The First Guys on Mars: Big Sacrifice

First, colonizing Mars does not constitute interstellar colonization. Second, i did not say that we have to bring anyone back, but certainly we would initially be setting up a base station, from which i suspect the original crews would, sooner or later be brought back.

I said that this is one of the reasons i find the Fermi paradox naive. The other is that it ignores the cost (although, obviously, that cost is in resources and energy, it is not unreasonable to think of it in terms of dollars) which will be entailed to protect large numbers of people over the time required to get them to Mars with all of the material they will need for survival. Mars is probably a good candidate for colonization, just because the cost would be manageable. That would not necessarily be the case with an attempt at interstellar colonization. But with Mars, there is no magnetic field to protect colonists from cosmic radiation, so it would be necessary to locate them and all of their food production resources underground, which would greatly increase the cost.

But, as i say, it's still probably the best candidate.

If that 's what jingles your chimes, then YEAH!

From Mars ?

U must be a very interesting guy !

I read his Martian Chronicles around when I was in hi school.

I preferred Azimov and Heinlein

i have nothing against people, i like meeting new people and observing people, but i can also live quite comfortably in my own head, i'd probably do quite well stranded on a desert island

I was recommending Kim Stanley Robinsons' Red Mars and the two sequels to it, not Bradbury's book - though that is also fine reading.

Cycloptichorn

Another way to express the issue is:
if u r dropped on a bleak desert that everyone has been wondering about
thru out human history, and gazing up in awe,
how long will it take for the emotional thrill to abate,
in the face of fending off deadly sandstorms, both extremes of temperature and no decent restaurants ?





`

love a decent restaurant, but if not ever going to one again meant i got to go to another planet i'd leave tomorrow

I love and support the Space Program,
but it is a fact that the nicest place in the solar system is under us.