Mars and Island One

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Goddard"
wrote:

...

> > With the
> > available resources - during the next 50 years let us say -
> > will it be easier to set up such habs on Moon and Mars or
> > have free floating complexes? My suspicion is, it will be
> > easier to set up such habs on Moon or Mars.
>
> I disagree. Firstly, in the short term (<25 years), agriculture
will not
> be a goal of any nations' space effort. There will be experiments,
> certainly, and no doubt cute shots of plants growing in Martian and
> Lunar regolith (suitably processed and nutrified, of course) but
while
> food is mostly water, and dried food masses very little, Earth will
> undoubtably be the source for 99% of food eaten in space.
>
> That said, once the orbital materials' infrastructure takes off (>25
> years), and rotating habitats are constructed - presumably in LEO
first,
> and possibly as part of the holiday market - then greenery will
follow,
> but more for psychological and aesthetic purposes than for food
> production.

I though all objects in LEO were subject to tiny amount of
atmostspheric drag, which can changes with various factor. The
lifetime of Skylab was cut short because of such a change.

So I would not put a big space habitat there.

...

>
> > Are O'Neil type structures too
> > futuristic for the immediate future?
>
> Oh yes, but I believe that the point Gerard was making was that they
> were acheivable, without magic or unforeseen technologies, back in
the
> seventies - /if/ the political mindset and will was present.

Right. To put another way, there are not techinical futuristic, but
practially they are.

> > Perhaps they are the
> > butterflies that will emerge after the egg, caterpillar and
> > pupa stages!!!
>
> I suspect so. Speaking personally, I see the large O'Neill habitats
more
> as morally-better, productive and optimistic targets for the vast
monies
> currently wasted on arms and our species' atavistic attitudes. But
there
> you go! ;-)

Yes, what need is some kind intermedate space "outpost" -- more than
a station, but less than a settlement.