Comments on: The lava tubes on the western slopes of Alba Mons as potential Martian colonies

By: Edward

Edward — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 22:14:03 +0000

To continue my thoughts on Edward_2’s comments:
An advantage to making a large number of identical satellites or probes is that they become low cost per unit. Iridium put up 77 communication satellites, and after the first five or ten, they cost the company only $5 million each to make. The total cost was under $1/2 billion, but the launch costs (and some other setup costs) brought the total cost to start the service $3 billion. The satellites became so inexpensive that the launch costs were four times the cost of the satellites.

Mars Exploration has been different. Those probes or rovers tend to cost more than the launch costs. The cost of launch has been a limiting factor in the exploration of space. With launch costs decreasing, and with the possibility of lower costs for the probes, we may see more mass-produced inexpensive probes in the near future. We may get those hundred robots at Mars.

By: Edward

Edward — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 03:50:03 +0000

Edward_2 wrote: “I think that sending Humans to Mars for months is a waste of money and time.. Better to have 100+ robots, flying, floating, crawling, orbiting Mars and returning samples to Earth is better.”

How we wish we had 100+ robots at Mars. Unfortunately, we spend a billion dollars or more to send one robot to Mars (Perseverance was a bit more than $2 billion), and their explorations are very slow and inefficient.

Compare these robots with the Apollo astronauts on the Moon. They examined many samples, chose a small percentage for return, and covered large areas, all within the hours (up to three days) available to them.

If Starship is as inexpensive as expected, putting six humans on Mars may be a similar cost as putting one rover on the surface.

By: Star Bird

Star Bird — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 22:47:19 +0000

Marvin and k-9,s vacation spot

By: Edward_2

Edward_2 — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 10:19:09 +0000

Ooops! I should have posted as Edward_2

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 10:18:10 +0000

I think that sending Humans to Mars for months is a waste of money and time..

Better to have 100+ robots, flying, floating, crawling, orbiting Mars and returning samples to Earth is better.

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 03:52:25 +0000

I must say, that the author has AcademicSpeak nailed. There is nothing wrong with it, but the overall feeling is ‘Fund Me!’.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 21:37:10 +0000

I wonder if we could convince China to infect Mars with earth microbes? Who would sanction them or even stop them?
That will end most of the life on mars arguments. That question will NEVER be answered to true believers though. Just like climate change believers.