About habitats playing a role in terraforming Mars.

I agree for the most part with the sentiments put forward here. I seldom post
to this group but may have in the past expressed these ideas in a different
way.
I and the people at 1000Planets are well along in design and construction of
a habitat unit to live on Mars (or Luna, or in space) that will house up to 30
people in a self sustaining way.
At 60 years old I do not now and never have had any faith that if we started
a settlement using 8 or more of these units, on Mars (100 to 250 people) that
anyone would ever follow us or help us if we could not go it alone.
We are designing to do everything ourselves but would hope that we would not
have to do so. I honestly believe that it would be very foolish to set out on
such a journey without the ability to survive without outside help.

This is one reason why when we do finally launch there will not be any
practicing scientist on board. nor will there be any one who has been a practicing
teacher for more than 5 years in their lifetimes. Nor will there be anyone who
has an IQ of 145 or more unless that person is exceptional in life ways.
The people chosen to make the journey would be well developed generalist,
including the medical personal. Each person must have a wide range of knowledge
in at least 5 areas of life. One of which must be a general knowledge of
machinery and how it works.

There is more to this idea but I will stop here for the time being.

John Wayne Smith, CEO
1000Planets, Inc.

PS: See notice at the end of this message.

In a message dated 5/20/2006 12:56:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
dehammer@... writes:

> Personally I see a slightly different thing happening.
>
> initially everything is as you point out. up to the point where things start
> to fall apart. at that point, i see people on earth starting to get
> disenchanted with the whole Mars thing, looking for new and better things to spend
> their money on. at that point the Martian settlers realize that if anything is
> going to be done about it, it will have to be they, themselves that have to
> fix it. Taking one thing at a time, they will learn to adapt, and find fixes
> on their own. slowly one after another of the spacers come to the conclusion
> that they have more important things to be concerned with, a Mars is left
> more and more to their own resources.
>
> one day many year, decades, centuries perhaps, later they are surprised when
> a ship coming reaches them from Mars. they will say their records indicate
> that Mars is uninhabited and uninhabitable those that come from Mars are very
> different than those who stayed on earth, or even those who inhabit the space
> stations. they are more self assured (some will say arrogant), more
> standoffish, and somehow, not quite as human. or perhaps more so. at some point, it
> will be
> realized that, while they are of human ancestry, they are no longer exactly
> human. they would have taken a planet that was incapable of sustaining life,
> and by their own hands, twisted and bullied and pushed and pulled, until the
> red planet is no longer quite as red, and a little be more life sustaining.
> any that come from earth or space, to visit will find it uncomfortable, and
> unlivable, but those who are born and bred to it, find it very much home.

Many of you know that I am web illiterate and know little of the operations
of web related things.
Within the last 6 months the 1000 Planets e mail system or at least something
I would relate to the 1000Planets e mail system has became a vast and ugly
conduit for SPAM.
I have given my service provider and my web master until July 1, 2006 to
solve this problem. If the problem is not solved by that time there will no longer
be e mail originating at the 1000Planets site. If this does not solve the
problem the 1000Planets web site will be removed from the web.
That does not mean that I have gone away. I can always be reached at the
address above and I will continue to work on the current projects of 1000Planets,
Inc.

Since I am very much open source I will find a way to share the ideas
developed by 1000Planets, Inc.

I do not intend for this to become a topic of discussion here but if you wish
to discuss it e mail me directly.

John Wayne