The Off-World Colonies

InvisibleBadger

A new life awaits you...

http://www.space.com/18596-mars-colony-spacex-elon-musk.html

Elon Musk(founder of SpaceX) wants to settle Mars. Tickets are looking to be $500,000. On twitter he has said that 80,000 colonists a year are needed.
It's a long way off, but pretty interesting/cool all the same.

coylemj

It's nothing but a cheap publicity stunt, same as the one Pan Am did in the 1970s when they started taking bookings for the first scheduled flight to the Moon.

nokia69

its not a publicity stunt, musk wants to send people to mars and he wants to go there himself

everything spaceX do is based on the long term goal of walking on mars, for a while I thought musk was a bull****ter, just looking for headlines, but the man is the real deal

unlike pan am he is building rockets and has sent payload to LEO and returned it, not bad for a private company, large countries have tried less and failed

if musk can make his falcon 9 reuseable then he will reach mars, its will just be a matter of time

but first we will see a return to the moon and I bet it will be musks falcon heavy that will send a private mission to the moon in the next ten years

a return to the moon is easy and could be done for a few billion mars is harder for now but it will happen

ThatDrGuy

Why would anyone want to go to live on Mars? All the water is at the poles where there is little to no sunlight for crops. The lack of a magnetosphere means large amounts of radiation - way too much to actually spend much time there. 38% G means severe osteoporosis in the long term too with all the calcium leaching out of your bones causing chronic kidney stones. The place is a desert, certainly beautiful in its way but so is death valley (which no one is daft enough to attempt to colonise ) The scientific bases in Antartica are totally unsustainable without massive imports of supplies which would be economic lunacy to try on Mars. Private firms need to make profits - beyond the scientific and tourism there is nothing much on mars.

Mickeroo

ThatDrGuy wrote: »

Why would anyone want to go to live on Mars? All the water is at the poles where there is little to no sunlight for crops. The lack of a magnetosphere means large amounts of radiation - way too much to actually spend much time there. 38% G means severe osteoporosis in the long term too with all the calcium leaching out of your bones causing chronic kidney stones. The place is a desert, certainly beautiful in its way but so is death valley (which no one is daft enough to attempt to colonise ) The scientific bases in Antartica are totally unsustainable without massive imports of supplies which would be economic lunacy to try on Mars. Private firms need to make profits - beyond the scientific and tourism there is nothing much on mars.

Would be much better off putting the money into a manned research mission rather than aiming to colonise. It's a classic case of trying to walk before they can run.

Rhys Essien

ThatDrGuy wrote: »

Why would anyone want to go to live on Mars? All the water is at the poles where there is little to no sunlight for crops. The lack of a magnetosphere means large amounts of radiation - way too much to actually spend much time there. 38% G means severe osteoporosis in the long term too with all the calcium leaching out of your bones causing chronic kidney stones. The place is a desert, certainly beautiful in its way but so is death valley (which no one is daft enough to attempt to colonise ) The scientific bases in Antartica are totally unsustainable without massive imports of supplies which would be economic lunacy to try on Mars. Private firms need to make profits - beyond the scientific and tourism there is nothing much on mars.

Results from Curiosity recently has found that radiation levels would be the same as being on the ISS.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/17/curiosity-rover-mars-radiation-levels-safe-for-humans/

ThatDrGuy

Background levels - wait till its hit by a solar flare.. that will be interesting data.

nokia69

http://spaceports.blogspot.ca/2012/12/golden-spike-to-make-announcement-dec-6.html#

return to the moon being planned now

first the moon then mars :cool:

Maximus Alexander

If he can do return trips, I'm in. Best start saving.