Mars needs Women! And Men! (One way ticket only)

[crazy canuck]

I can think of a few people that should sign up for this.

[Caliga]

Drive 'em up to Canada and leave them somewhere.

Why would you want to torture them like that?  You're a bad person

[The Minsky Moment]

To minimise radiation, the project team will cover the domes with several metres of soil, which the colonists will have to dig up.

I think I see a flaw in the plan somewhere.

[crazy canuck]

Drive 'em up to Canada and leave them somewhere.

Why would you want to torture them like that?  You're a bad person

No kidding.  No chance in hell we would want those people allowed across our border.

[garbon]

Drive 'em up to Canada and leave them somewhere.

Why would you want to torture them like that?  You're a bad person

Builds character.

[DontSayBanana]

Of course.  Remember, before the age of homosexualism, mankind was capable of great things.

We have been able to accomplish things since Sparta, Neil.

[Neil]

Applicants must be resilient, adaptable, resourceful and must work well within a team

Are there really well-adjusted people who would volunteer to leave Earth forever?

Of course.  Remember, before the age of homosexualism, mankind was capable of great things.

Sure there was always the risk that they wouldn't return but I don't think the premise of our manned space travel was - you will never come back.

That's certainly been implied in most space colonization schemes that I've ever seen.

[garbon]

Applicants must be resilient, adaptable, resourceful and must work well within a team

Are there really well-adjusted people who would volunteer to leave Earth forever?

Of course.  Remember, before the age of homosexualism, mankind was capable of great things.

Sure there was always the risk that they wouldn't return but I don't think the premise of our manned space travel was - you will never come back.

That's certainly been implied in most space colonization schemes that I've ever seen.

I don't watch out for space colonization schemes.

[Eddie Teach]

Drive 'em up to Canada and leave them somewhere.

Why would you want to torture them like that? 

Because of Celine Dion.

[jimmy olsen]

Bigelow Aerospace wants to go to the Moon!

http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/19/17829546-to-the-moon-bigelow-aerospace-and-nasa-look-at-private-exploration?chromedomain=science&lite

[The Brain]

Go then.

[Neil]

I don't watch out for space colonization schemes.

Well, your ignorance isn't my problem.

[DontSayBanana]

Colonization sounds fun and all, but there are a couple major logistical issues that can't just be solved by tech.

- A charter.  You're putting society in a new geographic location not affiliated with any current legal structure.  Somebody's going to run into problems, so it'd be best to have a charter hammered out prior to arrival.

- Procreation.  Unless your seed population is huge, you're only going to get a couple of generations before inbreeding becomes a major concern.

That said, there are some issues that I just don't believe technology's caught up to yet.

- Shelter.  Sounds like a non-issue until you realize that everything for this colony has to be sheltered from the Martian conditions.  Not just the settlers, but the food supply and the water supply as well.  So no matter what you do, until we can jump-start the Martian magnetic field, you're always going to be carrying more material for shelter than settlers and supplies.  Not exactly a recipe for a self-sustaining colony.

- Protein.  While there's voluntary vegetarianism, humans are still omnivores and vegetarianism tends to involve an extremely fine-tuned diet.  Since we can't guarantee the necessary plants will thrive, we'd need to carry animal stock to a settlement, and by the way, they'd have to be sheltered as well.  So, going back to the previous point, now you're talking shelter for humans, agricultural supplies, a closed water system, and ranged animals as well.

A caveat: I suppose one way around the shelter issue is to design the colony ship itself to be repurposed on landing for shelter, but given that you're going to accept much more confined conditions for travel, you're still talking a massive amount of material cargo.

ETA: A simple soil filter won't fly on Mars, either.  The soil's heavily irradiated, so you'd need to either bring your own soil or take a chance on decontaminating the Martian soil.

[Razgovory]

I think another serious problem is that few people would want to live on Mars.  Outside of a scientific teams setting up research teams there is nothing to attract people.  Mars is a bit like Antarctica, people could live there, but nobody wants to.

[DontSayBanana]

I think another serious problem is that few people would want to live on Mars.  Outside of a scientific teams setting up research teams there is nothing to attract people.  Mars is a bit like Antarctica, people could live there, but nobody wants to.

Not necessarily.  I can think of plenty of people for whom the smaller population and lack of inundation with pop culture references would be draw factors.  There's a "pioneering spirit" that centers on misanthropy rather than scientific interest.