this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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I'm a space nut, and people often ask me about colonizing Mars. And I always think, sure I guess you could, but why? Once you've made it to orbit, make the most of it, why put yourself down at the bottom of a gravity well? Just colonize orbit, asteroids, or small moons. That's where the resources are, and that's where it's easy to move them.
Humans are very picky. Must have certain amount of gravity, need to see green stuff, can’t handle radiation etc. it’s is as if they were built to be on a specific planet and nowhere else.
You're totally right, but that gravity, that green stuff, neither of those are on Mars. In orbit at least you get the gravity, rotating habitats aren't that much more complicated than static ones.
I'm not sure if Mars' poison and irradiated soil will ever be useful for growing plants. I'm telling you while it is a similarly sized planet, it's still barely useful.
I think we could send robot farmers there to grow some food for the people living in orbit. Maybe low-G carrots could be nicer than the ones grown on earth.
Entirely possible. But hey, in a space station you could have a separate agriculture ring, it may turn out that plants grow most efficiently at some particular amount of gravity, having its own ring would let you experiment, to maximize yield. Also you can use shades and mirrors to precisely control the amount of sun the plants get, even provide them constant sun if that speeds up growth.