Colonizing Mars
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a thorough, speculative-but-grounded overview of the magnitude of colonizing Mars.
What it is
Isaac Arthur's in-depth look at what it would take to settle and eventually terraform Mars. He covers the challenges and the scale of the work needed to make it a home for humanity.
Recommended by 4 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2017 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec leanthonyrn · 2017-09 · on “Asteroid Mining Is Our Best Hope for Colonizing Mars”
Highly recommended video on Colonizing Mars by Isaac Arthur [this video] Equally amazing Asteriod Mining by Mr. Arthur [LINK]
Recommends devrandomguy · 2017-08 · on “Living on Mars: The Stuff You Never Thought About”
Perfect timing! Isaac Arthur just kicked off Outward Bound with an in depth look at colonizing Mars. [this video]
Recommends keanzu · 2020-02 · on “James Lovelock: 'I Would Not Waste My Fortune on Colonizing Mars'”
The sum total of human activity in the last 100 years also eclipses the sum total of all human activity prior (300k years worth). Humanity didn't do a lot for a long time. But yes, Mars would be a mega project. Isaac Arthur does great stuff on Youtube which gives an idea of the magnitude of the works necessary. [this video]
Recommends jodrellblank · 2022-12 · on “What ever happened to the first cryogenically frozen humans?”
The Sun radiates about 400 trillion trillion Watts in all directions, and only a couple of billionths of it crosses Earth. There's a lot more radiant energy spreading out into the void waiting to be Dyson Swarmed. There's no way we're going to rocket launch billions to Mars, and there isn't another planet worth living on without unreasonable amounts of energy for Terraforming. But we are capable of rebuilding the atoms of Earth into much larger living environments - there are so many atoms it wouldn't mean destroying the Earth to do it. A Space Elevator doesn't need diamond nanowire, it could be built with enough steel chain. An orbital ring around the Equator would be enormous and would tak