I'm beginning to get the idea that Governments have given up on the future of this planet.
Getting humans to Mars is increasingly a when, not if, prospect. And while NASA is planning a short-term return trip sometime in the 2030s, Dutch nonprofit Mars One is planning a permanent human colony by 2027.
The prospect of an ongoing food supply is therefore an important one. This is where Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands is helping out. A team of researchers has used facsimile Martian soil to grow some vegetables, against the day Mars pioneers are digging gardens far from home.
Under the leadership of researcher Wieger Wamelink, and building on their previous research, the team successfully grew ten different crops from soil simulants not just of Mars dirt, but of dirt found on the moon. These simulants were provided by NASA.
Not so much burning the boats, more trying to build some.
“When we are confronted with evidence that challenges our deeply held beliefs we are more likely to reframe the evidence than we are to alter our beliefs. We simply invent new reasons, new justifications, new explanations. Sometimes we ignore the evidence altogether.” (Mathew Syed 'Black Box Thinking')
Up to now, we (Martians) weren't asked for any admission. We are waiting an appeal.
As I am one who is a counting factor in OMCoE (Our Martian Council of Earth), I will be as friendly as you, common humans - including board moderators - are friendly to me.
Don't presume much on it...
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
In an experiment testing how well we can grow crops in space, scientists have managed to harvest 10 crops, including tomatoes, peas, and rye, from soil that mimics the conditions on Mars.
Although the Mars-equivalent soil produced slightly fewer crops than regular Earth soil, the difference wasn't huge, suggesting that, in the right conditions, early settlers might be able to sustainably feed themselves with crops grown on the Red Planet. The dream of a Martian colony just got a little bit closer.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei
Well don't pack your bags just yet. There are myriad of scientific, and technological problems to solve before then. About 1/2 the gravity of earth, no ozone layer, very weak to non-existent magnetic field, an atmosphere that is ionizing(destroys organic compounds), and is less than 1% dense than ours, a warm day on Mars is somewhat warmer than Chicago in winter.
All this doesn't mean we can't overcome the obstacles. But it is going to take many a year before we can colonize it.
And when the confederates saw Jackson standing fearless as a stone wall the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951
The CCC wrote:Well don't pack your bags just yet. There are myriad of scientific, and technological problems to solve before then. About 1/2 the gravity of earth, no ozone layer, very weak to non-existent magnetic field, an atmosphere that is ionizing(destroys organic compounds), and is less than 1% dense than ours, a warm day on Mars is somewhat warmer than Chicago in winter.
All this doesn't mean we can't overcome the obstacles. But it is going to take many a year before we can colonize it.
We really don't know how to terraform Mars. There are a thousand serious problems to solve first. Robert Zubrin's obsession has made him the Percival Lowell of our time, a fanciful misdirection that has distracted our space program from more solid objectives. I'm disappointed that Buzz Aldrin and others are pushing it, but I think they're also desperate for any kind of space program under Democratic administrations that seem to dismantle all longterm manned programs. The expense and resources required to colonize Mars might be able to reverse environmental destruction on Earth. Everyone could not make the transition from one planet to another and an orderly transition without crashing the politics and environment of Earth seems unlikely. So there are some major ethical decisions to be made.
