Wanted: Mars Colonists to Land there in 2023

Well, what ya gonna do? I kind of doubt they will ever establish cities on Mars, but you never know. Something similar to a space station, maybe, I can definitely see.

Apparently somebody robbed a Piggly-Wiggly on Mars. Gunga found a pistol that someone tossed away before being cuffed.

Seems we both had the same idea but yours is better

Don't let gunga have it or he will likely shoot himself playing with it.

We have all the necessary technology now, what is lacking is the will and the cash--Hell, even the will isn't lacking, it's just possessed by people who lack the know-how and the cash.

I disagree--one of the tributes of us as a moderately intelligent monkeys is adaptability and greed. If there is money to be made on Mars and I can think of three or four possibilities for riches off of the top of my head--colonization and growth will occur.

And cities are just a sign---besides we as moderately intelligent monkeys also possess one of the largest libedos in the animal kingdom and one of the effects of that libedo is 'go fourth and multiply'.

Rap

I agree that we have the tech basis to accomplish the mission as stated. Anything that could come of it will be discovered while its in progress.
Discovery has always been so. We go there cause we DONT have all the answers.

If the first mission fails, the whole concept would probably be back burnered like Goddards Rockets were until Germany woke up to the pioneering work Dr Goddard did, and built on that.

As far as the Mars mission, probably within a few decades later someone will come up with a burning need to try again, until, by applying what wed discovered during the failure years,the whole thing becomes a sustainable and relatively safe undertaking. Eventually were gonna do it no matter what the doubters say .
I think we will occupy deep seabeds along the same time scale.Gold mining from sulfide mounds (like "black smokers" is already being looked at as an "investment grade" undertaking). I don't think that's an any less challenging enterprise than a MArs Mission.

It makes more sense to develop good AIs and send out robotic missions. It also makes more sense to go to the so-called asteroid belt first--no monstrous gravity wells to deal with. Mining the asteroids will be the way to get the corporate boys on board. The Dawn mission is a good first step.

weve done fairly good hyperspectral imaging of MArs so we know pretty much where the special deposits lie. Asteroids, Im not so sure weve spent any time other than general mapping of Ca/Mg silicates (Chondritics) and /or Iron/Nickel bone yards.

I think a good chondrite could serve as an interstellar ion fueled space vessel, but Im not sure theyre a piece of valuable (resources) real estate.

Anyway, in some fashion, well probably do a bunch of robotic inner SS target missions and Im sure asteroids will be investigated and looked on as a good interstellar ship or three. (Or at least a great location for a SS "fire alarm").

Its always a thing about AI probes. Theyre always "Lastweek's" technology. We need to develop robotics that can significantly update themselves

I am thinking solely on a return on investment basis. Yeah, there's lots of good **** on Mars, but once you get it, you've got to get it out of a .38 G gravity well. On that basis, i would think capitalists would go to the asteroids first.

I can see the future. A base is built in orbit. Asteroids are captured and brought to the base for mining. The hulks are returned to their original trajectory.

like empties in the bed of my pickup.

ROI would dictate that we first, only go after that stuff that is truly rare and strategic and plentiful on mars (He,Li,REE's Hf and specific radionuclides)
However, we would set up (I think) manufacturing sites equipped with commercial sized 3D printing of stuff that then becomes the tools of follow-on phases.

You're talking a lot of up-front capital for such an enterprise. Capitalists are more likely to cut down all the trees and sell off the lumber before they start breaking ground for farms or shopping malls.

3D printing will change much re on-site manufacture and fabrication . AS far as what capitalists will invest in, we are already seeing a pooling of capital for space enterprises.

Fine--but that pooled capital needs to offer a reasonable prospect of a return on investment, and to offer it within a reasonable period of time. That's why i think they'll start with the asteroids rather than a project as ambitious and expensive as Mars.

in 20 years, the winner will have to buy the loser a beer. Ill be in my 80's and will once again take up drinking a bit.

Im giving you my 20 year notice.

I think that strategic minerals will be tied to wherever theyre located in sufficient quantities. We will be uing a LOT of He3 so we can look to the moon , mars, and some of Jupiters moons for that. RAre Earths, I think a water based planert like MARS is gonna have the resource guys creaming in their jeans. They will be the products of dried lake salts/pegmatite deposits/and specific layers. I don't think that asteroids have sufficient data to show us they have any of these environments.

I could be wrong but I think that we have yet to do any detailed spectral assessments of asteroids. All the spctrr Ive seen from the asteroid belt is from reflected spectra and that has a huge error bar brcuase it is reading the incident light more than anything reflected.

A beer is bet and I trust that you will accept my choice as I will yours.

There's a lot of good spectroscopic data on the asteroids. A good many of them (a quarter? a third?) are like Ceres, and have a lot of water and a lot of htdrated compounds. This "C-type" asteroid could have modest potential for mining, as well as a good potential for short-term colonization (the colonies would be long term, but due to micro-gravity, colonists couldn't hang out for long.) I think it's most likely that China would be the first there, and they'll just rape the asteroids for whatever they can get from them. That's my never humble opinion, at any rate.

I don't drink. I haven't for almost 30 years, and i doubt i'll be alive in 20 years. If i am, and i win, you can buy me some cardiac nightmare breakfast at one of those huge all-day breakfast joints which can be found in most big cities. You might even have the satisfaction of seeing keel over right at the table.

There's a typo in that last post, it should have read "hydrated compounds." I blame the little dog . . . why? Because she doesn't mind.

Im aware of the spectral data from asteroids. That's why I said it was reflective nd not at source. Water is ok but not a significant indication of anything strategic. Wed want to see salts (theres where the REE's and strategic stuff would develop. Im assuming that some of the asteroids would contain pegmatite bodies from the original planetoids but theyd have to do direct -on laser hyprspectral imaging. I don't think weve done much of that yet.
MARS has been scanned from with an inch of its life. Weve got a hyprspectral scanner in orbit for many years and we can almost do valuation analyses. The Rovers are more or less doing QA and ppb analyses.