Back to the moon...next year

[Mallette]

5 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said:

1.  It's just as hard to predict the weather 100 years from now as it is to predict the population.  We have average growth rates, but there are periods in our history where they plummeted due to plague, etc.  Nevertheless, it's fair to assume a constant rate to the extent you might be able to plan for it.

 

2.  If we run out of trees and toilet paper on earth, how in the heck are we going to get it on the moon?  Are we going to bring cattle and let them graze on Mars?  Just exactly where will we get our water?  

 

It's nice to dream, but there's a long, long, long way to go.  Travel is one thing.  Settling colonies is another.

I am still failing to communicate that which should be obvious.  Even the moon has everything required to sustain human life we are running out of here.  Mars is downright easy. There are climes and times there when a T-shirt and oxygen supplemented helmet would be all you needed outside.  Place is rotten with water and essential raw materials.  Toilet paper is something the really civilized people like the Japanese have already replaced with technology.  You continue to think in terms of the past.  Even that survival movie about the guy stranded on Mars by himself (not going to try to look up the title...most may have an idea of what I am talking about) from a couple of years back posed a scientifically plausible case as to how one could survive on Mars in a crunch.  Even with available technology, we could not only survive but thrive on Mars right now.  The will to do so is the only issue.  Many of us have it.  Whether it is the sure and certain knowledge we have almost ruined this marvelous planet already and her death is in view, or the equally sure and certain knowledge that a celestial event as has happened in the past WILL happen again to re-boot this planet our survival as a species is dependent on those willing to move outward from the womb to independent living in a universe that has infinite capacity.  It's really that simple.  Hang with mom until will kill her and ourselves, or be born into the universe to develop into a real civilization.  Mom will come back a few thousand years after we are gone.  We won't.

 

Dave