Mastodawn

Pipford Sep 11, 2024

"Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars"

It's great to see someone FINALLY mention the magnetosphere issue, in the very first sentence no less, but this article rips into the idea so much more thoroughly than that, and with admirable gusto.

#skeptic #musk #mars

https://defector.com/neither-elon-musk-nor-anybody-else-will-ever-colonize-mars

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars | Defector

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars’s dead core? No? Well. It’s fine. I’m sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan…

Martin Piper (he/him) 💙💛🌻💉Sep 12, 2024

@anandamide
A type of moss grows at 6,480 metres (21,260 ft) on Mount Everest and it may be the highest altitude plant species.[66]

Researchers have found evidence that microbes live in the ice at the South Pole

This rather refutes the claims in the "article".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/827063.stm

Mount Everest - Wikipedia

Roel Nieskens Sep 12, 2024

@martin_piper @anandamide 6480 meters is not 8800 meters, and microbes aren't "complex life" are they?

Martin Piper (he/him) 💙💛🌻💉Sep 12, 2024

@pixelambacht "Complex life is normally defined as eukaryote life forms, including all animals, plants, fungi, and most unicellular organisms."

Martin Piper (he/him) 💙💛🌻💉Sep 12, 2024

@pixelambacht also: https://earthsky.org/earth/mount-everest-climbers-leave-germs-behind/#:~:text=On%20Mount%20Everest%2C%20most%20of,for%20our%20future%20in%20space.

Mount Everest climbers leave their germs behind

EarthSky | Updates on your cosmos and world

@martin_piper Oh wow indeed: "...the germs climbers leave behind at the South Col might survive a very long time … centuries"

Well, off to Mars then!