My thoughts on what we haven’t done and where we haven’t been in forty-five years.
7 thoughts on “The New Extraterrestrial Geography”
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My thoughts on what we haven’t done and where we haven’t been in forty-five years.
Comments are closed.
I see you had to get your licks in on how the term geography doesn’t apply to objects beyond the Earth with a discussion of the complex set of “ographies” for the rest of the Solar System… Likely, as with geology, its a term we will take to the stars to represent the discipline that studies places and their relationship to human activities.
Good, but not your best Rand.
My pet peeve… Why terraform? There are parts of the earth that do not have a breathable atmosphere and we don’t terraform those. The only atmosphere you need is that which you move around in which is not very limiting.
Remember Asimov’s “Caves of Steel?” Caves the size of Los Angeles (or San Angeles?) made of dirt (rock, cement, etc.) work as well.)
I actually agree, especially given the toxic dust that covers Mars. Terraforming won’t fix that but would only make it worse.
Great piece.
You’re right about the outer space treaty. It’s a major roadblock. It essentially made celestial bodies off-limits in much of the way the Antarctic treaty did for Antarctica. There are, after all, areas of Antarctica that are even more hospitable than, say, Spitzbergen or Greenland, which are inhabited.
As an aside, I think there are historical parallels to our lunar landings (and then not returning). It was quite common in the age of exploration to discover an island, and have the next visit over a century later. Also, in colonization; the first person of European decent born in North America was born into a short lived colony almost five centuries before Columbus’s 1492 voyage. North America, even after the failure of the Viking colony in Newfoundland, was visited often by the Viking Greenlanders, only to have visits cease utterly when that colony (actually two colonies), after four hundred years of success, failed and vanished around 1375 (no one knows for sure what happened save for a decline bought on by the climate getting colder, so the date the last Viking Greenlander died is unknown). From that point, it was over a century before the next European visited North America. I hope that we won’t wait that long before returning to the Moon.
Of course economics are the key in regard to the Vikings exploration and settlement of the New World was the lack of anything of real value to export to Western Europe. Since there was no trade opportunities there no reason for ships to go Vinland and Greenland. The timber from Vinland was of some value to Greenland, which is why visits continued for a while, but not enough to build permanent settlements given the hostile attitudes of the indigenous groups.
By contrast the early Spanish settlements quickly paid their way with gold, silver and emeralds, while Cod provided the wealth for early settlements in North America, to soon be followed by fur, tobacco, word products and cotton. Sugar was the big crop that made the Caribbean colonies successful. Cod was also what made Iceland successful.
The lesson for space advocates is that CATS by itself won’t bring space settlement. You need to identify value created for wealth on Earth to be used to finance the first settlements and then identify viable business models to keep settlements going. The Vikings had CATS with their great long boats, but they didn’t have any economic model for the settlements.
Elon wants to sell passage to, and basic habitation on, Mars for a half million bucks. He describes that as what an American middle class coupe can accumulate in assets by the time they are middle-aged. This makes the Martian Duchy of Muskovy (my name, not Elon’s) sound a lot more like a Del Webb retirement community than like Jamestown or Plymouth Colony.
But there should be plenty of opportunities for younger people to get there on borrowed or partially borrowed money and then start businesses catering to a Leisure World-esque clientele. A Martian Merry Maids franchise would doubtless do quite well, for instance, as would restaurants of all types. Greenhouse-based agriculture and animal husbandry to supply food stores and restaurants are a cinch bet. Most types of health care workers would also seem likely able to find gainful employment or entrepreneurship opportunities.
Once enough people are in one place, business opportunities will exhibit yeasty growth. I think Elon’s notion of getting a relatively large number of people to Mars fairly quickly is likely the key to long-term growth and sustainability.
need to identify value created for wealth on Earth
Exactly right. You could not be more right. It is exactly what I’ve been saying. The problem is getting others to understand and agree which is accomplished by formalizing the idea which I intend to do when I can.
Do mars and other rocks have future value? It’s a simple question that must be answered. The correct answer being yes, the next question is… can you trade something that has future value? Again yes. We do it all the time.
Not all of us of course, and those that don’t often act like anything they don’t personally do can’t be done at all. Very silly.
We can sell mars and we don’t need anybodies blessing. Just historical precedent. You keep it from being fraud by not defrauding. That’s what the lawyer’s fees are for (as soon as I can raise them) which I’m not going to ask anyone else for (too speculative.) This fool will part with his own money when the time comes.