One way ticket to Mars...for real

[LongBlade]

Geeze, if I wanted to live on a planet of rock and dust for the rest of my life, I'd rather move to New Mexico or Nevada.

It's obviously worse than that. On Earth the desert, hostile as it is, still has an environment capable of supporting life. Maybe you die of dehydration in three days, but that's three days to try and sort things out. On Mars there is nothing. You leave the colony without a space suit and you're a goner. I'm all for exploring other planets, but I don't think I'm ready to have a one-way ticket to a lifeless, barren world where I'm wholly dependent on everything in my shelter working 100% all the time.

[bayonetbrant]

is it just me, or does she not kinda look like Sarah Palin?

nah, that's Tina Fey

[bayonetbrant]

I've always been a firm believer that a moon colony and/or Mars colony is just too easy if all you do is "brute force" it.

You shoot up about 10-12 rockets, each with a "tube" module that's designed to parachute to the surface, and you aim them all to land w/in a mile or so of each other.  Each tube is a 'mini-station' that contains 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a common room, and 2 'flex' rooms, as well as 2-3 airlocks.  The 'flex' rooms you configure as medical rooms, workshops, labs, food storage / hydroponic gardens, etc. 
In every one of them, you fill every available nook and cranny with any/all things you can think of to take: solar panels, extra clothes/linens, moisture condensers, toolboxes, books, batteries, a guitar (and LOTS of extra strings) - remember you can't 'go back' for it.
In every other one, you stash a 4-wheeler in there somewhere, with tow cables and some sort of scraper blades / forklifts.

You launch a full wave of these things and get them on the ground before you ever send a single person up there.  That way you can confirm how many of them landed, and how close they are, and how intact they are, before you start sending people up after them. 

Assuming a 50% survival rate for the modules to land intact and habitable, you've now got 5-6 modules to pull together into a small compound that can house about 15-20 people (assuming some double up on rooms), 10 or big rooms for working, a few external storage bldgs you can throw together quickly, and a shit-ton of supplies.

You just use the 4-wheelers to pull the nearest 2 tubes together as the initial 'base' until you can pull the rest of them to each other and start hooking them together.

When you launch your people, you also launch an extra 4-8 more tubes, and send up a new one every so often with supplies.  Every new tube that gets sent up becomes another link in the compound on the ground up there that you can continue to add to the overall station. 


Use a moon base as a test of the concept before launching to Mars.  It's not hard - it's just pure brute force.  Send up waaaaaay more than you need to ensure you get a minimum amount to stay put for a while.  Anything extra that survives just helps you extend your stay.  But get the groundwork laid before any people head up there.

[Centurion40]

The aliens will never let any of this happen!   ;)

[MetalDog]

I've always been a firm believer that a moon colony and/or Mars colony is just too easy if all you do is "brute force" it.

You shoot up about 10-12 rockets, each with a "tube" module that's designed to parachute to the surface, and you aim them all to land w/in a mile or so of each other.  Each tube is a 'mini-station' that contains 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a common room, and 2 'flex' rooms, as well as 2-3 airlocks.  The 'flex' rooms you configure as medical rooms, workshops, labs, food storage / hydroponic gardens, etc. 
In every one of them, you fill every available nook and cranny with any/all things you can think of to take: solar panels, extra clothes/linens, moisture condensers, toolboxes, books, batteries, a guitar (and LOTS of extra strings) - remember you can't 'go back' for it.
In every other one, you stash a 4-wheeler in there somewhere, with tow cables and some sort of scraper blades / forklifts.

You launch a full wave of these things and get them on the ground before you ever send a single person up there.  That way you can confirm how many of them landed, and how close they are, and how intact they are, before you start sending people up after them. 

Assuming a 50% survival rate for the modules to land intact and habitable, you've now got 5-6 modules to pull together into a small compound that can house about 15-20 people (assuming some double up on rooms), 10 or big rooms for working, a few external storage bldgs you can throw together quickly, and a shit-ton of supplies.

You just use the 4-wheelers to pull the nearest 2 tubes together as the initial 'base' until you can pull the rest of them to each other and start hooking them together.

When you launch your people, you also launch an extra 4-8 more tubes, and send up a new one every so often with supplies.  Every new tube that gets sent up becomes another link in the compound on the ground up there that you can continue to add to the overall station. 


Use a moon base as a test of the concept before launching to Mars.  It's not hard - it's just pure brute force.  Send up waaaaaay more than you need to ensure you get a minimum amount to stay put for a while.  Anything extra that survives just helps you extend your stay.  But get the groundwork laid before any people head up there.

That's a great idea, Brant!  I would LOVE to see humanity start expanding to the stars.  It's going to have to be baby steps first and what better place to practice than the moon.