Is this even a viable topic or could anything even suggesting research on this be considered a possible scam?
Yes to both, of course. It’s a viable topic, and it’s the subject of possible scams.
So far, only governments have been able to launch manned space stations, and it is limited to the U.S., the U.S.S.R. / Russia, and China, plus the International Space Station.
But research into this is certainly feasible, especially as we have been actively moving away from NASA doing pretty much everything and towards companies like SpaceX doing whatever they think they can do to make a profit. Elon Musk already has plans for a low earth orbit space station to replace the ISS, and SpaceX has a long-term goal of building colonies on Mars and possibly elsewhere.
We have a long way to go to get to a permanent Mars colony, but a private space station to replace the ISS is definitely possible within the next decade or two.
And, as @Chronos said, scams are certainly possible. Any new tech that gets people excited is always a target for scammers.
Anyone saying that this is feasible now is scamming. But there is nothing inherently impossible about it.
I’m reading a book about Life Support Systems in space, and it notes that 61% of astronauts on Musk’s Starship to Mars are likely to get cancer, and because the radiation in deep space is particularly bad, half of them will die on the mission. The average lifespan would be reduced 15 - 24 years.
Source: Erik Seedhouse, “Life Support Systems for Humans in Space,” Spinger, p. 62.
I can’t imagine the cost of sending an 80,000#
load to mars. It would require thousands of loads just to get started.
Isn’t all radiation outside the womb of our magneto sphere “bad”?
Not when it gives you superpowers, as shown in certain documentaries.
And then anyone that tries to land there will die there. If not immediately upon ‘landing’ then later when they run out of food and oxygen because they have no chance of getting back into space and reaching the starship. And all that will be known ahead of time but they’ll do it anyway because it’s way cooler than dying at the bottom of the ocean.
The OP doesn’t specify the colonization of Mars; is that specifically what this thread is about? Or any sort of space colony, including ones in Earth orbit or on the Moon?
Any planet, space stations not included unless they could hold at least 1,000 residents.
OK. As a teenager, I was fascinated by the ideas by Gerard K O’Neill, who proposed large cylindrical and spherical colonies built from material harvested from the Moon.
Is anyone getting phone calls asking them to sign up for colonization? No? Then it’s probably not a scam.
Realistic? IMO, not for at least a generation, probably several. Colonization is a couple orders of magnitude more intensive than a scientific base. Nobody on earth is remotely prepared for one.
Trouble is that you have to send many times the weight of the smallest spaceship/station you can make in machinery in order to start making things from materials found on the moon.
Inflatable sections that can be joined together in space are a more practical approach. Nothing reasonable can take a hit from a high speed chunk of space crap so might as well use something fairly lightweight with lots of sections that can be isolated if they develop a leak, and easily repaired too. When deflated the sections will be small making their transportation into space more practical. I’d hope we start that way to build a large space station somewhere near earth before we think about people dying on other planets. There’s plenty of time and places for people to die off planet some day.
I agree with @Exapno_Mapcase that space colonies aren’t going to be developed anytime soon. But I think they will eventually be developed.
I expect at this point scams would be more like Theranos or Enron. Grifts aimed at corporations, governments, and other sources of capital, not individuals. (Yes, anybody could be sending out spam about “join my space colony”, but that’s no different from spam asking for money for any other junk.)
I also think that just because some group sets out to develop space colonies, and fails, that doesn’t mean it was a scam. It is an incredibly hard problem, and I expect most attempts will end in failure before any humans leave the atmosphere.
Trying to think like a scammer, its always good to target retirees because they are [a] generally cashed up before the medical bills hit, and [b] likely to remember things in ways that can then be exploited. These people lived through Apollo and NASA’s massive investment in technology and development, and most likely will be able to cite a range of products that were invented through the course of the space program.
“Now, Mr and Mrs Banksia, what if you invested in a modern venture enterprise that will do what NASA did back then, and get a space colony going? But this time we will not squander our opportunities like NASA did. If NASA kept the copyright and royalties for all the new products that get invented along the way, did you know that it could have funded the rest of the space program twice over? Fact!* Can you imagine the returns on your investment if you were smart enough to get on the ground floor, on the launch pad if you will? This time with smart business-minded people who know the value of a dollar and not some government fat-cat with his head in the clouds. And I can help you make your payments in bitcoins - have you heard of them? Its sort of like electric cash but safer. Fact!* Did you see Jeff Bezos - one of the WORLDS RICHEST MEN - go into space? etc etc …”
*not fact
SPACE HABITAT
Space Colony Magazine offers you the opportunity to build your own superbly detailed space habitat. Every month you get a FREE part to add to the model.
Only $9.99 a month
The real question is why?
Economically the costs involved in getting things in and out of earths gravity means that there are no commodities that are economically viable on earth. And while it might make economic sense to extract resources in space to use in space, but then that just begs the question of why do we need them in space.
I hear many pleas about how we need to colonize space because due to global warming and environment degradation we might need to leave the earth to find a new home. My response is that no matter who badly we screwed up the earth’s environment it will be a whole lot easier to terraform earth into a livable habitat than terraform any other planet we are likely to come across.
If I am reading that right as 80,000 pounds then it is not a problem. The SpaceX rocket Starship is supposedly able to carry 150 tons to Mars (300,000 pounds).
No one serious is even speculatively planning a suicide mission to Mars. Dangerous, yes. No hope whatsoever, no.
I’m not sure what you mean by “reaching the Starship” since they land in the Starship and will set up camp nearby. They just have to walk there if they need to leave.
There is not, however, enough propellant in the Starship to leave immediately upon landing. Propellant will have to be generated first. Most likely, automated systems will generate the propellant before anyone gets there, so returning is just a matter of hopping in the fueled one, or filling the tanks from the ground storage.
Your snark in comparing SpaceX to Oceangate is unwarranted. SpaceX has the most reliable launchers in the business, and the most reliable operational crew transport. There’s no evidence of them taking shortcuts on anything where human lives are at stake. Mars is certainly a much greater challenge than trips to the ISS, but there’s zero reason to believe they’ll lower their standards in any way.
Even assuming a scenario where the rocket is too damaged to return, any Mars mission won’t happen at all until Starship is cheap and reliable. And at that point, it’s easy to drop additional supplies if needed. 100+ tons at a time can supply a crew for a long time.
As for the OP, space colonization is a scam if anyone is asking you for money.