Should nations and humanity in general strive to colonise Mars?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Should nations and humanity in general strive to colonise Mars?


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The other night I was watching some space programmes and came across the concept of terraforming Mars (making it habitable for life). The concept was basically that humanity would hypothetically be able to colonise Mars and make the Red Planet habitable over the period of 50 to 200 years based on a series of assumptions that humans would be able to influence the climate of Mars, the gases of Mars and introduce life successfully to Mars. Many of the scientists interviewed for the programme suggested that this will, in their eyes, be the great mission for humanity over the next century.

But is this realistic? A half a century ago, scientists once predicted that we would all live in gleaming tower blocs and travel in flying cars - none of which has come to fruitation. And on top of all the theories of whether it's even possible for us to terraform and colonise Mars, is it ethical to? Is it the place of humanity to change and colonise another planet? Is it the place of humanity to focus so much on another planet when there are many challenges here on Earth to still be met?

So what do you think? Do you think it will one day be possible? And if so, should we?


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The debate is open to you.

[lucaskf390]

Why people only talk about mars mars and more mars, there are more planets there --', to live in another planet I don't think it'll be possible, but maybe when our natural resources are low, we'll probably extract resources from other planets.

[Kardan]

Why people only talk about mars mars and more mars, there are more planets there --', to live in another planet I don't think it'll be possible, but maybe when our natural resources are low, we'll probably extract resources from other planets.

Mars is the only planet that humans would be able to land on the surface and not die.

I think getting man on Mars would be an amazing technological achievement, but in my opinion, setting up a colony wouldn't really achieve much and would be a massive waste of money.

[karter]

Why people only talk about mars mars and more mars, there are more planets there --',

Mercury and Venus are too hot with highly toxic atmospheres and all other planets in the solar system are gas giants

[The Don]

Mars is the only planet that humans would be able to land on the surface and not die.

I think getting man on Mars would be an amazing technological achievement, but in my opinion, setting up a colony wouldn't really achieve much and would be a massive waste of money.

I completely disagree. With further research into space the technological advances also benefit us on Earth. For example, Cell-Phone cameras are based off early work NASA did when researching pixel sensors. Memory Foam, Scratch Resistant Lenses, Long-Distance Telecommunications and Water Filters are all just a few examples of how research into technology for space has lead to inventions which people use every day.

There's also the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket", Getting a self-sustaining colony on a different planet dramatically improves the chances of humanity's long term survival. Here's a good article (http://bigthink.com/dangerous-ideas/5-stephen-hawkings-warning-abandon-earth-or-face-extinction) in which Stephen Hawking says "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load."

[Kardan]

I completely disagree. With further research into space the technological advances also benefit us on Earth. For example, Cell-Phone cameras are based off early work NASA did when researching pixel sensors. Memory Foam, Scratch Resistant Lenses, Long-Distance Telecommunications and Water Filters are all just a few examples of how research into technology for space has lead to inventions which people use every day.

There's also the saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket", Getting a self-sustaining colony on a different planet dramatically improves the chances of humanity's long term survival. Here's a good article (http://bigthink.com/dangerous-ideas/5-stephen-hawkings-warning-abandon-earth-or-face-extinction) in which Stephen Hawking says "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load."

But are those all things that were developed when looking into how to develop things for space? Or things that were actually developed in space? I agree that preparing for Mars may prove handy to us, but I'm not sure there are any advantages for actually putting man down on the surface.

And I guess the whole 'Earth extinction' is just personal opinion, there's no physical evidence of anything like that happening yet (other than the sun going supernova in a few billion years). Personally I think our generation at least won't benefit from being on Mars if Earth goes horribly wrong, plus I imagine in that case, Earth would only manage to get a small amount of people to Mars. (I mean, if the world is going to end, why would you spend time working?). But anyway, the whole 'End of the world' thing is all talk, you can't say it will happen, but equally I can't say it won't happen :P

[The Don]

But are those all things that were developed when looking into how to develop things for space? Or things that were actually developed in space? I agree that preparing for Mars may prove handy to us, but I'm not sure there are any advantages for actually putting man down on the surface.

And I guess the whole 'Earth extinction' is just personal opinion, there's no physical evidence of anything like that happening yet (other than the sun going supernova in a few billion years). Personally I think our generation at least won't benefit from being on Mars if Earth goes horribly wrong, plus I imagine in that case, Earth would only manage to get a small amount of people to Mars. (I mean, if the world is going to end, why would you spend time working?). But anyway, the whole 'End of the world' thing is all talk, you can't say it will happen, but equally I can't say it won't happen :P

It's very very very unlikely to happen :P But if we can develop the technology, and there's still a tiny possibility of it happening, why would we not push for it to happen? Either way, somewhere down the line in the future we are going to need to colonise other planets, why not try and do it in our lifetime?