World, Writing, Wealth discussion

The Godfather of indie authors seems to be much more excited with space exploration than with e-commerce. That's how I understand it: "Jeff Bezos: Yes, in fact, my high-school girlfriend has been interviewed in the media, and has said that she is sure Amazon exists solely to create money for Blue Origin. I can neither confirm nor deny that. …" https://www.geekwire.com/2016/intervi...

I'm sure they'll figure out how not to interrupt shopping and reading while in space. So no worries: while on Mars, you'll still be able to purchase books of your favorite authors..
Would you actually trade this planet for another or prefer just to read about it?

Books on Mars - much cheaper if ebooks :-) They also get there faster. There will be no book printing on Mars - the forests are already cut down, so there is no paper! As for a trade, i am too old to think about it so I shall prefer to WRITE about it :-)

No worries... on Mars they will invent a new type of paper made entirely of detritus. Compacted, squeezed, hydrated detritus.

Hydrated with what? Now that is the real question...

Hey, back to the beginning with clay tablets!

So, if Jeff vouches for seamless supply of ebooks & toilet paper and Xi promises not to re-export corona, would you embark on interplanetary relocation?

Mars does not look friendly enough - bit like going to polar regions or Sahara It's ok for a vacation or visit but not to live

Yet people live in the polar regions and the Sahara. However, it would definitely be an expensive place to go to.

Ian wrote: "Yet people live in the polar regions and the Sahara. However, it would definitely be an expensive place to go to."

That was me personally. I have done deserts, and polar regions and do not want to live in them again - a trip though is always interesting. I suspect Mars initially will be like going to ISS but for longer and with longer journey - bit like some initial earth explorers sailing.
I suspect Amazon will help supply or Tesla/SpaceX - Tesla electric rovers for moon/Mars?

Maybe the feeling would be of a frontier, but otherwise the settlements can be quite comfy. Let’s get there already to choose sea/mountain view

I suspect that going to Mars will be one-way for settlers, simply because of the huge cost in getting there. Also, most of what you want will have to be made there, simply because of the cost getting it there, and the fact that people there will have very limited means of paying for anything on Earth. What could they sell, bearing in mind the cost of getting it there?

In my ebook novel "Red Gold" besides the story I tried to outline what would be needed (and I got in the L1 magnetic diversion proposal for solar wind years before NASA announced the idea) and the biggest problems I saw were that Mars probably has very few ores because there is very limited geochemical processing, there is no obvious source of fibres for clothes, nitrogen is in short supply (but I suggested a possible answer to that, which would also solve the fibre problem) and to have any chance, there would have to be access to very large power density to get metals, etc, from the basaltic rock. The best source of that would be nuclear fusion, becausethe water on Mars is deuterium rich. Fission is more difficult because since Mars is short of felsic rock, it may be difficult to get uranium or thorium to power it. So it will not be luxury there. So why go? I am not sure many would like my answer to that.

I have lived in a desert (16 years!) and have done enough heat to last me forever. I've always thought I should have been born in a cold climate. I love winter.

Mind you, as it's an Australian winter that I have most experience with, and the only time I've really been in a much colder winter, it's been on skiing holidays, I probably have a skewed idea of how much nicer snowy winters might be.

Spend a winter in northern Manitoba and you just might change your mind, Leonie. I have heard of motors seized up and incapable of motion because the oil had frozen solid.

That's just a tad colder than I am accustomed to.

The thing about going to Mars or any other planet is that you either have to be inside or get suited up to go outside into a hostile environment. No leisurely strolls, no sitting under a tree to read a Goodreads book.

You could be inside a dome that has trees. In one of my books I suggested putting a transparent roof over a crater, which would give a reasonable area to walk around. Space mirrors could provide warmth. Expensive, but it is possible to have reasonable conditions on Mars, if you can tolerate the weaker gravity.

Probably sounds unbelievable now, but maybe at some stage with better vehicles - ppl will do shifts, like 3 months on Mars another quarter home, like someone I know works in Siberia: a month without weekends there (and it gets as low as (-) 50 Celsius there) and a month home

Could be interesting maybe living up there as long as we have something to live in with all the comforts of home plus have our own property enclosed in a dome like Ian said he created in his book. We could have everything we would ever need right there and not ever have to worry about going outside of the dome.

Also as far as having books - well I think I have more than enough to last me for the next 10 years as long as I could download all of them before I left on the trip up there! LOL

Oh....curiosity piqued for all of you....I have around 4,000 books unread in my amazon cloud at the moment. Slowly making my way through them! So having that many should last me a very long time! :-)

Oh and one more thing - we will need to create our own luxury bar or something up there so I can mix drinks for everyone! :-)

Marie wrote: "...Oh and one more thing - we will need to create our own luxury bar or something up there so I can mix drinks for everyone! :-) ..."

Agree - no Mars without a bar

Nik wrote: "Probably sounds unbelievable now, but maybe at some stage with better vehicles - ppl will do shifts, like 3 months on Mars another quarter home, like someone I know works in Siberia: a month withou..."

Leaving aside the costs, a shift is likely to be a little longer than two years, because that is how long it takes for the planets to get back to the same position. It is a bit awkward when they are on opposite sides of the star.

Apart from the inconvenient times when they are in opposite sides of the star, you could get TV programs etc, or internet connections with Earth, with a delay ranging from about 20 minutes or so due to the speed of light. Conversations with friends would have to have more than "hello" in a turn or you would be in for a long phone bill. As for the bar, most would have to be brewed there so maybe a skilled brewer would be a highly desirable settler.

Nik wrote: "Marie wrote: "...Oh and one more thing - we will need to create our own luxury bar or something up there so I can mix drinks for everyone! :-) ..."

Agree - no Mars without a bar"

You can be the bar owner/manager and I will mix drinks! :-)

Oh and we will also have fine dining with our best wine available too! :)

Marie, I’m game. Instead of being an owner and you mixing drinks, partners sound better:)

Ian, current transportation and communication problems are obvious, otherwise Martians would call us more frequently. Could you please get us there? Or offer an invention or two to make the commuting speedier? :)

As for fine dining, there would be a problem with steaks - there is not a lot of range to graze animals currently. Oddly, it would be easier to get seafood. The idea is if you can find a crater where water flowed into it, there is likely to be salt at the bottom under the dust, so cover the crater with a roof, melt ice, insert seaweed and fish, and . . .

My proposed propulsion method was a fusion motor into which you inject powdered silicates and use electric and magnetic fields to accelerate the atoms up to near light speed to get most momentum from the energy before ejecting them. A bit of work to do before that becomes possible, and of course that sort of motor would only operate in space