Terraforming Mars

From: jim.piunti

> Do you think your Mars afficionados might also be displaying a bit
> of 'gravity-well bias'?

I think it can be exactly that. I remember one fellow who literally
said that some people might have a preference for living in a gravity
well. I responded that people might very well have a valid preference
for living under gravity, but not in a gravity well.

I've had arguments with people who say that industrial operations have
to take place on the surface of the moon because many processes require
gravity and even the amounts on an asteroid might not be enough. I make
the point that a portion of an orbital industrial facility can rotate,
providing a suitable substitute for gravity for any process requiring
the settling or separation of materials. We might then spend a week or
more discussing the physics and engineering of rotating structures in
space. Then at the end of that discussion I might to my great
disappointment see them repeat their original assertion: industrial
operations have to take place at the bottom of a gravity well because
they'll need gravity.

> I think until we reach a point where we have a
> number of generations of 'tin-can bred' colonists, that a lot of
people
> can't/don't get their mind around living on anything other than a
> planetary surface...

I'm convinced that when the people of the future who live beyond the
Earth take a look back at the science fiction of our era, the thing
which will stand out the most to them will be how limited it is in its
planet-bound depiction of the future.

Regards,

Mike Combs