Will any of us live long enough to see a permanent settlement on Mars?

[highwaystar101]

mrstickball said:

TheRealMafoo said:

megaman79 said:
Minerals, tons of goddamned minerals would pay for it. Thats why there are interspace mining colonies in every scifi movie.

Its def. possible, even certain, but not likely by the US. China, and India to a lesser extent, will make space travel much more competitive in the next 30 yrs.

 

We would need a space lift first. One on Mars, and one on Earth. They are coming, but intill we can get things into space cheep, it's pointless to think about.

A big part of me wishes that we'd reign in our federal spending, and use the saved money to build a space lift.

Economic stimulus package? How about a $500,000,000 space lift that cuts costs of space travel by 90%?

 

A cabron fibre tube has been developed for the space lift. It was created in labs some time last month and I read about it in a science journal the other day. They can produce one gram worth of tube every day with current production techniques, the one gram stretches 26 Kms theoritically. The basic idea is to put millions of these tubes into na cable and it would be strong enough to stretch into space and not bend.

Doubt this method will work though.