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Originally Posted by BlameTheEx
There are a number of problems.
Lets assume Mars as the choice for colonisation
1) Escaping the earths surface.
Only an electromagnetic cannon will boost that sort of total tonnage into space cheaply enough. Think of one 100's of kilometres long if you want you colonists to arrive in any sort of shape. Otherwise the acceleration would be too high.
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Good idea, I believe it could be possible to in some cases replace rockets with electromagnetic cannons or rails. they have to be pretty powerful though.
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2) Transfer to mars.
Solar powered ion drive. This is the easy bit.
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Relatively easy anyway. I agree with ion propulsion, since it's more efficient. I would like to use chemical rocketboosters to kick the ship out of Earth orbit though.
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3) Land on mars.
That was easy. You just drop. Too bad it was with a bit of a hard landing, but parachutes don't work that well with so little atmosphere.
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Parachutes do work well, but it's not enough. Reverse thrusters would need to be used, and for some cargo perhaps airbags as well?
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Ok we got there. Now how do we make a living? No air, no food, and lots of hard radiation. Oh, its bloody cold too. It would be a high tech life. Living in underground bomb shelters to avoid the radiation. Operating machines, and digging for raw materials. Hydroponics for food. Your typical martian colonist will probably be agoraphobic and short sighted from living underground. Mars is a post apocalypse world, and yet it is still the best option after earth.
Of course there is the hope of teraforming mars within a few thousand years, but long before that the colonists will have adapted to being troglodytes and won't want to.
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Obviously we would have to solve most of the problems before going there, such as how to make the colony selfsustaining regarding the air and food. I don't think it would have to be necessary to live underground though, it might be enough to develop better radiation shielding and combine it by covering the modules with dust.
As for terraforming Mars, I am definitely for it. How it would happen, and how fast, is the question. Could it perhaps be done by placing out smaller oasis...es and make it in smaller steps? Or would it be a better idea to do the whole planet at once?
