What's the best way to go about planetary colonization?

Did everyone give up on the magsail? It was a popular idea 10 years ago. Phobos and Deimos would make great beam stations.

Rule Number 4

zZaRDoZz said:

Better than 9 tenths of all resources/energy are spent keeping humans alive/moving them around if included.

This really cannot be stressed enough. Trying to figure out science fiction propulsion systems however feasible they may or may not be is secondary to figuring out how to survive long term in the most inhospitable of environments.

It's going to take me awhile to read through all of this. You can't really scan a thread like this; you really have to absorb every word. I'm really impressed that you fellas have thought so intelligently about this subject. I'll be reporting my thoughts as I read on.

Quast said:

... is secondary to figuring out how to survive long term in the most inhospitable of environments.

Assuming that terraforming is an actual goal, it might be best to let robots take care of those inhospitable environments. After a handful of generations and with all the rudimentary requirements taken care of, we would just kinda show up. :D

What makes the Earth unique from Mars, is that the Earth has a large magnetosphere around it. This serves to protect the planet from solar winds. Scientists had discovered that Mars had lost its oceans and atmosphere due to a lack of a Magnetosphere; perhaps something catastrophic happened that altered the planet. Therefore, in order to successfully terraform Mars; we would have to create a magnetosphere cocoon around the planet somehow. Or else it would be destroyed by intense solar winds.

Thus the very first step in terraforming Mars in particular would be to create a magnetosphere around it. This must be done, before even creating an atmosphere.

The only plausible way to colonize mars would be to create permanent dome structures. I doubt as a race we will ever know how to facilitate the creation of a protective coccoon surround an entire planet, several hundred million miles outwards in a spherical shape.

Also, it is the exposure to these solar winds that pose to be a obstacle to overcome, when man one day takes the voyage to Mars.

Also: Why doesn't MS Word not recognize the word "Terraforming"? it comes up as a spelling error, with a red underline.

Kontra Kommando said:

Therefore, in order to successfully terraform Mars; we would have to create a magnetosphere cocoon around the planet somehow. Or else it would be destroyed by intense solar winds.

Heh, now that you mentioned I recall some conspiracy theory book which claimed -among others- that Mars has a system of giant solenoid coils designed to do just that, buried just under the surface, and that pieces of them are exposed by erosion, meteorites, etc.

Of course, you won't find those in official photos of Mars, because ZOMG CONSPIRACY.

I knew about the negligible Martian magnetosphere, but as I understand many mainstream terraforming proposals seem not to bother about it. I was under the impression the atmosphere erosion was enough of a long-term problem that it could be topped up continually, presumably by the same kind of mechanism used to thicken the atmosphere initially

Sui Generis said:

I knew about the negligible Martian magnetosphere, but as I understand many mainstream terraforming proposals seem not to bother about it. I was under the impression the atmosphere erosion was enough of a long-term problem that it could be topped up continually, presumably by the same kind of mechanism used to thicken the atmosphere initially

You wouldn't really 'top it off', rather you would have to have the infrastructure in place to perpetually produce nitrogen more or less. Assuming we want a breathable atmosphere. Soooo... we would need to distill nitrogen out of earths atmosphere, as we do today, and ship it to mars. Probably not the best idea in any event.

Move Mars to collide with Venus. The intense heat from the impact should restart the core dynamo. Problem solved. Now you just have to wait like a billion years for the crust to cool enough for robots to land on it and begin processing the atmosphere.

It helps to start things the right way. :p

Another thing you can do is make use of solar winds. Instead of being your enemy that is blowing your precious atmosphere away, make use of them to keep the atmosphere bottled. All you need to do is to construct a Dyson sphere, easy-peasy. Atmosphere cannot be pushed outward because there's your solid surface, and it cannot leave inward because there's the solar wind to push it back.

This is how you do long-term planning.