Thursday, June 26, 2008

Good News From Mars


First came news that there is water ice on Mars.

Then came news that the soil on Mars has the alkaline and mineral nutrient properties that can support plant growth.



Water to drink.


Water (H2O) to separate into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen and oxygen to recombine in a fuel cell to create electricity.

Hydrogen and oxygen to combine combustively for rocket fuel.

Nutritoinaly and PH friendly soil in which to grow plants that can take inhale carbon dioxide (the dominate element in Mars' atmosphere) and exhale oxygen (stuff we need to breathe).

Bottom line is, we can live on Mars.


We can take seed stock and basic materials and live off the land.


We can homestead Mars. We can terraform Mars.

As Ray Bradbury said in The Martian Chronicles, "We are the Martians".

9 comments:

Dexter Colt said...

"Bottom line is, we can live on Mars."

And, maybe in 20,000 years, we will.

I do like to ponder the future, but I was sort of "let down" when the hover-car never materialized.

Satyavati devi dasi said...

I can think of plenty of people I'd love to send off to do just that.

Anonymous said...

It does look promising. Unfortunately with the astronomical price of space travel (pun quite intended) I don't think we will see it in our lifetime.

FletcherDodge said...

With temperatures topping out at -20 degrees Celsius (that's -4 degrees F for those of us stateside), I think I'll stay home on balmy old, globally-warmed Earth.

"The D" said...

This whole "space tavel" thingy is just a fad. Like the holla hoop.

Xavier Onassis said...

nuke - sure we will. Keep in mind, even the very first human landing may have to stay on the planet for 18 months before heading back home.

That is more than enough time to build solar, nuclear or wind powered greenhouses and a lot of other infrastructure for future missions.

In fact, a lot of habitable infrastructure can be delivered before the humans even arrive.

Living on Mars will be a whole lot easier than living on the moon.

Xavier Onassis said...

Oh, and The D, my daughter would say "YOU'RE a fad!" 'Cause she's just clever with the comebacks like that.

Mark Smith said...

Settle down Buck Rogers, we havent finished fuckin this planet up. One thing at a time.

Xavier Onassis said...

Midtown - Don't worry. We'll leave a contigent behind to continue the Earth fucking.

But it's way past time that we started heading "out there".

We coulda done it 30 fucking years ago if it hadn't been for Nixon.

Fucking Republicans.