Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: cthyme on 09/07/2015 02:51:20

Title: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: cthyme on 09/07/2015 02:51:20

Does science tell us, that we have a better chance living on Mars, than we have exploring and living in our own oceans?

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: diethyl on 09/07/2015 09:35:02

Simply put, the ocean is closer to us.

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: chiralSPO on 09/07/2015 13:35:35

As mentioned above, the ocean is much, much closer to us, and we don't have to fight gravity the whole way to get there.

Also, the ocean is much closer to our ideal temperature--it doesn't get much colder than 0°C anywhere, vs Mars which is usually colder than –40°C (can get as cold as –200°C!), which, to put it mildly, is less than ideal...

Also, there is food in the ocean (not on Mars), liquid water in the ocean (probably not on Mars), and molecular oxygen in the ocean (not on Mars in any useful amount)

And, if the science isn't enough, let's look at some history:
first human on Mars: not yet...
first submarine vessel: depending on your criteria, anywhere from 500 to 250 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_submarines


# humans exploring or inhabiting Mars = 0.
# humans exploring subsurface ocean >1000000
# humans living beneath the surface of the ocean for more than a few months at a time = CLASSIFIED (but safe to assume it is at least a few hundred at any given time)

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: cthyme on 09/07/2015 22:04:00

I guess my main question is why so much money is going into the Mars projects, are we doing as much for ocean exploration? It doesn't seem like it.

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: chiralSPO on 09/07/2015 22:26:51

There is a lot of money being spent on exploring the ocean (unfortunately a large percentage of it, is looking for places to drill for oil...) There is plenty of scientific research as well, it just usually doesn't get as much hype as the NASA and ESA missions (actually some of the really deep sea missions are NASA! http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/preparingtravel/px15.html)

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: cthyme on 09/07/2015 22:48:03

An excellent read about Neemo and Aquarius.
Thanks for the link

Title: Re: Do we have more chance of inhabiting Mars than exploring our oceans?
Post by: Monox D. I-Fly on 18/10/2019 03:30:54

Quote from: chiralSPO on 09/07/2015 13:35:35

Also, the ocean is much closer to our ideal temperature--it doesn't get much colder than 0°C anywhere, vs Mars which is usually colder than –40°C (can get as cold as –200°C!), which, to put it mildly, is less than ideal...

Wow... It's ironic that Mars is the planet associated with fire...