Mars was bombarded by water carrying asteroids as much as earth, i don't see why there wouldn't be any water.
If the planet cannot be transformed to allow the generation of food/water, etc. then what's the point in having people live in modules? Thinking more about this it almost makes no sense to have a few people live in modules? And if they are not fully sustainable it won't be cost-effective or timely to shuttle materials/supplies back and forth over those long distances. Sure a few people can get out of those modules and risk their lives doing some research but we can achieve that more effectively with robots. And I'm still thinking many of these types of missions will be one-way trips so the younger the better. Maybe the entire astronaut's capsule/shuttle are just interlinking modules that land and connect with other modules growing the biosphere but they are one-way trips. This is the problem with long distances and harsh environments and costly missions...they begin to not make much sense the more I think about them...
NASA has estimated $500 billion for a Mars mission...in round numbers 1/2 trillion bucks. And the first mission would be a bit of a crap shoot because of all the unknowns. The further the distances and the harsher the environments just ratchets up the cost beyond what is affordable today. The US is broke and so is most other modern nations and most people won't justify these types of expenditures and they are huge dollar hits for private enterprise who have little to gain...
Thats why I am such a fan of robotic probes. If there is anything worth going to Mars for, they will find it
What might be the impetus for going to another planet/moon? Research? Something valuable to sell? Colonization? Escape from Earth? Avoiding the IRS? IMO there is no answer except for research. Research can be accomplished by robots. Again, the more I discuss this here the more I realize Mars and other Solar system travel by humans is very unlikely. Sure we can stick a few daredevils in a capsule and send them on a more than likely one-way trip to Mars but can we afford to sustain them with further and frequent missions?
Well the Moon would be a great source of helium 3 - I can see one day Titian being interesting because of the petro-chemical resources..........outside that? I got nothing lol
((((((((((((((Sigh)))))))))))))))) And here was I trying to get an opening for us older folk............ Especially since, as WFO points out - things might be on the up and up in weightlessness
Ganymede Closer than Titan, larger has a magnetosphere and O2 atmosphere. It would need to have more atmosphere but again you have plenty of water ice to heat. Nearby sources of methane would give you a carboniferous source for more blanketing atmosphere (remember you want a greenhouse effect so large amounts of CO2 would be an advantage
Huh I didn't know that - mind you contending with Jupiter's magnetic field would be a true (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)
I should have added scientific curiosity to my list...but in reality, that is my reality, because of the vast distances and dangers and high costs, unless this can be mitigated with something we don't yet know about, the only two reasons for Mars or beyond IMO are research and curiosity...both of which can be effectively carried out with robotic missions. Neither of these provide much incentive for the private sector to fund the multi-billion$ costs of these types of missions. Government will continue to chip in their measly $15-$20 billion per year for NASA which will be diluted between myriad NASA programs. We're never going to relocate millions of Earthlings to other planets. We're not going to shuttle bounty between Mars/Titan and Earth. We can't afford to run our own government today so affording this level of space exploration is as unlikely as Oprah losing 100 lbs. If there was enough money in the world, IMO the neat thing to do is build a gigantic spaceship in space, something that holds 500 people and is a self-supporting biosphere, and send them off on a one-way trip 'out there'. But even this without light-speed travel, etc. would not accomplish much other than 500 people living on a spaceship for several generations...
If it's any consolation...we can mix a few old birds with the kids so we can complain about the music they play in the biosphere. Just what I need is to be on the up & up while isolated in a biosphere chasing those other 70-somethings. I can wear a t-shirt that says 'space pervert'...
Wonder how the gravity tug from Jupiter might feel...1/2 of the orbit man would be 3 feet tall and the other half maybe 10 feet tall with some interesting transformations in between. When facing Jupiter, Jupiter would fill the entire view from the surface of Ganymede which would be kind of weird. If our SETI efforts primarily consider Goldilocks planets, where 'we' believe things are about right for life to form beyond what we have in Congress, then why should we consider places like Titan and Ganymede? - - - Updated - - - Maybe just use it to flush the toilet...
Perhaps... I know customs officials get antsy when you bring things from one country to another. I kind of wonder if the water might possess something inside it which would have negative effects on us when mixed with our water. Toilet water just gets pumped back into some waterway or another. But they might have a way of decontaminating it, safely...
smaller - water evaporates and because there is less gravity it slowly escapes to space - - - Updated - - - Ultimately the way is to recycle it through plants
Life would be very different in a place like Ganymede. Don't forget that Ganymede also sits inside Jupiter's magnetosphere. There is a frozen ocean on the planet which means abundant water, it already has an oxygen atmosphere although too thin to support life. What it needs is heat (which technology can provide) and more atmosphere. If we are ever going to live beyond earth we have to think about Terraforming the other planets and moons In many ways it would be easier to Terraform Ganymede than it would to Terraform Mars. No matter which planet we choose the first step in terraforming would be an army of robots to move enough gas/frozen ice asteroids to make the planets liveable. Of course the ultimate answer would be find a way of moving the excess CO2 atmosphere from Venus and put it on Mars. (and yes I know that is idle speculation with today's technology)
