The Red Planet

[Izack]

Lately, with all of the OFMM-related things I've been doing, and reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars (excellent novel, by the way; it's quickly becoming one of my favourites) I've been getting a high dose of Mars-related information. It's developed into a fascination - a near-obsessive drive to learn more of it. I've even made sightings of it at night. With an old dusty telescope I found in the basement, I've managed to reveal nothing more than a dull red dot, but it's quite enough. I've seen it; it's a real object, and not something simply to read about.

Also on the topic of Red Mars and Mars missions is another recent interest in Mars: Terraforming. The idea of a single large ship (a little spore of Earth, if you will) arriving at Mars to find preplaced equipment, and then over decades changing the geology, meteorology and the very climate of an entire planet (and such an arid one at that) is simply amazing. It kills me that it will never happen in my lifetime (hahah, I made a funny!)

Needless to say, all this is having an impact on my writing. Especially the psychological aspects of Robinson's Ares voyage. 100 people, locked up in what was described to be 'like a large hotel with no exit,' for so long...

On that note, in a while I might try posting a sample of work here and see what you guys think of it.

:hail:

 

[Usquanigo]

This concept has come up before. General terraforming will never work on Mars. Or Venus.

That is to say... while you might be able to modify the atmospheric pressure and content, and even the climate itself. Even if you could somehow have a constant supply of water and fertile soil... it would never sustain life, at least not complex life (like us) out in the open for one very important reason - it has no magnetic field.

It did at one time, and the thinking is that that is when it may have supported life (on the surface I mean), but with a solidified core, there is no protection from errant particles from the sun. Every time we see an Aurora Borealis here on Earth and coo at the pretty visuals, on Mars, we'd be getting a pretty nasty dose of radiation (not to mention the lower levels in between those bursts), that would really screw up our cells.

SOME here (not that I'll name names) have argued with that fact till we were both blue in the face (and I got a warning), but it is true. And every time I hear scientists point this out, I think about that argument. lol

But anyway... yeah, it's really not a good idea.

Not to mention, 1/3 gravity would wreak havoc with humans too. So you're cramped in little habitats, unable to really go outside without protection, but your system also atrophies to the point where you can not even vist Earth anymore.

I dunno, but that sounds like a raw deal to me all around.

I would love to visit, and I'd even support colonization, I'd just want to kick OTHER people out while I stayed on the Oasis In Space.

 

[River Crab]

Yes, please do! I've been wondering about your writing for some time now. You can unload all your Starship Titanic existential angst onto us! :lol:

This part:

It's developed into a fascination - a near-obsessive drive to learn more of it. I've even made sightings of it at night. With an old dusty telescope I found in the basement, I've managed to reveal nothing more than a dull red dot, but it's quite enough. I've seen it; it's a real object, and not something simply to read about.

Wow! Sounds like something out of...I dunno, Ghostly Field Club. >.>
Makes me want to read more of your writing- even though it was just a blog post.
Anyway, I think I am becoming more interested in Mars, in part to similar reasons, one being you and this blog post. But that's about me.

Did you see Mars during the time it was extremely close to Earth, I think in 2006? I saw it through a telescope- I could make out terrain on the surface! THAT was amazing.

 

[Usquanigo]

Oh yeah....

Every time I see someone doing something they shouldn't be doing (screwing up an intersection, getting lost, whatever), ESPECIALLY if they are a local, I reflexivley, derogatorily call them a "tourist". lol I read that book when I was in grade school and that part has stuck with me.

Speaking of which -

"Heinlein Crater" (on Mars)

:-D

Oh, and of course.... -
http://instantgaragesale.com/items/IM002048.JPG

Love that particular cover. That's the one I have.

God, I haven't cracked any of those books in so long.... My all time favorite author too. At some point I really should. (again)

 

[Izack]

Minor details! Just a little note at the bottom of the checklist: "Oh yeah, and you'll have to restart the planetary dynamo. No biggie." :lol:
Yes, that little detail temporarily slipped my mind as I wrote the post. Oops.

And I'd like to think I'm a little better-translated than Ghostly Field Club! :rofl: