[RALaBarge]

I wouldnt bet against them either, but the material science aspect of it all just isnt there and wont be for a while. How many tons would we need to get into Earth orbit alone, let alone transfer to mars?

I never hear anyone speak of the radiation outside of our atmosphere very often when it comes to 'moonshot' ideas like this, and how we would be incapable of preventing it or surviving it once we arrive, in our current biological form.

How much would it cost to get all the lead or H20 you would need to generate a barrier against it into orbit? Do we need to have a moon base extracting materials for us to even think about transferring orbits?

Its all pie in the sky, and that is great because the sky is a pie that we should long to eat, but lets not fool ourselves that in ours or our childrens childrens lifetimes we will have a human on a planet that is not Earth.

[ceejayoz]

> I never hear anyone speak of the radiation outside of our atmosphere very often when it comes to 'moonshot' ideas like this, and how we would be incapable of preventing it or surviving it once we arrive, in our current biological form.

Eh, it's not that out of the realm of possible. It's about twice what ISS astronauts experience, without any mitigation efforts like shielding. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia04258-comparison-of-marti...

> How much would it cost to get all the lead or H20 you would need to generate a barrier against it into orbit? Do we need to have a moon base extracting materials for us to even think about transferring orbits?

The astronauts will need water either way. Might as well have it be useful in transit.

[naysunjr]

It will never happen. Zero evidence any organic as complex as a human can move planets. It’s not an emergent event that’s common enough for us to have observed so far it’s too unlikely.

Some dried goo in a meteor or some poetic notion of consciousness being the innate physical interaction of electromagnetism and matter such that consciousness is everywhere and imagining the potential is as good as humans will ever get.

[Tadpole9181]

We also didn't evolve to do math or science, a lot of our intelligence is incidental and born of the communication & strategy that we did evolve.

Given time and will, it is a guarantee that humans could colonize Mars. Heck, even terraforming is possible at large timescales and an enormous concerted effort.

But there's nothing for us there. The cost in both resources, opportunity, and human lives would be enormous and there's almost no payback at the end but saying "neat".

We're struggling politically to keep our own planet from boiling us alive, at even giving food and water and shelter and healthcare to the citizens within our country - let alone the planet - let alone another. THAT is why it will never happen, not because we didn't evolve for space travel.

[naysunjr]

IMO those things you mention as being what really prevent us are emergent evidence we are not evolved enough for space travel though. Biologically or socially.