Comments on: Barren Mars

By: Mark Sizer

Mark Sizer — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:28:02 +0000

Personally, I’d be much happier living on a rotating station near Earth than on (or below) the surface of Mars. 20-year-old me would not have been so picky.

I’m not sure which is the more difficult challenge to build. Neither is in any way easy. I’m definitely a Luna-first person. If we (whoever “we” actually is) can’t build infrastructure on the moon, we have no chance on Mars.

On the grim/macabre side, it would be strange to look up at the moon and think, “those poor people who are entombed there forever” while most people never see Mars so it wouldn’t seem like an orbiting graveyard, even if it were. Of course, time would fix that. No one looks at the east coast of the US and ponders the fate of Jamestown.

By: David M. Cook

David M. Cook — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 07:10:49 +0000

“Nothing to do but throw rocks at tin cans, and you gotta bring your own tin cans!” From Forbidden Planet.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 06:35:37 +0000

In reply to Blair Ivey.

Blair Ivey: It is important to remember that the rovers and landers have all been sent to the dry equatorial regions, areas that are not great for settlement. No water.

This choice has partly been for engineering, to make landings less risky, but more and more it has been dictated by the choices of geologists, who really aren’t focused on finding ideal locations for colonies.

I strongly suspect the latitudes above 30 degrees will be less barren, at least in terms of water and ice. And give those colonies water and they can quickly make their colonies green.

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 06:21:27 +0000

Elton John was right. It appears that Mr. Musk may make it to Mars while still young enough to have children, so we may get to find out. The more I see of Mars, the less I want to go. Without a professional interest, not much reason to go. Robert says centuries, but much of the terrain age is measured in Mya, if not Gya. That’s bleak.

By: Robert Zimmerman

Robert Zimmerman — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 03:44:01 +0000

In reply to Blacwing1. Blackwing1: We all know that if that beach was to stay exposed for several weeks you would begin to see some plant life growing there. On Mars that ground has been exposed for many many centuries, and it remained barren for that entire time.

By: Blacwing1

Blacwing1 — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 03:38:54 +0000

It’s funny since I just took a walk along the “beach” at the Buffalo Bill Reservoir this afternoon. The lake level is down something like 38 feet from full, and along the Bartlett Lane side there is an enormous amount of shoreline exposed. What’s normally under 30 or 35 feet of water is now open to the air, and it stretches for hundreds of yards out to the frozen surface of the water.

This “beach” ranges from soccer ball-sized rocks, through cobble-stone-sized, and then down to river-rock-sized, but also includes huge spans of shingle, where slabs of rock are exposed. Since these areas are normally underwater for almost all of the growing season, nothing grows here and it is completely barren.

If only it were reddish colored rather than brown it would greatly resemble most of the landscape shown in the pictures of the Martian surface. With -20°F temperatures and bone-dry humidity it might be a good place to initially field-test future rovers.