On the other hand, there are some interesting points to be made about who ends up "owning" Mars. It's a lot more difficult to cross interstellar space than it is the Atlantic. Governments and billionaires currently will govern who goes and what gets established there. I think now is a good time to be discussing how much right they will have over who goes. What will that mean for liberties? Will people have to indenture themselves to pay for passage, becoming essentially slaves to the initial settlers and rich sponsors?

Now THOSE are the real questions about Martial equality in my mind

And lots of sci-fi takes on this general theme

For good reason

the problem is mars doesn't really have much of an atmosphere in comparision to earth.

it's about a hundred times thinner, meaning that the sun's rays beat on it much harder. Think of the ultra violet rays that strike our planet, and then consider them being a hundred times more powerful.

True, but if we are patient it looks like there are the necessarily resources to terraform it. It'll just take a thousand year.

not much at all could survive that.

Genetic modification, baby!

meaning there's not really any life to be found on mars.

only remnants of it

Then we put life there, starting with microbes and plants.

so no, we shouldn't look for life on mars, because we won't find any.

We'll make our own life there.

We may actually find life. Microbes in some places, But i'm kinda betting it'll look like primitive Earth microbiota.

it's not feasibly possible for something like that to exist on a planet without atmospheric protection against the violent rays of the sun

It is if it's underground or in shaded places. Or the poles where the suns rays are oblique.

That's also where the water likely exists

it would have to be miles under the surface.

radiation would leak pretty far in, as well as heat.

Meters would likely suffice, or less in shaded places or the poles. I think it's worth exploring with robots before we send people. It'll be about 15 years before we send people so make use of the time.

I like the robot probes, anyway. My biggest philanthropic beneficiary is the Planetary Society. They actually fund things like solar sails and instruments on NASA, ESA, and JSA probes.

@Grenade123 just read it. Full of npc garbage.

As far as we know, there's no life to displace on mars in the first place (Besides very small lifeforms perhaps). As for its environment, it's currently inhospitable and couldn't get much worse for supporting life, let alone intelligent life.

That article reads like absolute trash

We need to decolonize the sciences, says the Afro woman, quick call the witch doctors. We need lightning.

Lol

From the article: "But I’m disturbed by the way people talk about going to Mars as if the planet is ours..."

Who's is it exactly then? It sounds like this person has conceptualized an idea of intelligent life on mars without any evidence for such an idea. I don't think microbes are very concerned with much, let alone what we do on mars

Until some other civilization claims the planet as their own, there isn't much stopping anyone from claiming mars as their own. These people sound worried about a microbe genocide. I don't think we can make smallpox blankets that small though

Mars is mine

I just claimed it

Lol

I think we should send them all up there to consult with the apparent microbes. Let them breathe the atmosphere so they can understand the microbes ‘lived’ experiences.

@taekahn too bad you don't have the means to defend your claim (here come the ancaps)

Oh, don't I? Don't I?

Recreational nukes are the answer. Duh.

Reminder not to click on Gizmodo links.

Let them starve.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlKao_Pox5A>

Use archivers to access all Gawker properties, and use your hosts file to block all Gawker domains.
<http://archive.fo/xeNuR>
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@Salacious Swanky Cat I believe they are called McNukes™