Fri Nite Frite: One hundred thousand people want one-way trip to Mars

The idea of traveling beyond Earth's immediate confines is fascinating and well worth some effort. Easy? Of course not. But exploration, particularly of challenging environments, never has been. It is fair to point out all the challenges and to consider the possibilities of failure. But there is something inside most, if not all, of us that yearns to learn and explore and push the envelope. Part of what makes us who we are. Eric Anderson

I imagine there will be plenty of sex going on. Will they be contracepting? When that fails (and it will) will they kill these "Martians"? Or will they have children on Mars? Do these children really want to be Martians? When they hear about Earth and see the life they could have had will they hate their parents? ronvanwegen

It is also important to note that the very complex, interdependent, ‘life-enabling’, biogeochemical complexity of different types of bacterial life on Earth.,,,

Biologically mediated cycles for hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and iron – image of interdependent ‘biogeochemical’ web http://www.sciencemag.org/content/320/5879/1034/F2.large.jpg Geobiologist Noffke Reports Signs of Life that Are 3.48 Billion Years Old - 11/11/13 Excerpt: the mats woven of tiny microbes we see today covering tidal flats were also present as life was beginning on Earth. The mats, which are colonies of cyanobacteria, can cause unusual textures and formations in the sand beneath them. Noffke has identified 17 main groups of such textures caused by present-day microbial mats, and has found corresponding structures in geological formations dating back through the ages. http://www.odu.edu/about/odu-publications/insideodu/2013/11/11/topstory1 Microbial Mat Ecology – Image on page 92 (third page down) http://www.dsls.usra.edu/biologycourse/workbook/Unit2.2.pdf

,,,Please note, that if even one type of bacteria group did not exist in this complex cycle of biogeochemical interdependence, that was illustrated on the third page of the preceding site, then all of the different bacteria would soon die out.

The Microbial Engines That Drive Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles - Falkowski 2008 Excerpt: Microbial life can easily live without us; we, however, cannot survive without the global catalysis and environmental transformations it provides. - Paul G. Falkowski - Professor Geological Sciences - Rutgers http://www.genetics.iastate.edu/delong1.pdf

Of related note, humans are not meant to live in space for any extended period of time either:

Houston We Have a Problem: Microgravity Accelerates Biological Aging - Oct. 31, 2013 Excerpt: experiments conducted on the International Space Station involving cells that line the inner surfaces of blood vessels (endothelial cells) show that microgravity accelerates cardiovascular disease and the biological aging of these cells.,,, They compared space-flown endothelial cells to endothelial cells cultured under normal gravity, looking for differences in gene expression and/or in the profile of secreted proteins. Space-flown cells differentially expressed more than 1,000 genes and secreted high amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Ultimately, this induced significant oxidative stress, causing inflammation among endothelial cells, which in turn, led to atherosclerosis and cell senescence (biological aging). http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131031125317.htm

Of philosophical interest: But where does the desire of one hundred thousand people for a one-way trip to Mars come from?

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, “Hope”)

Music, Quote, and Verse:

Brooke Fraser- “C S Lewis Song” http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=DL6LPLNX "I started to move toward the light. The way I moved, the physics, was completely different than it is here on Earth. It was something I had never felt before and never felt since. It was a whole different sensation of motion. I obviously wasn't walking or skipping or crawling. I was not floating. I was flowing. I was flowing toward the light. I was accelerating and I knew I was accelerating, but then again, I didn't really feel the acceleration. I just knew I was accelerating toward the light. Again, the physics was different - the physics of motion of time, space, travel. It was completely different in that tunnel, than it is here on Earth. I came out into the light and when I came out into the light, I realized that I was in heaven." Barbara Springer - Near Death Experience - The Tunnel - video https://vimeo.com/79072924 2 Corinthians 12:4 that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.

bornagain77

Well not to put a damper on anyone's daydreaming, but the prospect of humans establishing a self-sustaining ecology for humans on Mars, or the Moon, or wherever besides the Earth, are dismal. A small clue for the extreme difficulty involved was illustrated by man's failure to build a self-enclosed ecology, right here on earth, in which humans could live for any extended period of time.

Biosphere 2 – What Went Wrong? Excerpt: As an attempt to create a balanced and self-sustaining replica of Earth’s ecosystems, Biosphere II was a miserable (and expensive) failure. Numerous problems plagued the crew almost from the very beginning. Of these, a mysterious loss of oxygen and widespread extinction were the most notable.,,, Other Problems Biosphere II’s water systems became polluted with too many nutrients. The crew had to clean their water by running it over mats of algae, which they later dried and stored. Also, as a symptom of further atmospheric imbalances, the level of dinitrogen oxide became dangerously high. At these levels, there was a risk of brain damage due to a reduction in the synthesis of vitamin B12. http://biology.kenyon.edu/slonc/bio3/2000projects/carroll_d_walker_e/whatwentwrong.html Biosphere 2 contained representative biomes: a 1,900 square meter rainforest, an 850 square meter ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square meter mangrove wetlands, a 1,300 square meter savannah grassland, a 1,400 square meter fog desert, a 2,500 square meter agricultural system, a human habitat, and a below-ground infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center.[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2

Clearly, building a self-sustaining ecology is a far more difficult proposition than the planners of Biosphere had originally realized. And please note, this experiment for the feasibility of a enclosed, self sustaining, ecology was done right here on Earth! An alien, toxic, environment, such as on the Moon or Mars, presents its own set of insurmountable problems for building a self sustaining ecology:

Early Mars Water Was Salty, Toxic Stew – 2008 Excerpt: But data from the rover Opportunity is already suggesting that water on early Mars billions of years ago may have been fit for pickling—not supporting—life. That’s because the water was thick with salt and other minerals, making it far too briny for life as we know it, according to a new study. Nicholas Tosca of Harvard University and colleagues studied mineral clues from the surface of Mars sent back by the rover and used computers to turn back the clock. “Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it might have more closely resembled Earth,” said Andrew Knoll, a study co-author also from Harvard. But instead the team found that the soil’s mineral content would have made that liquid a salty, toxic stew. “No matter how far back we peer into Mars’s history, we may never see a point at which the planet really looked like Earth,” Knoll said. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080529-mars-salty.html Toxic Mars: Astronauts Must Deal with Perchlorate on the Red Planet - June 13, 2013 Excerpt: The high levels of perchlorate found on Mars would be toxic to humans, Smith said. Smith said microbes on Earth use perchlorate for an energy source. They actually live off highly oxidized chlorine, and in reducing the chlorine down to chloride, they use the energy in that transaction to power themselves. In fact, when there's too much perchlorate in drinking water, microbes are used to clean it up, he said. "Anybody who is saying they want to go live on the surface of Mars better think about the interaction of perchlorate with the human body," he warned. "At one-half percent, that's a huge amount. Very small amounts are considered toxic. So you'd better have a plan to deal with the poisons on the surface." http://www.space.com/21554-mars-toxic-perchlorate-chemicals.html Our Poisonous Moon: Better from a Distance - July, 2012 Excerpt: Even if the dust problems could be overcome, the moon remains unprotected from solar UV radiation, the solar wind, solar flares, micrometeorites and high-energy cosmic rays. The authors listed 34 remaining “knowledge gaps” about lunar toxicity. If any of these (many suspected to be high to very high risk) were to prove serious, it might cause a reconsideration of the wisdom of sending humans to the moon for extended stays. Since some of the risks apply to Mars as well (and since the moon would probably be a training base), these findings could put a damper on hopes for manned missions to Mars. http://crev.info/2012/07/our-poisonous-moon/ Compositions of Extrasolar Planets - July 2010 Excerpt: ,,,the presumption that extrasolar terrestrial planets will consistently manifest Earth-like chemical compositions is incorrect. Instead, the simulations revealed “a wide variety of resulting planetary compositions. http://www.reasons.org/compositions-extrasolar-planets

i.e. It appears that the basic chemical composition of Mars and the Moon may very well be very antagonistic for building any self-sustaining ecology for humans. And what I have listed thus far is just the tip of the iceberg as to problems to be considered. In the following article, Dr. Hugh Ross goes into far more detail as to elucidating the requirements for sustaining just bacteria for just 90 days or less on any given planet.

Probability Estimates for the Features Required by Various Life Form http://www.reasons.org/files/compendium/compendium_part3.pdf

With just a little research, I'm sure both Mars and the Moon will be found to be lacking in more than one of the many basic parameters required for chemically sustaining bacteria for any extended period of time on a planet. bornagain77