http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150808.html

If that doesn't wet your whistle, I don't know what will🙂

Click on the image and you can get a greatly magnified view, especially of the foreground. Incredible image!

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150808.html

If that doesn't wet your whistle, I don't know what will🙂

Click on the image and you can get a greatly magnified view, especially of the foreground. Incredible image!

Originally posted by Soothfast
Looks like a good place to set up a hotdog stand, like that guy in The Martian Chronicles.

It has a grandiose, harsh and hostile beauty that is captivating...

For about five minutes, after which you start thinking, "I would like to go somewhere with trees,
grass, birds, water, life..."

I cannot imagine wanting to go to Mars to stay [as opposed to visiting] when it is so hostile
and barren.

It's one of the reasons I prefer built space habitats that are designed to be Earth-like and
comfortable.

Kinda like this... http://www.spacehabs.com/projects/#portfolio/20/

But probably much larger, that's an 'early prototype' sized habitat.

Originally posted by googlefudge
It has a grandiose, harsh and hostile beauty that is captivating...

For about five minutes, after which you start thinking, "I would like to go somewhere with trees,
grass, birds, water, life..."

I cannot imagine wanting to go to Mars to stay [as opposed to visiting] when it is so hostile
and barren.

It's one of the reasons I prefer built sp ...[text shortened]... /projects/#portfolio/20/

But probably much larger, that's an 'early prototype' sized habitat.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I don't think there will be above ground habitats on Mars till they work up some kind of planet wide magnetic field. I envision a superconducting cable going around the Martian equator with maybe 20,000 amps or so making a field capable of shielding most of the ions of the solar wind. If they do that, they can think about rebuilding an atmosphere and do a terraforming on Mars.

Originally posted by sonhouse
I don't think there will be above ground habitats on Mars till they work up some kind of planet wide magnetic field. I envision a superconducting cable going around the Martian equator with maybe 20,000 amps or so making a field capable of shielding most of the ions of the solar wind. If they do that, they can think about rebuilding an atmosphere and do a terraforming on Mars.

Originally posted by googlefudge
Not having a magnetic field will certainly cause any atmosphere on Mars to get blown off
at a much higher rate that of the Earth [for example].

But it's still not overnight.

I suspect it would be far simpler to just replace the atmosphere at the rate it's lost.

However the difficulties in terraforming a planet, and the time needed to do so are some of
the reasons I have for preferring habitats in space.

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150808.html

If that doesn't wet your whistle, I don't know what will🙂

Click on the image and you can get a greatly magnified view, especially of the foreground. Incredible image!