/sci/ - Science & Math

>>9609789
Mars is not moving closer to the Sun.
Gravity pulls, yes, but Mars is in an orbit around the Sun. It's not going to fall in any more than the Moon is going to smash down on the Earth.

The "habitable zone" is moving outwards because the Sun is slowly brightening. Very slowly. Probably another billion years or so before Mars would see real improvement.

>>9609789
>>9609793
Also it would take 100,000 years to fully terraform Mars into a Earth-like planet, at the minimum. Unless you have life extension or backups then you're next going to live to see the fruits of your labors.

>>9609837
Maybe 10,000 -- but what's that against a billion?
I don't think our society would undertake such a long term project but there have been others who might have. The Japanese have a saying on the order of "What does it matter if the journey will take 1000 years and we won't see the end? What's important is that we take a few steps. Banzai!"

Who would set off on an interstellar generation ship?
We know we're all going to die. Might as well do something useful with your life. Leave the world a better place for the next generation.

>>9609868
>Leave the world a better place for the next generation.
Cuck

Youre probably one of them, but there is no better world for millenials. Its fucking ruined

>>9609885
Fuck the millenials, I want the generation after them to have a better life.

>>9609789
Mars is actually within the habitable zone, the problem is that just being in the zone doesn't make the planet habitable, it just means that liquid water could exist in the surface.
The problem with Mars is the weak magnetic field that led to the loss of most of the atmosphere.

I personally like the L1 Sun shade option for fixing this problem for colonizing Mars.

>>9609837
>terraform Mars

>>9609789
>>9609793
>>9609837
>>9609868
>>9609885
>>9609919
>>9609926
>>9609945
>terraforming planets
If you're planning on colonizing mars, you probably have the resources and technology to build rotating habitats with whatever tailor made conditions that you want. Mars wouldn't be a place to colonize and make a home out of but rather the equivalent of a giant lumber yard

>>9609957
Of course.

>>9609926
Adding a field isn't enough. The gravity well is still too shallow. The atmosphere will bleed away, though maybe slowly enough to make the project worthwhile.

>>9609945
If you envision us being capable of moving planets and doing it gently so we don't just wind up with another asteroid belt. Rocket engines need not apply.), I'm sure there are other projects more worthwhile. Moving Venus outwards and giving it a decent spin, for example.

>>9609957 is probably right. Mars really doesn't have that much to offer. Iron and heavy metals are available from asteroids (and without a bothersome gravity well) and water and light elements from the moons of the outer planets.

None of those prospects are on the immediate horizon. Bulk transport of material will require either nuclear (fusion?) rockets or monster solar sails (and maybe mass drivers.) A load or ore might take years to arrive at a building site, but that doesn't matter as long as you plan well in advance.

>>9609996
>If you envision us being capable

Of course not. That is why all that was written. To show the absurdity of it all.

>>9609837
Just set up some green house gas emitting systems there.
At the rate climate change apparently effects Earth we could melt Mars ice caps within 10 years and have it habitable.

>>9609945
How about we areoform humans instead?
Much easier than moving asteroids, moons and planets and shit? There are so many other options. Whatever the goal is, bear in mind, everyone alive today will be dead, and the people, or machines, or, any other form of being, that permanently calls Mars home can be MADE to live there. Not only to survive, but to thrive on what is available.

It doesn't mean we don't have to change Mars, but it does mean that we can also change ourselves (theirselves) and that we can do both simultaneously; as we make Mars more suitable for life from Earth, we also make life from Earth more suitable for Mars.

>>9610044
>turn people into not-people

You think race relations are bad? Wait till you have people who don't look human or don't even have 90%+ human DNA.

>>9610005
More absurd things have already happened.
And will continue to happen, given time.

>>9610054
Who cares about race relations?
The struggle between different forms of life is what leads to the development of said life, on every scale.