You get to Mars. I'll be fuçking waiting.

I think the real question is what's the benefit of settling mars, not should we

Who said we knew how to terraform?

Didn't you read the Martian or play destiny. Only bad things happen

It's possible but it require a heavy shift in national priorities. Currently nothing beats fossil fuels for energy efficiency except perhaps nuclear but we don't have nuclear space ships nor do I think we ever will based solely on reasons of risk. Fossil fuels are quickly being expended and I don't think jet fuel rockets will carrying us around in space in the next hundred years as we are more likely to see a significant and dramatic leap BACKWARDS when fossil fuels become expunged. The current market, dominated by oil barrens in the Middle East, does not allow for the mass efforts of technological improvement if fuels so as to keep its hold on the market, we likely won't see another viable energy source become relevant unless late as possible and they lose their dominance. Even then there will be a significant amount of time passed before I think space travel will once again become relevant and it's quite possible this may not ever come to be. The eventual running out of oil will likely see nations rely on nuclear warfare as they fight for remaining resources, because oil isn't just fuel it is responsible for much of our society. Plastic bags, medicines, cars, tires, plastics, fuels, transportation, there are a limitless number of resources in our modern world that rely upon oil. Even if we don't destroy ourselves and each other via nuclear war we will see communities retract from being interstate and international to becoming very localized as motor transportation may become a thing of the past. When your nation and society stands to gain from new technological advances on the home front you can't expect policy to favor space travel then or even now. Currently our society cannot afford these luxuries let alone in a world without the high efficiency energy we have today. There are too many issues that we need to handle on the earth front, like world hunger, international differences, consumption of resources. Our population is rapid overloading the resources that the earth can provide and we can barely hold our shit together here let alone invest the (and let's be honest) hundreds of trillions of dollars it would cost internationally to terraform, colonize, develop, populate, and maintain a new world that offers no natural resources of its own. It's foolish on its face. Don't get me wrong I'm a super fan of science fiction and would love to see our race expand to other world and honestly believe it is the next step in our evolution but I don't think we will ever survive our nature to see it happen. Besides the philosophical ramifications there are plenty of fiscal and scientific concerns as well. 1/ what value is there is space travel? Considering it is incredibly unlikely that we will ever manage any kind of tech that will achieve anything close to light speed travel we need to assume that we will never leave the solar system. So what prospects do we have in the solar system? Not many outside the realm of knowledge or unretrievable resources. It's quite possible we may see drone tech used in this century to mine asteroids but even that is an incredibly expensive task that may never see gains to justify its reliance. Once again, considering the issues that we have on planet earth I doubt we will ever expand the resources needed to justify colonizing other planets. Unless we were happened upon by alien races who were willing to share their tech and knowledge with us it is unlikely we will ever make the leaps and bounds needed to escape our localized prison. Because that's our reality. 2/ to what end, and why, are we colonizing other planets in the first place? We can't take care of the planet we are on now. We consume and we destroy. Even as we are now becoming more aware of our effects on the planet, and attempt more and more "green" policies, these pale in comparison to the annual damage we are doing. The movie "interstellar" is popular largely in part due to its realistic interpretation of how the wold may end, it mentions resource wars, the degradation of our crops to biologically adapting bugs (this is actually happening), and the ultimate failure of our own atmosphere to support an environment in which we can survive (pollution/ global warming). So if we did go to a new planet it would be to escape the doom we are writing to ourselves. Would this be effective for a population? No. Even in the movie they can't realistically suggest any conclusion in how to save the population, only the race by setting up DNA colonies with which to start anew (using a wormhole to escape our solar system/ which is never going to be a possibility). Like i said, it is doubtful in the next few hundred years we will foot the bill to terraform a planet and populate it with no return of resources. Policy makers, governments, and populations will call it what it is, a "one way ticket" for those who are deemed worthy of escaping our planet. If space travel or colonizing of other celestial bodies ever happens it will be an entirely private affair and not one of a government or nationality, putting money on that. 3/ when would this be feasible, assuming we can take care of issues on earth? Personally I think colonizing Mars is a great idea and a necessary step but ultimately not thinking big enough. I would like to see humanity expand outside the solar system to other systems. Considering the nearest body would take many years even at light speed, it is not reasonable to make the trip at even incredible conventional speeds within the lifetime of any one person. Perhaps a trip that spans generations. Perhaps we could master some form of crio tech? Even assuming that these advancements, there is a particular idea I would like to share with you as to why such a trip should NOT be attempted within even the next couple hundred years. Consider that every so many years our advancements in technology allow us to travel faster and faster. It is quite possible, nay an eventuality, that a spaceship launched in year 2040 for example could be completely lapped multiple times over the duration of the trip by a ship launched in 2240, and that ship could be lapped many times over by a ship launched in 3040. So when does it become feasible? When would the human economy allow such a feat? For those of you interested in space travel, without overburdening you with tech and heavy verbiage laden articles and journals, I would suggest heading over to YouTube and checking out the Vsauce channel. He does a good job of making certain ideas palatable without shoving a bunch of theory down your throat. Reach for the stars, guardians.

Mars is a dead planet. Venus' atmosphere is actually more similar to Earth's than the others.

We have to have been to Mars already, how else do we get [u]Mars[/u] bars?

I'm always interested in Planetology-- but as usually the leading theories fail to examine other more likely possibilities. In order to have a 'dynamo' effect within a planet core, you require something that Mars no longer has-- a moon, to go along with sufficient mass. Only a relationship between 2 spherical masses of that scale can create this effect and rebuild the graviational and electromagnetic fields necessary to retain an atmosphere and magnetosphere to hold that atmosphere in. As for what happened to that moon-- I find it particularly interesting that there is a large meteor belt between Mars and Jupiter. In truth, unless we figure out how to stop gamma radiation (which normally contains about 8ft of lead), no one will ever go to Mars (or anywhere else beyond the moon). The _only_ reason astronauts made it to orbit and the moon and back, was because of Earth's magnetosphere which encompasses the moon. Consider that. That entire scientific endeavor was done with lethal ignorance-- they got lucky. It's what you don't know that kills you.

Not if conservatives keep saying we can't spend money on exploration and dare say scientific advancement...

A couple of your citations are wrong; Radiation(from space) on earth depends on where you live and what altitude you are at. Martian rotation is i believe 33.8 or 33.6 hours long (24 hours of daylight avg: changes pending latitude but the hours of night to day for that latitude are constant since mars IS NOT tilted) I skimmed the post but those 2 things vastly stuck out. Also we cant terraform the whole planet. (No magnetosphere means what ever atmosphere we add will mostly evaporate into space) also the atmospheric pressure is less than .01% of earths so no matter where you are on the surface; With out an environmental suit you almost instantly get the bends and shortly there after die. We CAN set up terraformed shelters on the surface or under ground tho.

3smart5me