

Will We Live On Mars? (Predictions From 2000) - tsally
http://www.time.com/time/reports/v21/science/mars.html

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ryanwaggoner
Things like this make me sad, because I fear that the optimism of my own
generation regarding things like space exploration, genetic engineering,
nanotechnology, and other potential technological leaps forward are just as
futile and fanciful as the last generation's were. Someone cheer me up :)

And also, how the _hell_ did we put men on the moon in the 1960s?

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jerf
Futile? Look around, they're _happening_. Now.

Don't look on CNN, though. It gave up science coverage.

There's been a lot of progress made in the fields of "things journalists don't
really understand", which encompasses an ever-wider range of stuff, including
robotics, materials science, biology in general, private space research, and
several other things.

Oh, your really fanciful stuff might be impossible, but the merely possible is
happening. Just... _slower_ than you'd like, but still, happening.

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ryanwaggoner
Forgive my ignorance, but what are some good sources to read about stuff like
this?

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nazgulnarsil
an aside about mars plans. what is the deal with all these inflatable habitat
and self constructing memory metal ideas? why would you build on the surface
when one of the main concerns is radiation? there are lots of cracks int he
surface of mars. with much less material you can simply roof off one of these
and carve rooms into the walls of the fissure. Build down dummies.

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geuis
And to think the fears of the day were the Soviet Union was going to beat us
to Mars.

