Science Forums 2

[Moontanman]

Originally Posted by dcmike

In answer to the critics on the obviously distant time frame and complication of terraforming Mars I say:

Man has been on a loooong journey from our beginnings in the oceans to where we are now. "We" obviously worked our way up on land because the only life form that was safe in the oceans then was kelp {kelp now fears only the Japanese!) - everything else was a predator! The marine environment is the most violent and hazardous place I know of on this planet.

We did this over millions of years and the next escape might take thousands, but patience always wins - if we don't destroy the planet first. As the Sun heats up and enlarges to ultimately fry us like an omlet, Mars may buy us a few thousand years - if we start now in our efforts to "fertilize" it. If we don't we are surely doomed. If we survive long enough to reside on Mars as residents (no green card)our technology will be advanced to the point that we may be on the horizon of discovering ways to travel fast enough to seek out the many possibilities that surely exist in the vast universe.

ON THE DOWN SIDE:
1 - I ponder that we (humans) are literally tailored to this planet and may be doomed with it. Our bodies need salt because of our origins in the sea, minerals, calcium etc. Although we are fabricated of the five most common elements in the universe we may not be able to adapt and evolve quickly enough to inhabit a new world.

2- If a new world were already inhabited we would be as welcome as the Haitian boat people were in the eighties, or even considered so below them they would "welcome" us as nearly slave labor like we Americans do with the Mexicans. There's always hope. Maybe with our quaint ways some of us could do something "Earthy" like play guitar, and be an exception like Carlos Santana is here!

3- In view of the way we have conquered, enslaved and even destroyed what we considered lower forms - even of our own species - maybe we should reconsider transmitting radio signals into space that say "here we are!" We have no way of knowing how good we may taste to them!!

Way before we are able to colonise other planets we will be able to make orbiting colonies like the O'Neil cylinders. these large orbiting colonies will make the need for planets obsolet. Once we are able to build these colonies the way we build manufactured housing now we can build hundreds of thousands if not millions and slowly spread through out the galaxy. Only using planetary systems for raw materials and leaving the planets alone.