If Mars is lush and habitable planet just like Earth

[Crono]

Originally posted by: aldamon
Are there timewarps on Mars?

You bet your sweet ass there are.

 

[ChurchOfSubgenius]

Originally posted by: Vageetasjn
Would its life be DNA-based? And if so, how?

Same way it is here, by the power of Jesus and sticky prayer.

 

[JTsyo]

Been done in sci-fi. The Sky People has Venus habitted by tribal humans, while humans from the 60s visit. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is set in the same same universe but this time there is native life on Mars. Both were ok books by S. M. Stirling.

The space race would have been way different and more intense if there was a whole planet as the reward for the winner. I would think if we started where we were in the 60s, by the 90s we could have had a colony on Mars if the resources were committed to it. Think of all the people that left Europe for the Americas. The same type would be willing to head off to another planet.

 

[PingSpike]

We'd have people there, but only a handful. It is fucking expensive as hell to send anything into space...nevermind then landing safely on another planet.

On the other hand, economies of scale say if enough people wanted to go the price may have gone down and there would be a number of players offering rides. However, they'd still be expensive as hell. Probably some fat rich white guy would have already claimed the whole thing by now though. You know, just like in Total Recall.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

Titan is smaller than Mars, and it's got an atmosphere denser than Earth's.

But it doesn't have as much solar radiation to blast it away. Also a magnetic field is required when close to the sun to deflect radiation and keep the atmosphere from being ripped away.

It's amazing how many things have to be "just right" for a planet to support complex life:

-right distance from the star
-protection from radiation
-a non-toxic atmosphere
-liquid water
-a metalic core to provide a magnetic field
-plate tetonics to recycle resources

It makes one wonder if Earth is indeed very rare.

Anyway, if Mars was habitable, we'd be there already. The reason we're not right now is there's so many protection systems that have to be built or invented that it's an incredible feat of engineering to even consider. If we didn't need to protect ourselves so much on the surface, 1/2 of the problem wouldn't be there.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

Uhhh... but Venus is too close to the sun to support life. Either question is completely hypothetical and based on several changes in reality.

The truth is that even if Mars had an atmosphere and sustained some sort of life, we still might not be able to colonize it. We require a certain, complicated balance of elements and compounds in our diets in order to survive. The composition on Mars would most certainly be different and those differences could prove fatal to humans. For instance, we've evolved a need to have specific ratios of manganese, selenium, zinc, etc. Vary the intake amount up or down and it can be fatal or have long-term health implications.

Plus, there's no evidence that we can survive the radiation levels when we move away from our own planet.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: BeauJangles

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

Uhhh... but Venus is too close to the sun to support life. Either question is completely hypothetical and based on several changes in reality.

The truth is that even if Mars had an atmosphere and sustained some sort of life, we still might not be able to colonize it. We require a certain, complicated balance of elements and compounds in our diets in order to survive. The composition on Mars would most certainly be different and those differences could prove fatal to humans. For instance, we've evolved a need to have specific ratios of manganese, selenium, zinc, etc. Vary the intake amount up or down and it can be fatal or have long-term health implications.

Plus, there's no evidence that we can survive the radiation levels when we move away from our own planet.

Venus is actually is in the habitable zone. The problem with it is not heat from the sun, it's the atmosphere. It's an extremely volcanic planet, and the shear amount of greenhouse gases not only traps heat (and keeps things a nice and toasty 800F), the pressure all that gas exerts on the surface up to 100 bar- meaning most non-solid objects will crush like an eggshell. If the pressure doesn't get you, the acid floating around will disolve you pretty quickly.

Venus may have been like earth when starting out, but the lack of a magnetic field, a slow rotation, and vulansim seems to have made it a very nasty place.

 

[edro]

Originally posted by: RESmonkey
I'd wait until all my friends, family, and a vast majority of the US would go there until I would. Oh, and the internet.

Mars has super fast internet... because of the vacuum of space. Duh...

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

Titan is smaller than Mars, and it's got an atmosphere denser than Earth's.

But it's a frozen ball of ice...

Canadians gotta go somewhere ;^)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: arcenite
that would be a really long ethernet cable

Ping time could be 42 minutes minimum when the Earth and Mars are opposite the sun

 

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: arcenite
that would be a really long ethernet cable

Ping time could be 42 minutes minimum when the Earth and Mars are opposite the sun

Just lead your shots n00b :^P

 

[FlashG]

Barsoom baby

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: aigomorla
doesnt venus have all the hot girls?

id go there instead of mars.

yea. Mars is a big sausage fest

 

[crisscross]

Don't worry the way we are going, the earth wont be lush and habitable for long.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

Titan is smaller than Mars, and it's got an atmosphere denser than Earth's.

But it's a frozen ball of ice...

Canadians gotta go somewhere ;^)

Sweet, Hockey 24/7 365!!!!

 

[sandorski]

If it had been that way all along, instead of a Cold War Moon race, it would have been a Mars race. Both the US, Soviet Union, and likely Others would have plopped people there by now.

 

[clamum]

I think we would have maybe landed there, and have a small research station at the absolute most.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
But it's a frozen ball of ice...

I never said it was habitable, just that an object smaller than Mars can have an extremely dense atmosphere.
Incidentally, its atmosphere contains organic compounds, as does its surface, mainly ethane and methane. Water there is frozen as solid as silicon-based rocks on Earth; the methane seems almost like it could serve the role that water does here.

Originally posted by: Fritzo
But it doesn't have as much solar radiation to blast it away. Also a magnetic field is required when close to the sun to deflect radiation and keep the atmosphere from being ripped away.

It's amazing how many things have to be "just right" for a planet to support complex life:

-right distance from the star
-protection from radiation
-a non-toxic atmosphere
-liquid water
-a metalic core to provide a magnetic field
-plate tetonics to recycle resources

It makes one wonder if Earth is indeed very rare.

Anyway, if Mars was habitable, we'd be there already. The reason we're not right now is there's so many protection systems that have to be built or invented that it's an incredible feat of engineering to even consider. If we didn't need to protect ourselves so much on the surface, 1/2 of the problem wouldn't be there.

Venus lacks a uniform magnetic field.

And things have to be "just right" to support life like we know it. Even our own planet has plenty of places that are hostile to life, and besides, only a very thin layer near to the crust is capable of supporting it.
Stars need not even be necessary for energy, as there are other sources of energy available. For example, Jupiter's moon Io is heated by tidal forces which flex it like a rubber ball. Its entire surface is a mess of volcanoes. And there are deep-sea organisms which draw their energy from thermal vents, or entirely from chemical reactions.

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: arcenite
that would be a really long ethernet cable

Ping time could be 42 minutes minimum when the Earth and Mars are opposite the sun

Except that the Sun would cause near 100% packet loss.

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
But it's a frozen ball of ice...

Canadians gotta go somewhere ;^)

Sweet, Hockey 24/7 365!!!!

Europa would be a better place - it's got a very smooth surface of ice.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science i don't understand
It's just my job five days a week . . .



We've got to get there the first time, which we haven't even done yet.

It's 6 months travel time each way, or even longer in some Earth to Mars orbital spacings.

You have to travel 60 days at a time to reach logistical supply points, and do it three times going out and twice coming back.

Water
Food
Waste disposal

After you get that accomplished, then we can explore a better vehicle.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Mars could never exactly like Earth, because its too far away from the Sun, and doesn't have enough gravity to properly hold an atmosphere.

If you're going to make this hypothetical, then use Venus instead. Similar composition, gets plenty of sun, and has almost the same gravity. Closer to us too.

And venus is too close? You could be too cold, but you can't be too hot.
Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system btw.

If Mars had a similar atmosphere with earth, it'd might have a greenhouse effect to raise the temperature to be much closer to earth's, especially with a thicker one.

 

[fatpat268]

Originally posted by: Fritzo

It's amazing how many things have to be "just right" for a planet to support complex life:

-right distance from the star
-protection from radiation
-a non-toxic atmosphere
-liquid water
-a metalic core to provide a magnetic field
-plate tetonics to recycle resources

It makes one wonder if Earth is indeed very rare.

Anyway, if Mars was habitable, we'd be there already. The reason we're not right now is there's so many protection systems that have to be built or invented that it's an incredible feat of engineering to even consider. If we didn't need to protect ourselves so much on the surface, 1/2 of the problem wouldn't be there.

That's flawed thinking. Liquid water could be toxic to some other lifeform that evolved elsewhere. Perhaps, alien life prefers liquid methane... which would throw our whole habitability zone theory out the window.

Just because earth life likes these conditions, doesn't mean life elsewhere likes the same things. But yes, the earth has went through many fortunate circumstances to produce who we are today, but had it happened differently, some other type of life would've evolved in our place.

 

[Siddhartha]

Please add to the would you move to Mars question:

No, I see no point in going there because I like living here on Earth. NYC, Malibu CA, South of France, etc FTW.

 

[BoomerD]

I dunno. IF we had developed the technology for mass exodus to Mars...the big corporations would have already laid claim to much of the planet's surface...and would be actively polluting it in their rush for more profits.

IF we could only manage a research station, then I think there'd be a bunch of squabbling over who controls it, over "I can haz the biggest weapon on Marz", over "It's MY PLANET..."

I have little doubt that we humans would be fucking Mars up just like we've done to this planet.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
But it's a frozen ball of ice...

I never said it was habitable, just that an object smaller than Mars can have an extremely dense atmosphere.
Incidentally, its atmosphere contains organic compounds, as does its surface, mainly ethane and methane. Water there is frozen as solid as silicon-based rocks on Earth; the methane seems almost like it could serve the role that water does here.

Originally posted by: Fritzo
But it doesn't have as much solar radiation to blast it away. Also a magnetic field is required when close to the sun to deflect radiation and keep the atmosphere from being ripped away.

It's amazing how many things have to be "just right" for a planet to support complex life:

-right distance from the star
-protection from radiation
-a non-toxic atmosphere
-liquid water
-a metalic core to provide a magnetic field
-plate tetonics to recycle resources

It makes one wonder if Earth is indeed very rare.

Anyway, if Mars was habitable, we'd be there already. The reason we're not right now is there's so many protection systems that have to be built or invented that it's an incredible feat of engineering to even consider. If we didn't need to protect ourselves so much on the surface, 1/2 of the problem wouldn't be there.

Venus lacks a uniform magnetic field.

And things have to be "just right" to support life like we know it. Even our own planet has plenty of places that are hostile to life, and besides, only a very thin layer near to the crust is capable of supporting it.
Stars need not even be necessary for energy, as there are other sources of energy available. For example, Jupiter's moon Io is heated by tidal forces which flex it like a rubber ball. Its entire surface is a mess of volcanoes. And there are deep-sea organisms which draw their energy from thermal vents, or entirely from chemical reactions.

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: arcenite
that would be a really long ethernet cable

Ping time could be 42 minutes minimum when the Earth and Mars are opposite the sun

Except that the Sun would cause near 100% packet loss.

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: bobsmith1492
But it's a frozen ball of ice...

Canadians gotta go somewhere ;^)

Sweet, Hockey 24/7 365!!!!

Europa would be a better place - it's got a very smooth surface of ice.

Use Both. Then we'd have a 3 Team Solar Hockey League(SHL).

 

[Gothgar]

two weeks