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[vadia]

For what purpose are we planning to colonize mars, by the way?

because -- (naah Na na na NA!  I live on Mars and you don't)?

full time info gathering? (if so, we'll never have a colony, because rovers will be cheaper)

elbow room [so to speak]? (If so, I still think that mining the moon and mars robotically and shooting it into space via railgun is more efficient)

Or some other reason?

[andrea]

Because it is there.

[PTTG??]

Huh, I guess you have a good point. No new, unique resources, it's not essential for us to survive, and it would involve an expensive journey... OK, non-aboriginal population of North America, there's no real reason for us to be here. Everybody back to Europe! Man, what were those Vikings, Puritans, Colonial French, and countless other expansionist groups thinking when they came over here?

[MonkeyHead]

I dont think thats far enough. We should all just fuck off back to the great rift valley, and stop using fire.

[Wayward Device]

Meh, I say we crawl back into the ocean.

[Sheb]

Well, the Americas were full of ressources, and relatively easy to settle.

[MonkeyHead]

Well, the Americas were full of ressources, and relatively easy to settle.

Yet still nobody really knew what was there, and still millions (maybe an overestimate...?) died in the effort to settle over the entire continent.

*points at all the lovley iron, water and hydrocarbons in the solar system*

Wanna make an omlette? Break some eggs.

[Sheb]

Well, actually those millions were indians. :p And people always settled for some ressources that was worth the trip. Gold. Silver. Fur. Land.

The problem is that there is nothing that warrant a Martian colony, we got plenty of water, iron and hydrocarbons on earth. Maybe automated asteroid mining, but that's it.

[MonkeyHead]

Yeah, it took thousands of years for Europe to end up enough of a fucked up shithole to force people to look further afield for thier needs. With time, we too may have no choice.

[Sheb]

*Look at Mars*

Well, humanity will be extinct long before it's worth settling Mars.

[10ebbor10]

There's plenty of stuff to want on Mars. Remember that the first colonies in the New world weren't economically viable for many of their earlier years . Sure, we got lots of resources on Earth, and those are easier are gathered here. The same counts for Europe-Americas. Most resources could be found in Europe, and the infrastructure to gather them was in place. Still, the question that should be asked is not why, but why not?

((Also, it's not the Mars base that is important, but the effects it had on the economy. Same thing with the lunar landings.))

*Look at Mars*

Well, humanity will be extinct long before it's worth settling Mars.

Depends. By what measures do you value Mars.

Yeah, it took thousands of years for Europe to end up enough of a fucked up shithole to force people to look further afield for thier needs. With time, we too may have no choice.

Europe was and still is a nice place. It's just that we needed some place to export all the religious nutjobs too. [/joke]

But, no the squalor of Europe wasn't really the problem. Religious repression played a role, as well as the idlest belief of Hope. The American dream and such. While mostly inaccurate, news between here and there wasn't really good.

[Sheb]

I'm not saying we should not settle Mars. Just that you'd have to be foolish to think it's a worthwhile economic goal.

[10ebbor10]

Yup, economically it seems unlikely. Though the economic return of most astronomical programs is estimated to be more or less 2-3 dollars per dollar invested.

So it would make sense to do it as some kind of economical/technical motivator.

[Sheb]

Yeah, like going on the moon. It was totally useless, except for the motivator.

Fun fact, you can look up Kennedy's speech, replace every instance of "going to the moon" by "Building a 2km-high schlong statue" and it fit perfectly.

[MonkeyHead]

Yeah, like going on the moon. It was totally useless, except for the motivator.

Fun fact, you can look up Kennedy's speech, replace every instance of "going to the moon" by "Building a 2km-high schlong statue" and it fit perfectly.

We choose to go to the 2km-high schlong statue, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.

Haha.