Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars’s dead core? No? Well. It’s fine. I’m sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan […]

By Albert Burneko

9:00 AM EDT on September 11, 2024

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars’s dead core? No? Well. It’s fine. I’m sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan for shielding live Mars inhabitants from deadly solar and cosmic radiation, forever. No? Huh. Well then let’s discuss something else equally realistic, like your plan to build a condo complex in Middle Earth.

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  • hackerwacker@lemmy.ml
    26·
    2 months ago

    I honestly don’t think any wetware human will ever land on Mars or even enter its orbit.

    We’ll be posthuman cyborgs before that happens.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      142·
      2 months ago

      The idea of “posthuman cyborgs” is so fanciful, that I don’t think you are connected enough to reality to even make an accurate judgement on “the possible.”

      We have the technology TODAY, RIGHT NOW to go to mars and make it back. There is no over-arching reason to do such a thing, but there are also no significant technological barriers preventing us from doing it. Human Cyborgs are 100% impossible today, and there are a myriad number of things preventing that kind of development. For example, we cannot today, keep a brain alive for any significant time, outside of it’s existing organic support body. Individual neurons? Sure, but a system of neurons at any comparable complexity as even a simple mouse brain? Nope. On the other-hand we have actually kept people alive in space for over a year, and we only need around 2years to get to mars and back. We also have the capability to send things to mars and bring them back, so combining those two things, and there ya go.

      • hackerwacker@lemmy.ml
        27·
        2 months ago

        We really don’t. We can barely make it to orbit. Boeing is failing at even doing that.

        It’s like saying your grandpa can climb Mount Everest because he can shamble to the local tesco. It’s not even close.

        • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          81·
          2 months ago

          this is straight up nonsense. we get into orbit just fine, ISS has been operating for decades. Going beyond that is only a matter of political will, not a limit of tech or engineering. In fact they are working on Artemis to go back to the moon right now, and Mars after that.

          and i actually disagree with the person above that we can go to mars right now. there are issues they need to figure out, but they are solvable problems. This isn’t like cold fusion that is 30 years away from being 30 years away.

          also boeing isn’t representative of the aerospace industry or even just NASA. They are mismanaged and negligent. they can’t even build airplanes, never mind spacecraft.

          • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            14·
            2 months ago

            Going beyond that is only a matter of political will

            Yeah, who’s willing to murder a bunch of hapless astronauts?

            also boeing isn’t representative of the aerospace industry or even just NASA. They are mismanaged and negligent. they can’t even build airplanes, never mind spacecraft.

            Tell that to NASA.

            • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 months ago

              Yeah, who’s willing to murder a bunch of hapless astronauts?

              pure ignorance.

              Tell that to NASA.

              what does this even mean? NASA knows, that’s why they didn’t let Boeing take astronauts back. NASA had concerns and acted accordingly, as a competent organization should.

    • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 months ago

      just landing on mars? nah that’ll happen soon. settling it on a long term basis is a whole other matter though.

      • hackerwacker@lemmy.ml
        87·
        2 months ago

        We can land corpses or soon-corpses on Mars sure. Getting people there and back reliably and in good shape is going to be extremely difficult if not completely impossible. And the benefit is near zero.

        • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          2 months ago

          difficult yes, of course. impossible, not even close. NASA’s goal is by the 2030s - even if you don’t believe that timeline which would be fair, the technology is well within our reach.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
          3·
          2 months ago

          Every time we do it we learn from it. That’s nowhere near zero.