If We Find Evidence of Life on Mars Should We Risk Going There?

[Stephen Palmer]

I believe microbial life has already been proven to have existed on Mars, at least, within soil samples.

No.

 

[Vertigo]

It is a mistake to imagine that space colonisation can ever be any kind of solution to overpopulation. Consider trying to bleed off around 10% of our population, say 1 billion in say 50 odd years now (not much chance of any kind of space colonisation sooner than that). If we shifted 100,000 people off planet every day, 365 days a year it would still take 27 years to shift 1 billion. Just think about those figures; 100,000 a day. Think of the fleet of vessels that would be needed to maintain that rate of colonisation every single day, and in those 27 years the population would probably have increased by more than the 1 billion we've shifted! It's just not realistic. I can't believe we would ever be able to shift enough people off planet for it to make even a marginal difference to our total population. Self control or natural or manmade disasters are the only realistic ways of significantly reducing population.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Colonisation is is only a species backup system.

 

[Vertigo]

Colonisation is is only a species backup system.

agreed!

 

[marmalade]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=mars one

Not as distant a reality as we may think...

thoughts on the Mars One mission?

 

[Vertigo]

Not going to happen I suspect. They are planning to raise money by making the candidate selection process/training into a reality tv show. This immediately makes me suspicious. Then on a quick google I pulled up this
http://www.iflscience.com/space/whats-going-mars-one

“When you join the ‘Mars One Community,’ which happens automatically if you applied as a candidate, they start giving you points,” Roche explains. “You get points for getting through each round of the selection process (but just an arbitrary number of points, not anything to do with ranking), and then the only way to get more points is to buy merchandise from Mars One or to donate money to them.” And if media outlets offer payment for an interview, the organization would like to see 75 percent of the profit. As a result the most high-profile hopefuls, he says, are those who brought about the most money.

And this on the first paragraph of the wiki page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_One

The project's schedule, technical and financial feasibility, as well as ethics have been widely criticized by scientists, engineers and those in the aerospace industry

Nothing I've seen about this comes across as a truly serious project.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Thoughts on the Mars One mission?

Much as I'm keen on a space program ...
This is NOT a space program or Mars mission. It's Tulips.
I'd bet it's not even Reality TV, that's just there to spin in money. Of course it might make it to Reality TV (invented to save cost of real actors, scripts, costly production etc) but hasn't that cultural rock bottom practically played out?

 

[mosaix]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=mars one

Not as distant a reality as we may think...

thoughts on the Mars One mission?

It'll come to a screeching halt when someone gets killed - the ultimate Reality TV.

 

[Vertigo]

I doubt it will even get far enough for someone to actually get hurt, never mind killed!

They believe they can send 4 people to Mars on a budget of $6billion Nasa reckon they need $100billion for an 'austere' manned Mars mission. That feels like a few too many corners being cut to me.

 

[mosaix]

I doubt it will even get far enough for someone to actually get hurt, never mind killed!

They believe they can send 4 people to Mars on a budget of $6billion Nasa reckon they need $100billion for an 'austere' manned Mars mission. That feels like a few too many corners being cut to me.

It doesn't have to be a crew member, Vertigo. I don't know how far they've got with this project but cutting corners on any engineering project puts everyone at risk.

 

[Vertigo]

Agreed. But I don't think it's even going to get to the engineering stage; I doubt it'll get past the 'training/selection' stage. I have heard that they failed to secure their Reality TV contract and that was, I think, going to be their major source of funds.

 

[BAYLOR]

It will be interesting to see what Nasa upcoming announcement on Mars

 

[J Riff]

Wel.... uh .... ( ) I think that (***) but if (****) then they should tell the truth, except (***) life on Mars, which (DEL) but I'm sure we will find out soon enough, despite (****).

 

[REBerg]

At least NASA is taking precautions to limit the risks of contaminating possible microscopic Martians with microscopic Terran hitchhikers.

Martians Might Be Real. That Makes Mars Exploration Way More Complicated