# Would living on Mars suck? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2016, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881 "2016-06-20T10:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/21 "2016-06-20T20:28:48Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > In fact it’s cold as hell. ++ ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/22 "2016-06-20T21:21:13Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > In fact it’s cold as hell. And there’s no one there to raise them if you did. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/23 "2016-06-20T21:31:28Z")
And all this science, I don’t understand (Except how to grow poo potatoes) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/24 "2016-06-20T21:38:46Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Since there are so few people likely to be there I’d guess you would need alot of robot friends. Like Cherry 2000. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/25 "2016-06-20T22:04:43Z")
> [@KellyCriterion](#): > > But once the basic infrastructure of the first Mars colony is established, why would anyone choose to _ **live** _, permanently, on Mars? By that time, the reason is probably “because it’s home.” And it’s not as if they’d build a certain size structure and say “OK, we’re finished, we’ll stop building and just spend our time tending to the greenhouses and wishing we could walk outside.” ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/26 "2016-06-21T00:17:46Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There are people who willingly live and work in places like an Antarctica for years and years. Antarctica, by the way, probably does qualify as “the most remote, isolated and barren desert on earth”. Probably only a small minority of people would fall into that category, which is just as well, because there are a very limited number of slots for such an endeavor. Antarctica has plenty of research outposts, but no actual colonies where people are meant to settle permanently & begat future generations of Antarcticians. Nobody’s even tried to so despite it being orders of magnitude easier than colonizing Mars. Antarctica will never be colonized as long it’s treated as a continent sized nature reserve. If it ever opens up to mineral exploitation (a long shot) _then_ we’ll see permanent colonies, but only to provide window dressing for territorial claims. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …But that doesn’t require people to live permanently on Mars. People could go to Mars, work there for a number of years, and then return to Earth. Some might even spend their entire career there before retiring to Earth. There’s no reason to think of a trip to Mars as being one-way. Granted we don’t know what the long term effects of living in Martian gravity would be, but I think it’s safe to say that after living on Mars for several \*decades \*you’d enjoy your retirement more if you stayed in place instead of returning to Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/27 "2016-06-21T05:44:18Z")
What will be the male/female ratio of colonists taking up residence on Mars? What percentage of colonists who go to Mars for the rest of their lives will ever get laid again? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/28 "2016-06-21T06:16:57Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > By that time, the reason is probably “because it’s home.” > > And it’s not as if they’d build a certain size structure and say “OK, we’re finished, we’ll stop building and just spend our time tending to the greenhouses and wishing we could walk outside.” That’s an important factor - would it be a venture representing a first foothold that would eventually lead to self-sustaining large colonies there, or would it be a long but finite exploratory mission. If the latter, and if it’s a one-way trip, then at some point, either all the team will die at once in some accident, or they will die off one by one of various causes - and the outlook for the last Mars pensioner is pretty grim and probably ends with painful lingering death (or suicide). Of course, if it’s the former, then the prospects may be a bit more cheery. But it’s not the former. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/29 "2016-06-21T06:43:02Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Since there are so few people likely to be there I’d guess you would need alot of robot friends. > > I’ve read about how cosmonauts stuck up in the Russian space station went nuts after a few months. _All the conditions necessary for murder are met if you shut two men in a cabin and leave them together for two months._ [Valery Ryumin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valery_Ryumin), Salyut Space Station NASA poo paahed the Russians when they mentioned this during the Shuttle-MIR era. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/30 "2016-06-21T15:19:18Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Like Cherry 2000. Pffft. Melanie Griffith…? A Thousand times more cool. Spontaneous is Always better than boring-programmed. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/31 "2016-06-21T15:55:57Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > What will be the male/female ratio of colonists taking up residence on Mars? > > What percentage of colonists who go to Mars for the rest of their lives will ever get laid again? I’d say a 10:1 female to male ratio is optimal. Now, this would necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/32 "2016-06-21T16:32:12Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I’d say a 10:1 female to male ratio is optimal. Now, this would necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious… service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature. You can’t fight in here! This is the War Room! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/33 "2016-06-21T17:08:08Z")
_Survival kit contents, check. In them you’ll find: one .45 caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one minature combination Martian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Hellas Planitia will all that stuff._ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/34 "2016-06-21T18:02:16Z")
> [@KellyCriterion](#): > > Being able to visit Mars as a tourist is probably something that people who are alive today will get to experience. That would be awesome. > > Setting up the first Mars colony would probably be incredibly satisfying and fulfilling work for those who get to perform that task. Much awesomeness there too. There’s one aspect that pretty much kills the dream of manned Mars exploration. Here on earth we have a nice atmosphere and a nice magnetic field, which keep us safe from both ambient radiation in space on some of the Sun’s radiation. Otherwise these things would be lethal. Mars has a much weaker atmosphere and magnetic field, and thus the lethal radiation reaches the surface. So you’d first have to find a way to reach Mars without dying, and then you’d have to dig deep under the surface in order to survive. Briefly the possibilities for reaching Mars alive are: 1. Build an extremely thick and heavy shield around the spaceship. 2. Create an extremely strong magnetic field to repel radiation. 3. Give the surface of the spaceship an electric charge of about 2 billion volts. 4. Get to Mars extremely quickly. 5. Genetically modify human beings to make them immune to radiation. 1 is possible but would make the spaceship extremely heavy and slow. 2 and 3 are beyond any imaginable technology. 4 runs into the limit on the acceleration that the human body can endure. 5 is not possible and probably never will be. ---
**Author:** ![Majestic\_Lee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Majestic\_Lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Majestic_Lee)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/35 "2016-06-21T22:12:01Z")
It’s on America’s tortured brow… ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/36 "2016-06-21T22:25:39Z")
I don’t like winter half because of snow, and half because it’s cold enough to need a coat. Imagine having to don a space suit every time you went outside and how much of a pain in the ass that would be. I would not take the opportunity to go to Mars if offered it. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/37 "2016-06-21T22:34:33Z")
Mars is the armpit of the Solar System, it’s just a hole. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/38 "2016-06-21T22:51:28Z")
So, it’s like Fresno. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/39 "2016-06-21T23:07:53Z")
Vallejo. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881/40 "2016-06-22T01:06:07Z")
I was offered a job in Antarctica. 25 years ago. I was out of work, but had a good background for going there. 30 years old. Not married, with search and rescue background. No stranger to extreme environments. GIS computer and mapping experience. Construction knowledge. Jack of all trades really. I would have been put to work as basically a janitor or handyman. $6.35 an hour & room and board. I could take 60lbs of personal gear. They would provide cold weather gear. At the same time I received a job offer that I took. Still there, 25 years later living at 11,200 feet. Heh, it’s a little rough sometimes, but I made the right choice. Otherwise, I would not have met my Wife. Ya never know. Antarctica is a day at the beach compared to Mars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-living-on-mars-suck/757881.md?page=3)