Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Cultivating life on Earth and elsewhere.

Don't make it too complicated.
TB — (archived)

Long-term colonization of a planet is simply a matter of efficient transportation, particularly of cargo.

Look at the complex societies and cities that have grown on isolated portions of the Earth, where almost everything except basics like breathing air and water have to be imported.

Look at Honolulu sometime, and reflect that every piece of that came over on a boat. Most of our advanced technology and the infrastructure of Western civilization comes in pieces small enough to fit on a rail car or inside a truck.

It is silly to assume that someone on Mars would have to build their own television sets, or water pumps, any more than every city in the world has to have its own TV factory. Maybe someday, when it becomes cheaper, or for some reason, more efficient to build things there, they will be. Simpler items will be home-grown first. Food crops, for sure. Mechanisms for air and water creation from local resources. I could easily see a lumber and furniture industry from Mars-grown trees under inflatable domes. Breeding a radiation-resistant tree might not be as hard as it sounds.

But simply shipping what you need in is going to work just fine for most things.

Nuclear or fusion propulsion is probably the only technological link needed for widescale colonization of the Solar System.

Personally, I think space colonies on asteroids will turn out to be at least as practical as colonies on planetary surfaces. For one thing, since there is little or no gravity well to deal with, an asteroid has a big advantage for transport to and from it. It has solar power available (although the assumption is cheap nuclear energy) and can be equipped with centrifugal elements for gravity if needed. I expect the medical problems of zero-gee might be at least as easy to solve as nuclear propulsion, and a hell of a lot easier than creating a full-planet working Terran-style ecosystem on Mars.

All of this presupposes, of course, a major economic reason for going out there in the first place. Resources are one. Metals for example. There have been cultural reasons for colonization, and some of these will be factors, but in our history, most of the movement of humanity into new territory has been so that people can prosper.

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