@anandamide

There is a good not too difficult way to solve the issue. Just punch the leading edge of Mars with ice rich asteroids until you get enough spin to increase core plasticity and reboot the magnetosphere. For legal purposes this is trademarked and copyrighted. To keep it out of suck hands like Musk's.

Atmosphere jump starts too. Mars is waiting to breathe again.

#democracy

@anandamide though the article is wrong on the "Sun too big" time-line, it's gonna be like 1 billion years or so until it starts getting really a bit too bright for water to not evaporate.

https://theconversation.com/the-sun-wont-die-for-5-billion-years-so-why-do-humans-have-only-1-billion-years-left-on-earth-37379

@anandamide sorry, but even I knew about Mars' mini-magnetosphere and I'm an idiot. It's not impossible to successfully colonize Mars if you are willing to throw money and several centuries of human capital at the problem. It's not ever going to be Earth and no one assumes it will be.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GL103999

@anandamide

"This ordering of priorities, in which the sacrosanct goal is to extend "the probable lifespan of consciousness" and space colonization the means, is above all else a monstrous permission structure for this outspoken bigot's vile social ideas, a kind of reductio ad absurdum for what's been doing business as "effective altruism" for a while now. The fantasy—and it is a fantasy—isn't one of space travel and exploration and some bright Star Trek future for humanity, but one of winnowing and eugenics, of cold actuarial lifeboat logic, of ever greater reallocation from the dwindling many to the thriving few. That's the world as Elon Musk and his cohort want it; Mars colonization is just a pretext."

Fucking bravo.

@anandamide this article unfortunately suffers from "Elon idea, therefore bad idea" syndrome. In this case, (a) creating a magnetosphere is in fact possible (cf. "How to create an artificial magnetosphere for Mars", R.A. Bamford et. al., https://arxiv.org/pdf/2111.06887.pdf), and (b) you don't need a magnetosphere if you live in enclosed, rad-protected areas.

The real problem, which the article buries midway through, is not doing enough to protect Earth.

@anandamide @rootwyrm It has been speculated that lava tubes might be the answer to long term stays in places like Mars or the Moon.

BUT…

There is still no practical way to shield from the radiation during the trip. Currently, NASA has only two approaches to this problem: send older astronauts and get them there and back as fast as possible.

@anandamide

Let me say this as emphatically as possible (climbs onto table and cups hands around mouth).

NO ONE SHOULD WANT TO LIVE IN A PLACE WHERE ELON MUSK CONTROLS YOUR OXYGEN ALLOTMENT.

That there is a subset of humans who think this is a good idea is wild.

#Mars #InterplanetaryTravel #ElonMusk #Musk

@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

@anandamide @frumble to sum it up: no matter how bad we fuck up our own planet (and wie are REALLY gold at that - and wie can become even better)

It will NEVER be easier to make another planet able to sustain us than it is to terraform earth back to a usable status.

No, not even if we make it a post-apocalyptic wasteland AND eradicate ALL living things down to even single celled organisms!