In this video Matt O’Dowd from PBS Space
Time talks about the upcoming human missions to Mars. He presents many
difficulties, that we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars. These range
from creating self-sustaining life support system, interplanetary
transportation and economical affordability.
Questions:
1.
When do you think we will send
first humans to Mars?
2.
Who will send humans to Mars,
corporates or countries?
3.
What is the greatest obstacle
we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
Comments
2. Hard to tell, but I think establishing such a new and advanced settlement will also require a new level of cooperation between people there and on Earth. Maybe a new social model will emerge from this and for sure it will be quite a challenge.
3. I'm not a scientist, so no point to state one obstacle arbitrarily. However, if I generalize a bit I think it is a life support system.
I think that private companies like SpaceX will become pioneers in sending human colonies to Mars. They simply have more ambitions and interests in space exploration. Not every country wants and ready to spend millions of dollars on space programs. Maybe China is an exception here. As far as I know, Chinese government recently started to invest a lot of money in their space program and now China is one of the leading countries in that area.
Maybe lack of resources is the greatest problem in Mars colonization, but I'm not sure. As I mentioned earlier, we don't have much experience in it. It probably will be a long path of trials and errors for us to become better in understanding how to build martian colonies and sustain them.
My answer to the second question is connected with the previous sentence. I think that corporates have bigger chances to achieve such great success. For example, Elon's corporation SpaceX is growing fast and doing things which are impossible for countries mainly because of lack of money.
In my opinion, the greatest obstacle to overcome in order to colonize Mars is tough terrain.
I think that the biggest obstacle we have to overcome is the problem of self sustainability. There may be some concepts that look good on paper but so far we haven't been able to conduct our life on Earth in such a way that is not wasteful and damaging. Otherwise, we wouldn't have to think about colonizing Mars in the first place!
I think they will be corporations such as SpaceX. I think that countries will be delayed even 10 years for corporations.
The biggest obstacle is certainly survival in a different atmosphere. There are many obstacles we do not know about. I think that preparing special suits, preparing a rocket for the star and preparing supplies (e.g. how much we have to take food or what special things we need to take) are basic problems. We do not know what can happen during the flight or on Mars.
I think there should be a good reason for investors to do something like invest in this field , Base on current situation of earth, it will happen to next 15-20 years ,
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
both will do, we had similar situation in past between Soviet and united states for Human transmission to space.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
Create Earth-like atmospheric conditions for people who want to live on Mars.
Martian Gravity is also a major problem.
In my opinion, these days the technology, science and development is on such A high level, that travels between planets is only a matter of several years and few more experiments. Of course I understand how complicated a process it is, but I believe achievements of our civilization speak for themselves and prove that for human there is nothing impossible.
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
Even now, we can notice, that in the race of sending people into space, the most serious contestants are countries, not corporates. Maybe it is because such achievements are mostly assigned to a nation as evidence, we can point out that for most of the space achievements the responsible organization was NASA and the National Space Program in the U.S.S.R. Only recently has it begun to attract corporations as well, most known of them being SpaceX.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
In the film we could notice many obstacles on the way to colonize Mars, but I also observe that creators have analyzed deeply every aspect, and found some solutions to this problem ( even though for now it is mostly theory ).
2. SpaceX will be the first to go, as this flight is already planned for the end of 2019. Who will be next? Most likely if the flight will be successful, then the countries will be preparing an expedition.
3. One of the obstacles is weather cataclysms, for example sandstorms that can’t be prevented and it is not clear how deadly they can become. And in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to colonization of people is possible evolution. If we are talking about colonization, then most likely we are assuming the birth of a new generation on Mars. Even if a healthy child is born in the absence of sufficient medical care, it is possible that from the time of birth and from generation to generation it can undergo physiological changes that promote life on Mars. It is not excluded that we can initialize creation of a new race - "Marsians".
It’s really hard to say, it depends on a few circumstances, but if we do that it will be a milestone in astronomy. I like Elon Musk, but i’m a bit sceptical about his SpaceX idea. I don’t believe he will be able to do it within 10 years, mostly because we’re not ready for it.
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
I think that countries don’t have business in it, so the only possible way they will do is the danger of a global cataclysm. Otherwise corporates will deal with sending for money and marketing of course. Maybe we will see Mars colony called RedBull.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
Actually i don’t see the reasons why we should do it and the greatest obstacle is obviously technology. As we can see in this video the project of Mars colony is more like film scenography than a place I want to live with my family. But for a week-long vacation why not.
As for Mars, it's probably very difficult, but I still think that sooner or later it will be, but it does not matter. If someone ever waits on Mars, I think it's the first time a corporation will do it, and then it's probably going to be jointly colonizing Mars.
As for the third question, perhaps the most difficult will be to create a living environment for people and maintain this environment, I mean air, water and so on. The supply and constant supply of which will be the interruption, whether Mars would be colonized or no.
Also about surviving, I have heard that exist project that develop method in witch we can try to create atmosphere on Mars but I'm not sure how good this idea because mass of Mars smaller then Earth.
In my opinion, first human mission on mars should be created and performed by the alliance of most advanced in space technology countries in our world. Of course, they will probably use a lot of stuff from private companies, but I think it will be better, if such big success will be achieved by many countries rather than companies.
I think that biggest obstacle in colonizing mars is its atmosphere and bad conditions on its surface. However, these problems aren't impossible to overcome. As far as I know, a lot of them have been already solved.
I think that I exhausted a answer for the second question but I can add that I always thought that only NASA has possibility to send humans to space but now I see that SpaceX is much more closer to win in this race.
I feel that the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars is fact that now we don't have such rockets which could fly back and there many times. It is very expensive and by the time rockets are single-use we won't be able to colonize Mars.
I think there is no such thing as "the biggest obstacle". There are some issues that we need to face and there is no priority. One of those things is the distance between Earth and Mars. Another one is a lack of water on Mars and so on... Until all of these problems won't be solved we can't send anyone for such a mission.
2. I think that, countries have similar budget as companies, but countries have to spend money for the other matters, and that's why the first colony, which will be on Mars, will be from company.
3. For sure, the greatest obstacle will be the weather conditions and possibility of the respiration. If we resolve these two problems, we will colonize.
It's another planet and we need to be sure that is place where humans can live.
Elon Musk and his SpaceX opened up my mind on space travels and I think he will colonize Mars, before his project I didn't thought that is possible in my live.
In my opinion the biggest obstacle is money because space travels are very expensive. Even if it's possible to live there we need find better way to get there.
2. At first I think corporates. It will be a huge deal for them, to be one of the first companies on the other planet. Just imagine the advantage, of creating the whole empire from the scratch. Even if it will fall, they will be known as one of the first who tried it. When corporates will succeed, then countries will think about this opportunity
3. In the scientific point of view I don't know - but as a simple human I think that many of the people may not realize, or realize too late what is it all about. Just imagine, you are going to leave all the "stuff" here, and you may never come back to this life. You may not know how it is to live there. This is the biggest obstacle for a humans like us.
2. In my opinion both in cooperation - I think that such a large undertaking will inevitably have to be prepared by some joint venture of big companies and some superpower’s governments like China or USA.
3. I think the biggest obstacle is to provide life support system or rather develop all the required solutions which would allow people to live on Mars for a longer period of time without serious damage to their health.
I see a couple problems in the task of colonizing Mars, we still have no reliable way to bring whoever goes there back, we would build everything from scratch, and there is no guarantee that we would be able to feed whoever goes there until they are able to self sustain. So my pick would be a reliable plan, and technology that goes with it for starting a self sustaining settlement on Mars.
Elon Musk presented an updated vehicle
design for what’s currently being referred to as BFR which is kinda
similiar in size to Saturn V - lauched in 1967. Is this enough?
SpaceX plans to send mission with both cargo and crew,
is targeted for 2024.
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
In today's world, countries prefer to provide welfare benefits, which
in turn will provide voices during election. There is a little place for
strong spends releated to science. Generally, every privately held company is
better than any government-owned company. Example:
Public vs Private Efforts to Map the Human Genome:
$300,000,000 Celera private company effort was intended to proceed at a faster pace and
at a fraction of the cost of the roughly $3 billion publicly funded project.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
Provide sufficient water and food sources, and shelters that will minimize
health threat from cosmic rays
2. I would say both. But it certainly depends on our future. What situation on Earth it would be,nobody knows. I'm not interested in this kind of topic, but i believe that corporates and countries will help each other.
3. First thing is a organization and it needs money. Second thing is to pick up technologies. They must be consistent and truly perfect to provide non-stop food, water and etc. and the last thing is the most difficult one - to find a person or people who would go for it.
I agree with the thesis presented on movie, that means we will send people on mars in about 10 years.
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
Nowadays is more like that corporates will send humans, but everything can change and maybe some countries take an initiative.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonise Mars?
I think the long way of earth and mars that everything needed to live must be currie. Probably that will change when people start to colonise the mars but time will show.
I know NASA has "rovers" rolling around taking samples and such which is great I agree. But if the intent is to build structures from the local resources, why not get that phase going? Robots that scoop up dirt and at the very least start the refining process. The more they can pre-build the more available materials there will be for those eventual colonists when they do arrive.
Also with the likelihood of our needing to live underground in lava tubes, why not get a head start by sending in rovers to investigate these lava tubes? If the robots are smart enough they could even find weak points in the tubes and either shore up weak ceilings or put in some foam to seal up small cracks in the walls. All with the intended purpose that when people finally get to Mars, they have somewhere to go.
2. Even if companies have as big pockets as most wealthy countries, they won't do such a thing without gouverment support. I think they will have to cooperate.
3. Don't know, propably climate, food, and oxygen. Also it depends if its missing with returning in mind or not.
2) Countries are busy managing people on the ground, so my best bet is corporates - again, look at Elon Musk.
3) Developing all support system is a challange, but in my opinion the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonise Mars, is having enough of replacement parts(because I think in the beggining there won't be a lot of factories there :D) and techincs to take care of all this systems - they have to work properly in order to surviving, soo...
I choose to believe in SpaceX. Because that is the only source of information I could get without diving into the topic. I don't believe that any government will tell the truth. Elon Musk real plans could be a little bit shady, but I still wish he could do it. We need a hero, it better be Musk, than government.
Obstacles? Tons of it. Humanity could face the problems everywhere. We can't even handle the situation on good old Mother Earth. So I am a little pessimistic about the real fact of the successful colonization. Poor Mars:)
It is difficult to determine when it will be possible to send first human expedition to Mars. We highly developed technology and scientists still gain more knowledge about Mars and how to initiate settlement there, but the journey to Mars is very long and it can be hard for participants, so a series of simulations and tests should be carried out to ensure mission safety and expedition not turn out to be suicidal. In addition, sending human expedition also involves huge costs, which may be an obstacle in realization. In my opinion, a human expedition to Mars will be possible for around 50 to 75 years.
2. Who will send humans to Mars, corporates or countries?
In the current world situation, countries are more interested in conflicts over resources on Earth, for example access to oil. Unless a major crisis breaks out, nations will not be interested in settling a new planet. It is more likely that an organization supported by philanthropists will be interested in colonizing the new planet. It is possible that large corporations will want to achieve this goal for marketing purposes. The corporation that would have the biggest profits from populating Mars would be a company that produces popular bars with the same name - that would be be the best advertising campaign.
3. What is the greatest obstacle we have to overcome in order to colonize Mars?
I reckon that the biggest obstacle in colonizing Mars is its atmosphere conditions and its impact on human health.
2. That is an easy one. Countries are not interested at space exploration at this moment, because "Cold War" ended, and space exploration don't generate revenue. Maybe it will change in the future, but not now. So my answer, even not corporations, interested in revenue as well, but dreamers such as Mask.
3. How to organize colony. Creating new ways to live, because life on Mars will be much different. One of the problems is gravity, other is atmosphere. And of course the main problem is relevance, will we need colony on Mars in the future, or it will be just an waste of money and resources of the Earth?
Corporates with support of united government leagues will support the trip to Mars - as long as its profitable for earth then large scale colonising will begin.
Human comfort and achieving proper living conditions are the biggest obstacles in this process. If we want to successfully colonize Mars for more than one generation we have to recreate the same living conditions as those on earth. That will be time consuming and financially challenging. However if this obstacle is not overcome the whole idea might end up as failure.
2. In my opinion, it will be done in cooperation of these two. It is because, this kind of project needs a lot of money and people to be involved in it.
3. There are plenty of such problems. However, the major one is connected to conditions occuring on the Mars. Because of extreme conditions, we need to develop state of the art technology and adapt it to Mars environment.