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Why not build the settlement in advance of the first landing? (piefed.social)
submitted 1 day ago* by to c/mars@discuss.tchncs.de
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Sending people to Mars, keeping them alive there, and bringing them back (optional) is hard.

Sending robots to Mars is easier. It's been done in 1997 and artificial intelligence and robotics have made major strides since.

A semi-autonomous* settlement with life support should be built before we send people there. This will save a lot of time and make the mission far more likely to succeed than if we treat it like a camping trip and make astronauts set their own "tents" up.

* with high-level operations being managed remotely, but real-time operations requiring automation due to the unavoidably high ping between Earth and Mars

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[–] 4 points 1 day ago* (1 child)

Something else that gets hand-waved away are the perchlorates on Mars. Not only does it have very little atmosphere and space radiation, the dirt is toxic

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago

    Yeah that dust is nasty. And since it's so dry the particle size ranges from small to extremely small. It will get everywhere and into everything and is toxic af. It will corrode metals as well, with particularly things like hinges being a prime target. If humans are just going to visit for a little while, say a few days, it would probably be fine. But if we are talking weeks, the dust is a huge issue.

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