Comments on: Which Worlds Should We Colonize First?

By: Darnell Clayton

Darnell Clayton — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:41:00 +0000

@ Brock: Gravity will indeed be a major problem for future settlers, and your idea of using pigs to procreate on Mars is a good idea.

Perhaps we should test this on the Moon first (as it contains 1/6th Earth gravity).

@ Snake Oil Baron: Crew rotation is probably what NASA has in mind, although we are going to have to find a medical breakthrough (hopefully in the next decade).

By: Snake Oil Baron

Snake Oil Baron — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:03:00 +0000

I suspect that the health effects of low gravity can be overcome as medical science gives us a better understanding of what is going on. many of the health effects are similar to symptoms of other diseases so treatments developed for them could provide useful for space living. The first lunar colonies will be “permanent” but not have permanent residents; they will be staffed with rotating tours of duty or like the way seasonal resorts function on earth so we will learn a lot about this problem in a controlled setting before we move on to Mars with better gravity. Interestingly, the weaker a body’s gravity is, the cheaper it is to get to orbit where spinning stations can serve as a higher gravity rest and recuperation center.

By: Brock

Brock — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 15:52:00 +0000

Eh. I’m not sold on most of the planets you name as significant colonies. Despite all the good sci-fi about inhabiting and terraforming Mars, and cities on the moon, I expect the gravity problem is intractable. We know the health effects of zero-g (they’re bad), and I expect that small fractions of g will also be bad, even if the problems take longer to surface. As a simple for instance, I’d need to see a couple dozen generations of pigs procreate and give birth without complications before I considered letting my wife get pregnant while on the moon.

That being said, I expect spinning space colonies to be fairly successful. They can be even closer to the asteroids, or they can orbit the smaller worlds to mine them for resources.