We have a pretty big mission to Mars going on right now. The rover is 5x the size of any previous lander. This is the biggest craft that we've ever sent to another planet. It's due to land on Mars on the 15th of this month.

As to what will bring humans to other planets? Profits. If we can make a profit from traveling to space, it will become an industry. I see no other way of getting there.

A company called Planetary Resources (partially founded by James Cameron) has plans to mine asteroids. Also, I don't think terraforming is something that happens in one century, it'd take a couple centuries, maybe even a couple thousand. So, in the near future, no, it's not viable. I think it'd be more viable to construct permanent, biospheres that could harbor human and plant life.

Also, I believe Venus is more open (in the scientific community) to terraforming then Mars. They would need to reduce the abundance of CO2 and introduce breathable oxygen and reducing the surface temperature.

Terraforming is just a theory so any amount of time could be valid with a reasonable argument.

Yes, it is a theory, but it still has a timescale placed with it. One that reaches over a thousand years+ depending on the method.

I think it is a long way off. Under two circumstances, I see this happening:

1) Space travel becomes ridiculously cheaper than it is now.
2) Earth's resources become so critically exhausted that the value of extraterrestrial resources exceeds the enormous cost of harvesting.

It is much more pragmatic/realistic to develop alternatives sources of energy and production, here on Earth.

If Carl Sagan says it is possible then it's possible.

What are the reasons behind choosing Venus over Mars?

I also wonder this. Is there water on Venus? I know Mars is appealing because we know water is hidden in various places over there.

The reasons pretty much balance out. Venus already has a dense atmosphere, capable of keeping whatever we put into it in. The two big bumps are temperature and CO2, both of which are a result of the greenhouse effect, which is something we are working on right now, so we may have more technology in the future to backwards "engineer" Venus's gases, possibly with the use of nanobots when they come about. While Mars may be easier to terraform, we already have a head start on Venus's problems, due to similarity between it and Earth. Venus is referred to Earth's sister planet for a reason.

-Wiki

I believe this is the most viable idea. Since introduces an abundance of water and greatly reduces the presence of CO2 in the atmostphere.

Though, Mars is just as viable (maybe even more so).

Either way, neither of these planets will be able to be walked on by a human without protection for a very long time, we may always need a suit and oxygen supply to walk the surface. Our biggest hope is biospheres, dot the planet with them and terraform around them.

In my fantasy world, I like to imagine our terraforming of the moon into our own little Endor. But I think this is so far out there that it may as well be impossible.

Mars is much more viable. Easier to protect because it's smaller (both Venus and Mars lack a magnetosphere) and Mars has a roughly comparable day length, unlike Venus which is many times longer.

Any terraforming project that could solve the problems on Venus would be easier to use on Mars.

with the discovery of the Hegens particle (the god particle) and the invention of carbon nano tubes and ion drives and mastery of centrifuge technology and many more technological marvels I'm pretty sure we will colonize the moon then mars in the next 30 years.

if we can use the hegens particle to its full extend maybe we might do it in less and travel further. (and faster)

also with the planet hunting programs going strong now I would say finding earth like planets is just a matter of time (a few months or years), if said planets are not already "occupied" finding earth 2 will 1000% propel the want and NEED to send a few million settlers there.

its a very exciting time to be alive in, reminds me of the 19th century when technology warp speeded forward so fast no one knew what hit them.

only thing holding us back is the political drag, but its an inevitable step and when the first step is made no one will want to be left behind, think cold war space programs but on steroids and its EVERYWHERE even the private sector.

I plan on spending my retirement on Mars to be honest OR some random alien planet if we find one (and we could get there fast ), see new things meet new people....

Either way, we probably won't even start to terraform a planet for a few centuries. And when we do, the entire process would take a couple thousand years.

We first need to experiment on earth by terraforming our deserts.

If we are worried about resource depletion and/or overcrowding, we first need to look towards biospheres before we even touch terraforming.

Too what extent?

Even if we do find a inhabitable planet or inhabitated planet, "Earth 2" is likely many light years away. We'd need to construct a craft capable of reaching the planet and sustaining life on it to reach said planet, which would likely extend past the 30 years right there.

I wouldn't count on living on a different planet a few decades from now, the closest you'd get is taking a very expensive space cruise to the moon to live in a bubble for a few days.

venus is a BAD idea, not only is the day 243 earth days, the pressure is horribly high and surface temperature is high enough to melt lead, it rains acid and the weather is in constant stormy turmoil.... its just way easier and cheaper to start with the moon and mars

well interstellar travel might be a little way off BUT if we do manage to discover FTL drives that problem is solved for good.... BUT on the off chance it takes more time that i except, I think Mars will be a very good place to start making earth 2

OR maybe we make first contact soon... mathematically the chances are multiplying exponentially every year, since our "signals" are expanding in a bubble.... example: lets say we are surrounded by 10 stars that are 2 light years away.... we send a signal and in 2 years it reaches all those systems, BUT in 4 more years it reaches 100 systems (bubble expanding) in 4 more years it reaches 10000 systems in 100 years it reaches 1000000000000000000000000 systems... see where I'm going

I don't think the moons atmosphere is anywhere near high enough for us to even get water to stay there

People said that 50+ years ago.

I know, realistically I can at least hope that one day humans will have a permanent presence on the lunar surface. I haven't heard anything recently about the possibility of fusion power plants on the moon (using that one weird isotope of Helium or Hydrogen, I forget), but that would be a good start to our extraterrestrial mining ventures.

actually 50 years ago we were still dreaming about laptops that are cheap as hell and cell phones for everyone and genetic engineering and making cloned bladders and heart tissues.... oddly enough we can't live without them now XD.

hell I'm living prof of the advancement of science.

50 years from now, I will be drinking wine on Olympus moons http://www.scenicreflections.com/files/mars_olympus_moons_Wallpaper_ksad.jpg inside my very safe habitat module XD

actually on paper we can terraform the moon BUT in practice it would cost so much and take so much time its just makes more sense to wait until technology is cheaper and more accessible, all you need is a massive shield that can ward off solar death, and a device inside the moon's core to increase gravity a little bit (taking into account what that would do to the moon's orbital path and what it would do to the earth and compensating with more mind boggling tech, like maybe pushing it a little further away) then its just a matter of placing fusion reactors that can mass produce all the basic elements that will jump start the atmospheric process.

The closest thing we have to a FTL drive is the Alcubierre drive theory, which even then, isn't really FTL. It involves expand space-time in a bubble behind the craft and shrinking it in front (think of bending a piece of paper so that it's wavy and the length is shorter). Even then, that technology is way, way, way ahead of us. Something that is not going to to be accomplished (if it even works) for a century or two, let alone a couple decades. Even if we did make a FTL drive, a human could not operate it, as they would be crushed as soon as they activated it.

And again, if we do start to terraform Mars, progress will be very, very slow and may not be completed for thousands of years.

In my study of Astronomy, I don't see how else we're supposed to move into space. In the next 4-5 billion years, the sun will become a Red Giant and the last planet it will engulf will be Earth.. we'll have to take small steps and basically pave the way to the space age. From the shows I've watched, we've already spotted hundreds of planets out there and although not all of them are good candidates for a new Earth, one of them is at least a starting point from one of the recent episodes I saw. We just need the right technology (space ships, warp drives, portals) to survive after Earth.. easier said than done, but there really isn't any other way.


You're right, and as said above.. even though it's easier said than done, we have to figure something out eventually.


Venus would be impossible.. it's the most hellish planet in our solar system and though not the closest to the Sun, it has an atmosphere (unlike Mercury) and I don't see anything with it working. Better to go the other way.. Vadagar's description of Venus fits it perfectly.

50 years ago computers were as big as a house and calculated simple arithmetic and phones were connected via operators, no-one was dreaming about these things at all. Put yourself in the shoes of someone in 1962, are you really thinking about cellphones for everyone or cheap laptops? Or are you instead oblivious to the fact they would ever exsist and thinking about reaching mars and living on the moon? Space travel was something that had a massive advance with the russians lauunching a human into space for the first time. Computers were more like the LHC, people questioned why we were spending money on what was basically a calculator.

Gravity has no effect on atmosphere, and it would be more a matter of seeding the moon with minerals to support plant life than fusion reactors.

Mars I think is the best candidate for terraforming, it's a while since I read up on the subject, but it did have water on it's surface and (possible) a form of life, so I think it would be the logical place to make our first babystep into space colonisation. If we can manage it with the technology of the next few centuries years then I think it will be viable to leave the solar system before ours dies.

we don't need to terraform it to live on it we can make a bustling metropolis that thrives on mining all the nice gold, uranium, and iron that is still sitting there untouched, and terraform as fast as we want, no hurry

and if Mrs hegens is right (and he is) then we won't need warp drive to go FTL.