Talk:Colonization of Mars

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This article was nominated for deletion on 8/5/2006. The result of the discussion was keep.

Space Colonization WikiProject edit
Space colonization Space and survival Space habitat Planetary habitability Colonization of the Moon Colonization of Mars Colonization of Venus Colonization of the asteroids Colonization of Ceres Colonization of the outer solar system Colonization of Europa Colonization of Titan Terraforming Terraforming of Mars Terraforming of Venus Interstellar travel Mars Society National Space Society

Contents 1 Mars 2 Colonization v. Colonisation 3 Featured Article Nomination 4 Delta v 5 Weasel words 6 "Citation needed" tags

[edit] Mars

Removed unnecessary plant info box and replaced it with a pic of Mars. This page is about the colinization of Mars and doesn't require any unnesesary info (would you put the country info on a page about American colinization?)

If you were writing for a 15th century audience and had a summary of the physical characteristics of the New World, I think you might include it. There is a lot of data in the planet information box that is directly relevant to the habitability of Mars: Eccentricity, Perehilion/Aphelion, Revolution period, Synodic period, Number of satellites, Equatorial gravity, Escape velocity, Rotation velocity, Surface temperature and Atmospheric composition. Having the data conveniently organized on the side eliminates a lot of dull recitation and lets the article use approximate values (1/3 g vs 0.367 g). I think it also makes the page more visually interesting. I was planning to add the Moon info box to the Colonization of the Moon article (its a bit trickier to do). I'd be interested in hearing other opinions. You can see what the article looked like with the info box by going to Colonization of Mars, clicking on the history tab and then clicking on the 10:11, 30 Apr 2005 edit. --agr 13:04, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

When Discussing the concept of Terraforming Mars, it seems that a character in the Science Fiction Trilogy, "Red Mars; Green Mars; and Blue Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson has the right concept - don't just raise the levels of carbon dioxide in a two-step process but rather have the transformation from uninhabited planet to diverse biosphere in a one-step direct process that allows animals and humans to breathe directly from its atmosphere.

we must determine whether we want to adjust Mars to a state where direct surface habitation is possible or whether we live forever under domed craters. Remember: having a fully working biosphere is the most uncomplicated method of human surface habitation that is self-maintaining, opposed to frail structural solutions.

10:44 UTC/GMT Mon 13 Feb 2006

I just dropped by to say that Mars colonization is a technical and scientific topic and that is in the interest of Wikipedians and readers alike to maintain and expand this article. Pabloalbv Wed 16 Aug 2006

[edit] Colonization v. Colonisation

I know many are already aware that both "colonization" and "colonisation" are valid ways of spelling the word. Nevertheless, I thought it would be nice to make a note of it here since I noticed some people changing things to reflect one particular spelling. This may be done for the sake of consistency, but, in that case, it should be noted that the wikipedia article for the term is listed under Colonisation. --Xaliqen

[edit] Featured Article Nomination

I really like this article. It's very well done. Well writen. Lots of great photos. And, even though it has nothing to do with Leichtenstein, it sounds like a winner to me! Wilybadger 02:35, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Delta v

What's the delta v to Mars compared to Venus? Are we certain that Mars is easier to reach than Venus? Mithridates 16:30, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Delta-v's for Mars and Venus are roughly similar I believe. The hard bit is getting out of Earth's gravity well, once you've done that Mars and Venus are much of a muchness. Venus might even be slightly easier to get to; the atmosphere is much thicker and it's easier to use for aerobraking.WolfKeeper 22:04, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

See: [1] (See the I1 column). Mars is a few hundred meter/s closer. Not really significant, but technically true. What is significant is that the trip is almost twice as long to get to Mars.WolfKeeper 22:58, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

If the trip takes "almost twice as long", it is certainly not indicated by that table. In all cases, it shows the Mars trip taking <= 50% longer than the Venus trip. siafu 23:09, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

Nope. The round trips are 17 months versus 9.6 months. That means Mars takes 177% of the time it takes to get to Venus. So it's rather nearer twice as long than the "<= 50%" you are claiming; I have absolutely no idea where you got that from.WolfKeeper 01:05, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Are you guys talking about delta V or travel time. The two are not the same. Dalf | Talk 01:41, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, we know.WolfKeeper 01:54, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Weasel words

There are 3 weasel sentences in the "Concerns" section. Latitude0116 05:36, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Citation needed" tags

"The round trip communication delay due to the speed of light ranges from about 6.5 minutes at closest approach to 44 minutes at superior conjunction.[citation needed] Real-time conversation with Earth, such as telephone or instant messaging, is not possible, but other means of communication, such as e-mail and voice mail pose no difficulty.[citation needed]"

Earth and Mars are farthest away from each other when they're both at aphelion. According to Wikipedia's Earth and Mars articles:

Aphelion of Earth: 152 097 701 km Aphelion of Mars: 249 228 730 km Distance between the two planets: 401 326 431 km

The speed of light is 299 792.458 km/s, so it takes light 1339 seconds==22.3 minutes to make a one-way trip. 22.3 times 2 is 44.6, so the round-trip light time is 44.6 minutes. However, communication is impossible at superior conjunction because the Sun will block the radio waves, so 44 minutes is about right.

As for the second "citation needed" tag, why would email or voice mail pose a difficulty? You can simply send the data to Earth via an antenna. --Bowlhover 01:50, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

But the sources still need to be citated, even if they came from a different article. For example, if facts in this article came from the Earth article, the sources that verified the credibility of those facts should be transfered to this article. Also, for example, which source states that data can be sent via an antenna? Latitude0116 05:48, 20 October 2006 (UTC)