It’s the next great frontier for our species. We’ve left the planet, landed on the Moon, and even lived in space for a duration. Now it’s time to live on another planet, and SpaceX’s founder Elon Musk today announced plans on how that would work.
So let’s say this comes to fruition. SpaceX builds a giant, self-sustainable city on Mars. This might not come off for 40 or 50 years at the earliest, but let’s say it does.
Would you move planets?
I can’t help but feel it would be a wonderful way to end a life. I’m thinking about in the sense of how old I’d be by the time this comes together. I’m nearly 30 now, and so I’d be just nearing or having just begun retirement by the time the option of being a Mars colonist is available to me.
Sure, it might cost whatever my retirement savings ends up being. Hell, I might not be able to afford it. And SpaceX might not want old people. But I like the idea of living out my last days having seen a glimpse of what the next thousand years holds.
What about yourselves? If given the option to become a Mars colonist, would you do it? Would you walk away from all the trappings and comforts of Earth to be a part of history?
Comments
24 responses to “The Big Question: Would You Live On Mars?”
Hopefully step one isn’t getting obliterated on takeoff.
I dunno…unless they get the Earth-Mars internet working there’s gonna be a lot less people in the online game pool.
Although that means there would be less 12yr olds who have slept with my mum…
When I was young and single, absolutely. But now married with 2 kids, no way. Wouldn’t be fair on them.
Yeah that was my thought too. When I was young and single absolutely but now married and about to start trying for kids no. Fairer for them to live here and try make this world a better place.
Absolutely.
On Earth my life is small and meaningless (and there’s nothing wrong with that!) but living and dying on Mars my life would contribute in a substantial way to our scientific progress as a species.
Are there video games there? I’d go, help populate the planet I guess.
lol, “bangers, ready to bang”
If it’s good enough for Bowie then it’s good enough for me.
Absolutely. In relality I’m in the same too old and underqualified boat but if given the chance to ditch my day job and be a part of history? Totally.
I would go be a mars botanist… yes… im sure after a span of 10-20 years there will be flights back anyway
Hm. It strikes me as a really long plane trip to a desert island. Plane trips suck now. Deserts are beautiful, but eventually they kinda suck in other ways.
Yeah, I think it would be interesting for a time, and then you’d get cabin fever and start eating the faces off your companions while listening to the pixies whispering the secrets of the universe into your ear holes.
Pffft I don’t need to go to Mars to do that.
“Hey kids, you want to live in a farm? No? What if I told you it was a farm in Ass Creek, Australia, with barely fertile soil, like those pioneering drovers? Still no? Huh, what if I told you it was in the Australia of Space, Mars? That’s exciting right, kids? Also, it’ll take 3 months to get there.”
500 years hence, Jerkdad gets a statue of himself as the founder of the town. The kids are a footnote of history as having died of space syphilis.
Hmm, that’s actually a tough call. If everyone else goes to Mars then I’d stay here where there’s less people. The problem with that is that I’m staying on a planet humans that humans have slowly been destroying. Going to Mars would be a fresh new planet… that people would start destroying again.
So in answer, I’m going to go see what Spring is like on Jupiter.
In other words, You’ll hold my hand?
If they got cheap domes I’m in. Always wanted to start the first colony of mutants.
KUATO LIVES!!!
I’ll do it just to make a video of myself telling everybody I know to ‘get your ass to Mars.’
SEE YOU AT THE PARTY RICHTER!!! *tosses arms off lift*
No. Too many hell demons.
Not even slightly. Dont get me wrong, growing up I wanted to be in Star Trek and on board Voyager, DS9 or the Enterprise/s but now I’d rather live my life surrounded by friends and family. Apart from being woefully underqualified and far too poor to buy my way on to anything like these endeavours.
Only if it makes me wish I had 3 hands
The idea of retirement on Mars makes sense. Though only if I could take my vidya backlog with me.
I kind of enjoy oxygen so maybe not!
Of it gets me away from people on this planet then sure!
Yes..
Let’s see…
Negligible atmosphere, despite dreams of sci-fi writers, there isn’t enough to terraform…so forever living in domes…
Negligible magnetic field, hence why there is no atmosphere, so constantly being bombarded by energetic particles…a third arm would be the least of your worries.
Negligible employment/industry….ummm…what are people actually going to do inside their domes?
NO.
This is nothing like being an early settler – there is no vegetation, no fauna, no easily exploited natural resource. There is no rationale to settle other than “it’s there /we should try because…”.
The costs of shipping things there would be astronomical, and likewise shipping anything back. Unless Mars has huge easily harvested deposits of *unobtanium* (insert incredibly rare and valuable thing here) there is no economic drive that will make this work.
Wow!
Remind me never to ask you for a pep talk. 😉
I’m over 40 and I’ll probably be too told or too dead to go live on Mars by the time this becomes a reality. I do think it’s a good idea though! I remember reading a lengthy article on Elon Musk that said one of the reasons for the push to go to Mars is to have a ‘backup’ of humanity – a colony on an entirely other planet.
Humans are great at screwing things up on this planet. We sometimes forget that this planet also has a pretty good history of various massive life-changing events, like asteroids, ice ages, the end of ice ages, etc. If one of these rolls around, human-made or not, it’d be a nice idea if there was another colony nearby to help keep the species alive.
Yeah for sure!
What an adventure, and hey you’re gonna die of something anyway.
Holding onto as many Earth years as you have, leading a somewhat dull life is never going to trump a trip to another Planet. #Mindblown
It’s time to man up peeps and start a real life.
Nope. Life on Mars would suck. Millions of miles from friends and family, not much sunlight, can’t go outside without a spacesuit. But those are just unpleasant. There are far worse issues.
I would, however, move to an L5 colony. An environment designed for human comfort. A perfect 1g. Just the right amount of oxygen and nitrogen. Easy access to space. I can get back home in a matter of days, in time for Christmas or Thanksgiving with my friends family. Not to mention that the colony could be big enough to have a blue sky… beautiful landscapes… All in orbit.
Planets are just a waste of time.