http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/09/78000-people-apply-for-one-way-trip-to-mars/

One-way ticket to Mars to start colonizing it. No real downside except the whole one-way ticket thing.

Multiple teams needed, they are talking 8 teams of 4 to go every two years after the initial 2023 launch.

If you can, read the book Containment by Christian Cantrell, it is eerily similar to this undertaking. Just substitute Venus for Mars and you will pretty much be reading the fictional version of what I think this expedition is really all about.

Anyways, I'm signing up.

Who's with me?

Still not clear on this whole not freezing to death thing that doesn't seem to be solved ...

Also ... after they do this and the funding gets cut ... that's a lot of people who're going to die of starvation or suffocation.

Honestly, though ... going about it this way is just going to create more social problems by further dichotomizing the human race. I really don't think this is the way we should be going about this.

If they can get a WiFi connection going....I'm in.

Speaking of Mars, doesn't the story behind Doom 3 take place on Mars?

And Total Recall.

And Red Faction.

And probably some other terrible scenarios as well.

I think there was something about heated water bubbles or something they would live in. So like, instead of shields made of metal or other alloy they would be shields formed of layers of heated water. Didn't really sound all the legit to me but I mean, whatevs I guess. I'm sure that if it doesn't work, it won't matter for long.

Don't they just need to find the Martian Make-The-Atmosphere-Breathable Machine thingy and everything will be ok?

Oh ... using water insulation would make a lot of sense. But so would building into the ground.

It would take so long to change the atmosphere ... it would make sense to build colonies with their own atmosphere first. The numbers I heard were measured in centuries!

The best idea I heard was create a bunch of greenhouse gases to help heat the planet up ... but that still would take well over 100+ years. (It is an entire planet, after all)

Chances are the best success we might have at terraforming would be one of Jupiter's moons.

For building colonies ... it'd be possible to do it on most of the local planets/moons. Anything past Jupiter moons is a no go, though. The sun is just too far away. There are some ideas of how to do it on Venus too, which is really cool because Venus is extremely hostile. It involves floating cities ... which float because our breathable air is lighter than the natural atmosphere of Venus. So, they'd just float like a few miles up where the temperature is just right too, by coincidence.

But ... moon and mars make the most sense right now ... I just ... I think sending people to live there before we sent people at all is dumb. At least with the Moon, we've got a bit of experience of going there and staying there for a couple days. And the people going wouldn't be staying there forever. So, that makes the most sense currently. And unlike mars ... you don't have the thread of global sandstorms out of nowhere that last more than a year and change the landscape of the planet.

Why does all this talk of colonies remind me of this?

Floating cities on Venus sounds pretty cool.