Apparently, a Dutch entrepreneur plans on sending the first humans to Mars for permanent settlement by 2023!

So they're going to live there?!

Imagine they come back to Earth and someone asks where they live and they're like "Oh, Mars. Nbd or anything, y'know"

Originally Posted by RyanC

Howso? If its a cost for a private firm to do this, how could you say it has better uses? You're better off listing all of the 'better uses' than all sorts large expenditures of companies currently conducting their practices on earth..

Even if this is all real, and they intend to do what they do what they say, just by making the endeavour they'll be speeding up the proliferation of humans beyond earth, which is a hugely positive thing.

Given that throughout pretty much all of human history, wars and conflict has centred around resource scarcity and overall proximity of people to each other, I think that space exploration is one of the better steps in the right direction to lessening most of the strife humans have. If we suddenly have an abundance of ______ mineral, chemical, or resource, it goes a long way to cheapening the cost of living for people on earth. If oil, agriculture land, or some form of metal is suddenly abundant, imagine how much better it would be to be able to obtain it easily down here?

(this is a general reply to people who always ***** about space exploration being a waste of time and money 'when we have our own problems down here to deal with', not specifically in response to you)

agree with everything you said but remember, conflicts with each other due to resources etc. won't end after we leave Earth, rather it'll be stretched to a larger scale...eg., the world of Serenity (Firefly) or star wars/star trek etc.

I very much doubt a private company will spend 6 billion unless it had lots to gain from it. Asteroid mining is just slowly being put into gear now and there is LOTS to gain from that, but going to a red planet with a handful of people, plus all the feeding, water and making sure people don't die once there (big liability) is quite unlikely.

I was thinking how cool it would be to get there, but once you there, there isnt much to do...

Originally Posted by Snowman

I very much doubt a private company will spend 6 billion unless it had lots to gain from it. Asteroid mining is just slowly being put into gear now and there is LOTS to gain from that, but going to a red planet with a handful of people, plus all the feeding, water and making sure people don't die once there (big liability) is quite unlikely.

I was thinking how cool it would be to get there, but once you there, there isnt much to do...

I don't know, being the first company to put people on Mars is HUGGE no matter who you are there will be a way for you to make all that money back once your there.

...Except explore an entirely new planet. We just have pictures and a few videos of this planet, not to mention a lot of it was probably kept from the public. It would actually be awesome if this was real.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Theres no way you can make enough money off a tv show to justify spending trillions to make a colony there..

Its a lot more likely that the best we can hope for by 2023 is virgin galactic type flights to the outer atmosphere and maybe moon visits -- most space exploration will focus around asteroid mining, and going all that way for what resources are available on Mars is ridiculous.

(assuming no huge technological advancements that massively reduce the cost/kg of sending things to space)

If they can legitimately put people on Mars by then it will be about a lot more than the show. And imo a privately funded project will probably put better use to their resources than one funded by the government.

But what about the long term health effects of living in space? things like changes in vision and etc. that the astronauts in the space station experienced to a mild extent. we don't really know how our bodies will function for long periods of time in outer space, so I'm not sure permanent settlement is possible just yet.

Originally Posted by ooburii

But what about the long term health effects of living in space? things like changes in vision and etc. that the astronauts in the space station experienced to a mild extent. we don't really know how our bodies will function for long periods of time in outer space, so I'm not sure permanent settlement is possible just yet.

Uhh its called artificial gravity and gamma ray shielding... helloohhh...

I think the psycholgical aspect would be pretty dangerous... so far from home, stuck in a limited environment, so boring..

Originally Posted by RyanC

Uhh its called artificial gravity and gamma ray shielding... helloohhh...

I think the psycholgical aspect would be pretty dangerous... so far from home, stuck in a limited environment, so boring..

Yeah I agree with Snowman and yourself. What would you do on the Red planet? Only a few primitive things come to mind which wouldn't amuse people today for long periods of time as before.

Not to mention if you didn't...like your crewmates all too much. How would they survive the long commute there (6 months) PLUS the actual research/settlement, if there were any friction between the crew?

If anyone is interested in the topic, Red Planet explores this sort of theme quite well.
(among many other movies )

nvm, 12chars