Nevermind. This was gonna be to Matty.
terraform of Mars = easy
just drop a couple of ice / carbonaceous chondrite asteroids on that big red god in the sky
just go to the local parking bay (aka asteroid belt) find the relevant rocks and place small chaep ion engines on them and aim at Mar’s orbit.
wait a few decades and viola
insta atmosphere + free water
[quote]ShaunW wrote:
terraform of Mars = easy
just drop a couple of ice / carbonaceous chondrite asteroids on that big red god in the sky
just go to the local parking bay (aka asteroid belt) find the relevant rocks and place small chaep ion engines on them and aim at Mar’s orbit.
wait a few decades and viola
insta atmosphere + free water
[/quote]
That might be a start, but then you have to figure out how to get everything in perfect proportion. Even if you can do that, you then have to figure how to sustain those proportions. On Earth, it’s done through some very complex and dynamic systems.
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Try this again, just go here
http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/music_movies_girls_life/demotivational_posters_random_pics_90?pageNo=21#5357020
(appropriate!) Resurrection of an old thread.
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Perseverance rover successfully lands on Mars, a key step in NASA’s search for signs of life
To me, the most amazing thing about this is that it proves that there’s still signs of (intelligent!!!) life on Earth…
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I’m actually really interested in the rover’s missions going forward. They got tons of good info out of Curiosity.
I think Perseverance is the 5th rover sent there?
Damn kudos on this. I think almost everyone here would have started a new thread. Either your memory rocks or you think about searching before starting a thread which most don’t (and I’d put myself in this category most of the time.)
Absolutely. I really enjoy seeing what these rovers show us. Incredible stuff.
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It’s really incredible. What other time in history have we (as spectators) been able to have front row seats in color and hi-dec for the exploration of another planet?
Also, unrelated but still related, The Martian is possibly one of the best movies ever made
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One of the coolest things since they faked the moon landing!
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I was watching How the Universe Works on Science channel, and they described how the previous rover was solar powered and was snuffed out by a massive dust storm (apparently one of the great Martian natural dangers) that lasted days, during which the poor rover’s batteries slowly drained out.
…I actually felt sad for the rover…
So of course this one is now nuclear powered -so awesome.
Supposedly, there is a manned mission to Mars on the drawing board, but the challenges to overcome sounded so daunting that, unless there was the same kind of gung ho, full speed ahead at all costs environment that existed for the moon landing, I doubt that the money or the will to overcome said challenges will be there.
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Oh I think it will happen in due time no doubt. We will continue to make advancements that reduce those challenges. Now I wouldn’t take massive bets on when or anything (I think NASA’s stated goal of 2030 sounds incredibly unlikely) but between NASA and the private companies now invested in more and more space research it will happen sometime).
Is this the article you referenced? If not it’s a pretty cool read on some of the things you mentioned challenge wise. I’m pretty interested in this stuff if you have something else that goes into it.
Oddly enough though I’m not even a Star Wars nerd…my nerd stuff is Batman, video games, and JRR Tolkien. But the idea of being in space is just insanely cool.
They SERIOUSLY upgraded their movie set tech. Like, it could almost be Avengers worthy now. Go NASA.
It’s funny you say that, I kinda did too lol. But give me a radioactive rover and we are in business now!
I actually think that the technical challenges can be surmounted, no matter how daunting they are. But I do believe that the environment that we had in the Apollo days needs to come back if we’re going to make it work. I simply do not see any way NASA can make it happen without the same attitude at all levels of leadership in the government.
I do think that Elon musk is capable of delivering on at least some aspect of his goal to set supplies or people on Mars. But without concerted national will I don’t think it will be enough to sustain any prolonged exploration. And I definitely don’t think he’s going to do it on his stated timeline haha.
Although, he did figure out how to catch a de-orbiting rocket with an AI controlled ship in the middle of a freaking ocean with a freaking “bigly net” so… I’m not going to doubt him any more 
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You, sir, are a fine scholar and a gentleman.
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