JPL — Jupiter Pluto… Lars?
To understand the prospects of living in a planet, that’s not Earth, is a fun thought experiment.
.. Wait.
It’s a reality?
Or a very soon-to-be-very-real-reality?
Well damn.
What does that entail though?
Designing everything we see and do everyday around us, but with different constraints? Low gravity? Different accessibility requirements? Different set of problems with assumptions we might make, with the few facts we have?
Should we design from Earth, and then send to Mars? We could. That’s one idea. A fully fledged out rocketship thing that just nicely lands on an extraterrestrial planet, and unfolds sweetly into an elaborate housing and living facility.
Or we could just grab a screw driver, some wood, some nuts and bolts, and figure shit out when we get there?
We did pretty fine when we had to do that with Earth, correct?
Maybe we should begin with the simple design process, before going wild with ideas.
And what does all good design begin with?
Research.
What do we ACTUALLY know about Mars?
Personally, very very very very little.
Scientists and astronauts? Probably slightly more, but definitely not enough (to be fair, we never know enough of anything, but you get my point).
So perhaps the question, instead of ‘How to design something for Mars’, should be ‘How do we learn about Mars before we design something for Mars’, but without the ease of just taking a road trip*.
*Totally all for road trips to Mars, but we’ll get there.. Maybe in a couple of decades. I promise :)
