The case for Mars
The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions. It explains step-by-step how we can use present-day technology to send humans to Mars within ten years; actually produce fuel and oxygen on the planet's surface with Martian natural resources; how we can build bases and settlements; and how we can one day "terraform" Mars - a process that can alter the atmosphere of planets and pave the way for sustainable life.
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What Hacker News says
- I'm as critical as OP on data centers in space, but "A City on Mars" was a really badly researched book, full of errors, that completely misrepresented the would-be Mars settler position. I wouldn't take seriously anyone quoting it unless they've also read, at minimum, "The Case for Mars" as well.
- Zubrin does a good job of outlining why Mars is better in his book "The Case for Mars.". He's thinking underground structures on Mars with solar panels and some pressurized agriculture up top.
Mars had much less harsh living conditions than the moon and having water and CO2 around makes living off the land, at least partially, a lot easier than on the moon. The delta-v to get to the moon vs. Mars isn't much different. Getting out of Earth's gravity well is the hard part.
- They'd be better off reading Zubrin's The Case for Mars since SpaceX is essentially just following the plan he outlined in that book.
- The book The Case For Mars does a good job arguing against the value of the moon and for the value of Mars. Mars has substantially more valuable resources, and more crucially, has many resources needed to sustain a colony. The moon is quite barren and would require enormous costs with little upside.
- We can get methane and oxygen from the martian atmosphere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier_reaction#Manufacturin...
This can be elaborated to produce plastic feedstocks. However, for making an earthlike atmosphere, we'd need to import nitrogen.
For more, check out The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin.
- Mars is a better space body for a colony. I suggest reading "A case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin.
