix. Moving offworld reduces the chances of us wiping all of us out in a single go.

[@capnsteele3365]

@@pedrolmlkzk we dont need anything more than the moon. fuck the rest of space

[@ethanwhitehead2085]

I would rather experiment on a dead planet and figure it out there than mess with the only one we can currently live on.

[@nutyyyy]

Or you could do both. That is an option and is ultimately going to be. I doubt in 10,000 years time humanity is just going to have sat on earth and not went out into space. People might not even live up there it really depends if our population continues to grow or not, but you can bet the resources will be used.

[@atomf9143]

If we figure out fusion, a moon colony may actually be a lucrative idea. The moon contains a lot of hydrogen and helium isotopes that are much rarer/harder to produce on Earth, so a mining colony might not be a horrible idea.

[@HANKTHEDANKEST]

I think that's exactly what's going to happen--the world is going to find itself in need of LOTS of He3, and the moon is basically made of it lol. The moon is the only thing that makes sense--it's not a stupid "LOOK WHAT WE CAN DO!"-thing, it's an actual thing we can do in the near-term that *makes sense* because it'll make a lot of money.

[@KingThrillgore]

This is actually part of the plot for the movie "Moon"

[@artydean9892]

Helium 3

[@jolonghthong]

@@KingThrillgore omg GREAT movie

[@eirikarnesen9691]

a moon base is primarily valuable as a pit stop for space mining. the low gravity makes it easier to refine the matterials before they are sendt to earth. its a place to refuel and dump cargo. the moon base is coming, in the next 50 years or so. we do need space mining to survive as a civillization

[@marvinschneider7981]

The National Geographic's docudrama series Mars, as pointed out by Murlidhar Aher, is a way to see this whole hypothesis. Furthermore, as pointed by ninjaswordtothehead, the idea of uber-rich people trying to escape a problem they created, journeing through space to a red, dusty, radioactive, harsh rock only to find themselves in an unimaginable hell where they would be eaten away by cancer in a utterly miserable death, die of miscelaneous and trivial accidents or phenomena, or outright kill eachother is indeed greatly endeering. You go there, Felon Musk!