Buzz Aldrin: To Infinity and Beyond!

[Ed Anger]

And it will happen, the only question is: sooner or later?

The ones crying "waste of resources!" are the exact kind of people who thought it is pointless and impossible to cross the ocean.

No to wasting my tax dollars so you and Tim can masturbate to rover photos.

[Savonarola]

The only way a planet could have a sizable oxygen component to their atmosphere like ours is if it has life.

That's a good point; but supporting an oxygen cycle alone wouldn't make the planet habitable to humans.  Neil is right; we would have to study the planet more closely before sending people there and even travelling there would take decades.

[Neil]

And it will happen, the only question is: sooner or later?

The ones crying "waste of resources!" are the exact kind of people who thought it is pointless and impossible to cross the ocean.

AFAIK there aren't any resources on Mars.  There were in Asia and the Americas.

Well, there are resources on Mars, but nothing that could justify the expense of colonizing it.  Mars is most interesting (to me at least) as a paleogeological project.

[Faeelin]

And it will happen, the only question is: sooner or later?

The ones crying "waste of resources!" are the exact kind of people who thought it is pointless and impossible to cross the ocean.

Oddly, America was settled by the Virginia Company, the Massachussetts Bay Company, etc. The Spanish ran the New World settlements as a Crown Monopoly.  So in today's capitalist age, surely you can get investors to jump on board for a Martian colony. Go to it!

[Crazy_Ivan80]

And it will happen, the only question is: sooner or later?

The ones crying "waste of resources!" are the exact kind of people who thought it is pointless and impossible to cross the ocean.

Oddly, America was settled by the Virginia Company, the Massachussetts Bay Company, etc. The Spanish ran the New World settlements as a Crown Monopoly.  So in today's capitalist age, surely you can get investors to jump on board for a Martian colony. Go to it!

they're getting there:
currently phase one: private flights into orbit is underway.

We all know that soon enough the thrill of that will wear of for the rich and famous, and they'll require something else to get one over on the Joneses. So queu orbital hotels (they're already on the drawing boards iirc).
That too will get boring
etc etc

In the meantime getting into orbit will get cheaper.

Anyways, chances are that the Moon and Mars will be settles by Virgin Galactic or soemthing similar. Something that will probably result in a collective facepalm by the species. 

[Berkut]

In the meantime getting into orbit will get cheaper.

This is the key, and so far it has only been a stumbling block.

IIRC, it doesn't cost much less today to place a pound into orbit than it did in the 60s. Epic failure here.

[PDH]

I vote for sending Tim to Mars to see if it is ready for colonization.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

In the meantime getting into orbit will get cheaper.

This is the key, and so far it has only been a stumbling block.

IIRC, it doesn't cost much less today to place a pound into orbit than it did in the 60s. Epic failure here.

true enough, sadly enough the way we put mass into orbit has changed little since people started experimenting with rocketry in earnest.
Something we'll need to have a look at.

[Caliga]

Space elevator

[Neil]

In the meantime getting into orbit will get cheaper.

Actually, that's the funny thing:  It hasn't, and is unlikely to do so in the near future.  It still takes 62.7 megajoules per kilogram to lift something into orbit.  Now, I can believe that small economies can be made here and there, but until something that can replace chemical rocketry comes along, there won't be any appreciable drop in cost.

[Neil]

Space elevator

Pretty much impossible in a usable timespan, I'm afraid.

[saskganesh]

real advanced civilizations astral travel. hardware is not needed.

[MadImmortalMan]

[alfred russel]

Traveling to Mars and colonizing it would be more akin to polar exploration and colonization.  There are a number of science stations in Antarctica; so we could have colonies of scientists on Mars.

I agree with caveats: colonizing Mars will be orders of magnitude more difficult/expensive than colonizing the polar ice caps, and the scientists on Mars would likely be much less useful than those in Antartica (who are telling us useful things about our own planet).

[Neil]

real advanced civilizations astral travel. hardware is not needed.

Unfortunately, astral travel is impossible.  It violates Neil's Law:  The universe is invariably hostile to human life.