[antaviana]

Off-topic, but one thing that puzzles me is the rather widespread believe that setting up a colony in Mars will somehow save humanity.

IMHO, exposing humans and their descendants for life to different conditions of gravity, radiation and overall ecosystem, will make them evolve in ways that will generate a totally different species in very few hundred years.

So it will be just a matter of time, until an orange-colored man with the slogan "Let's make the Earth great again" will want to build a wall between the Earth and Mars (and put it on Mars tab, of course) to avoid that immigrant Martians steal Earthlings jobs.

So a colony in Mars maybe preserves intelligent life with roots in the human species, but I do not think it will preserve the human species as we know it.

[ncallaway]

> So a colony in Mars maybe preserves intelligent life with roots in the human species, but I do not think it will preserve the human species as we know it.

That's sufficient for my desires of making humanity multiplanitary (and eventually spanning multiple solar systems).

I don't desire freezing humanity as it exists today, I desire ensuring the human project continue as long as we can keep it going.

[ncmncm]

It must be said, though, that Mars is a place where it is easier to freeze humans than not.

[ncallaway]

That's true! Though in 1,000 years it might not be true.

And in 10,000 years an asteroid could hit earth and create an impact winter on earth that makes it so that Earth is a place where it is easier to freeze humans than not.

Creating a backup for humanity on another planet isn't about the next 500 years. It's about the next 100,000 years.

And creating a backup for humanity in another solar system isn't about the next 100,000 years, it's about the next 100,000,000 years.

In those kinds of timeframe, spending 1,000 years to terraform Mars is pretty quick.

[alapsa]

Love this! Exactly!

[JabavuAdams]

We're already screwed as far as preserving the human species as we know it, and why would we want to?

[alapsa]

Mars is awesome and I can't wait to go, but Earth is a great place to live :)

[gdsdfe]

non of that matters if life on earth is gone which is the primary reason for having a colony in Mars

[nickthemagicman]

There's also the reason to explore Mars for new life, minerals, water, scientific breakthroughs, etc.