Randall Parker at Future Pundit has a very good point.
So good, in fact, that I’m going to have to agree with him.
We need to think about every move in the direction of Mars with one priority above all others: accumulation of technology and infrastructure that will create the conditions to allow permanent human habitation. A trip to Mars in the style of the Apollo Moon landings is not a step in the direction of permanent habitation. Rather it would be a huge waste of money that could have been spent laying the groundwork for permanent habitation.
So what do we need to do? Develop robots that can go to Mars ahead of us, work for many years unassisted, and build up infrastructure to support humans. Here’s the real kicker: we should not send our first humans to Mars until we’ve accumulated enough robots on Mars to justify a trip by robot repair techs and heavy equipment maintenance specialists. Yes, mechanics and repair techs should be the first humans to visit Mars.
Let the machines that aren’t so environmentally needy go first and set us up some living spaces and then go there when they need service or conditions are more likely for success.
And if the Dems have their way, they’ll be unionized robot repairmen!
Mars is not a good place to start a colony. The lack of magneto sphere or planetary magnetic field, only 1% of earths atmosphere and that CO2 makes the radiation hazard on the surface nearly a place that will kill humans in a very short time. Planetary, cosmic and sun based rads hit the surface and no amount of movable shielding will keep a person safe for very long. The only thing that humans could do is dig, dig deep and stay there. Not something that will attract many people and those that do go are not going to enjoy good mental health for long living like critters in a burrow.
As long as it’s done by private industry, and doesn’t waste trillions of taxpayer dollars.
We live in a country where we can’t even get a mile of extra lane added to a highway with less than 50% graft. Graft and fraud will always exceed the maximum conceivable amount of graft and fraud. Since the maximumfor space exploration is 100%, there will never be any government funding that actually supports going to Mars.
If we were serious about putting a colony on Mars, we’d be building a colony on the Moon RIGHT NOW to learn what works and what does not work. We still do not know how to build a closed cycle ecosystem to keep life support going without having to have massive injections of fresh air, water, and food.
The Moon is only 3 days away if anything goes drastically wrong.
In either case, humans will have to dig in deep to minimize radiation exposure. Most of the time they will not be out on the surface, but sitting at a console operating drones.