Humans Will Never Colonize Mars

Especially if the systems run on Windows 10.

Mars needs terraformed first.

 

Your response here contradicts your earlier position on studying the effects of .4g.

 

You mean, like why would you send more than one doctor to a mission in Antarctica?



Well, the Soviets found that out when the team doctor, Dr. Leonid Rogozov came down with appendicitis. So as another of the team members held a mirror, in 1961 the doctor had to remove his own appendix.

Even in the most healthy individuals, medical emergencies can develop outside of accidents. And even more so if you consider that accidents can happen.

 

How about if they were able to figure out a way to create artificial gravity? That might solve most of the problems related to the gestational process.

 

A good medic can do an appendectomy. And you could always simply remove appendixes ang gall bladders before a mission for the early crews anyway.

 

I'm not interested in the effects of .4g. Studying it isn't worth the problem.

 

You have got to be joking.

Having an appendix removed requires a waiver to even join the military. And having a gall bladder removed is a permanent non-waiverable disqualification.

And you are saying remove them just in case? Sure, remove the spleen and wisdom teeth also while we are at it.

 

Create artificial gravity on a planetary surface?

I don't know of even a theoretical way to do that. Sounds like it would just be easier to build a new planet from scratch.

 

I guess that just shoulda strapped some random dudes in a rocket and shot them at the moon in the 60's. All that studying. Meh.

 

It's not just solar flares that are an issue. Mars has very little atmosphere so the solar radiation that we are protected from would be hitting colonists constantly. This means each dome would need adequate shielding to protect inhabitants for years, if not decades.

 

Why would having your appendix removed require a waiver?

I dunno about the military you were in, but the one I was in stuck us in a chair and pulled our wisdom teeth at the first opportunity.

 

No magnetic field either.

 

That's the term I was searching for, not atmosphere.

 

In your defense they both contribute

 

I was reading an account of life aboard the U.S.S. Nebraska, Ohio class submarine. The medic aboard (nicknamed "Doc" of course) said he could probably remove an appendix. Ironically one of the sonarmen did come down with appendicitis near the end of the deterrence patrol and was eventually evaced.

Dedicated surgeons aboard early manned missions to Mars are a waste of a crew spot. Zubrin explains this in his book "The Case for Mars".

 

As I've pointed out the bulk of the planet shields the astronauts from cosmic rays from one direction. Sandbags on the habitat roofs shields from the rest.

 

We didn't launch them into the Van Allen belts "just to see" how the radiation affected them.

 

Because it is a major surgery.

Well, the military I am still in, the US Military.

I first joined in 1983. And even though they knew even back then my wisdom teeth were coming in sideways, they were not removed until 2007 when they started to cause me problems.

 

You've been in the military 36 years? That's a heck of a waiver.

Well the Marine Corps I joined in 1988 wanted to make sure we didn't develop a problem on deployment, so they pulled our wisdom teeth as soon as they started poking through for annual checkup.

An appendectomy is not a major surgery. A laparoscopic procedure heals in 1-2 weeks, open it's 2-4.

I've seen guys with shin splits on light duty longer than that.

 

The point is you don't think it's worth studying the long term effects of gravity when a trip to Mars takes years.

It's not like they can fly back from Mars on the weekends to visit once they're there.

 

6 months outbound
18 months on Mars
6 months return.

Two and a half years total

 

Absolute minimum if everything goes perfectly.

If everything does go perfectly, shouldn't we know what happens if you spend 6 months zero G, 18 months .4G, then another 6 months zero G?

It might save some lives or something.

 

Not likely. We've already has cosmonauts spend about 15 months straight in zero G (aboard Mir), so its very unlikely that another 15 months in .4G would be that big a deal.

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

 

So, we've had the ISS for a long time; why don't we know this stuff already? If it can be done in 0g then it can probably be done even easier in .4g

 

What an incredibly psychopathic line of thought. You want people to risk their lives just to give you a Murica boner, and then you don't give a damn about their suffering when they do? Sick.