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'Terra-forming'.. (Or: 'Better Living Through Breathing an Oxygen/Nitrogen Mixture')
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stingray: [QB] ::works very hard to keep his composure:: First off, Venus and Mars [b]ARE[/b] in the habitability zone of the sun. Yes, they are. Second, target: Believe me, if I had the time or energy, I would give each and every member of this board a three hour seminar on how every preconception about going to Mars and making a new branch of civilization there is entirely feasible and possible. However, I'm limited to a bulletin board and emails. [i]"The second hurdle is Mars' lower gravity. Mars can't retain enough of an atmosphere to keep from freezing over the long run. If it could, it would be doing so right now, and we wouldn't be having this discussion."[/i] This is simply wrong. It is a factual error. Mars has no problem retaining its atmosphere because of gravity. It has to do with something else that we don't know about yet. If we can figure out what that is, then maybe we can fix it and maybe ***GASP*** we might be able to prevent it from happening here on Earth. Comparative planetology is a powerful, powerful tool. (The greenhouse effect was discovered by studying Venus) ::gets on knees and pleads:: Please please PLEASE read [i]"The Case for Mars"[/i] by Robert Zubrin. it will answer everything in slightly over 300 pages that I have tried to answer in brief here and in emails. [i]"Stingray, I know that you support the exploration for Mars. I do, however, feel that you need to do more for your cause. Like for instance, I think maybe you should learn how the social and economic matrices of a civilization affect the spread of exploration."[/i] That is one of the main goals of the Mars Society, target, as I've already tried to explain. Education is the key. I'm trying to educate seemingly intelligent (except for maybe Omega), traditionally educated, rational people about the facts of sending humans to Mars. Granted, my arguments are broad and sweeping and I address only the facts that you bring up (for lack of time). But here it is as fast as I can type it: There is no JFK today and there are no social conditions that will allow us a moon program style. Thanfully, because this would not allow us to truly explore Mars (as it did not allow us to truly explore the Moon). Instead we have to find another way. Traditionally, initial exploration projects have been funded by the government (Columbus, Lewis and Clark, etc.) and then private interests take over in developing the possibilities. This has yet to happen with space. Partly due to the government's (NASA's) reluctance to encourage private industries from sending humans to space. But its already happened with orbit, its about to really take off with [URL=http://www.mirstation.com]MirCorp[/URL]. In the context of Mars, governments will fund the initial 2 1/2 year missions and 'astronauts' will fly them. Then, once the infrastructure is there (and hoepfully the government discouragement is not), private enterprises will begin to exploit the possibilities. And there are many possibilities. I could go into the neccessity of a frontier for our civilization, but I won't. Watch our three hour special 'Mars on Earth' on the Discovery Channel on November 7. It will talk all about simulating Mars missions on Earth and paving the way. And as you watch, bear in mind that the fact that your watching means we've just accomplished as much PR work as scientific work. And we've only just started. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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