
Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species - taylorbuley
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu
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secfirstmd
Nice to have it in a paper but nothing much new from the talk that it came
from.

Not to diminish it at all, I could read about Musk and SpaceX all day. I find
it a great hangover cure / distraction from the Clown Shoes shitshow of
American politics. Such hope in the future at times like this is awesome.

I would love to hear more technical information about some challenges like
what is needed for second stage recovery to work? How far along are we in
building tech to be able to create the fuel on Mars? and on a lighter note -
which other species should come with us first? I vote dogs, I mean let's be
honest, they already got to space before us and they would be an awesome
morale builder for a one/two year journey...Cats however....

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boznz
The argument about doomsday asteroids etc is the wrong argument to take, it
would still be much easier to survive on the earth even after several killer
asteroids than to survive on Mars or another planetary body.

Even if you build your mars base here tomorrow, lets say in Antarctica, nobody
has yet got the closed loop environment problem solved as far as I'm aware and
supplies will still be required from outside.

Saying that I'm bullish the Human race will become inter-planetary in the next
50 years and wish those working to make it happen the best of luck.

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restalis
_" We have, in terms of nearby options, Venus, but Venus is a high-
pressure—super-high-pressure—hot acid bath, so that would be a tricky one."_

That "acid bath" doesn't reach the soil, Mr. Musk! The temperature and the
high pressure are a problem indeed. For humans though, Venus is the only sane
option, considering the Earth-like gravity alone. (There's also the induced
magnetosphere and a bunch of other good stuff, as bonus.) A high speciation
risk comes from living for long (like in the span of generations) time in
unnatural environments, and I'd say that from all places outside Earth, Venus
bears that risk on its lowest levels.

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rawland
One author? Honestly?

Besides that, I'm not sure, where to even start, so let's start here:

    
    
        "I do not have an immediate doomsday prophecy, but 
        eventually, history suggests, there will be some
        doomsday event".
    

For the sake of my children: Overly pessimistic and unscientific.

Flying to Mars can be done. For sure. By the work of many.

Then. I have trust, that humans will first clean up the dirty mess in their
current habitat ahead of polluting any other.

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manicdee
Humans have never cleaned up one mess before starting a new one. What makes
you think multiplanetary civilisation will be any different?

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rawland
Humankind has to. On smaller scales, they did many times. There are plenty of
examples. Here one I really like:
[https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air](https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/air):

    
    
        In Europe, emissions of many air pollutants have
        decreased substantially over the past decades,
        resulting in improved air quality across the region.

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manicdee
In the other corner we have Exxon Valdez, BP Deep Horizons, Aliso Canyon,
rednecks driving "coal rollers", the Koch brothers campaigning against EVs,
and the Australian government using the drug dealer defence in relation to
coal mining.

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rawland
Many Europeans see this and are afraid that it will get worse in the US. In my
opinion, that's the reason for the strong resistance against TTIP/CETA.

However, we're heading off topic. :-)

