Digest Number 1288

>>... as a penal colony?
>
> Well, thats a possibility. Do you have any objections?

It's too expensive, compared to just locking them up here: we'll
never get governments to spring for it. Colonizing Australia was
fairly cheap and the colonists could send back some wool. However,
I will grant you that serving as a penal colony is one area where
Mars does have an advantage over HEO: from Mars you can't readily
escape or drop kinetic-bombs on Earth.

> By finding a product or service which they can export back to
Earth.

So now we're back to the original question. What will they be doing
on Mars? What product will

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "ralph buttigieg"
wrote:
>
> > Message: 10
> > Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:54:27 -0000
> > From: "Dan Wylie-Sears"
> > Subject: Re: Digest Number 1286
> >
> >> Same thing settlers in America and Australia did. Earn a living.
> >
> > But tobacco and sugar grow just fine on earth. Or are we
sending them
> > there as a penal colony?
> >
> Well, thats a possibility. Do you have any objections? Think it was
> NASA scientist and SF author Geoffrey Landis who wrote a short
story
> with that premise recently. Won a Hugo or Nebula too.
>
> > They need some stuff from the Old World for a while while they
get
> > started. How are they going to earn that, from Mars?
>
> By finding a product or service which they can export back to
Earth.