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A comment on Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth. Parent comment

Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by variaga on Thursday July 16, 2020 @08:58PM (#23865802)
The reason nations were willing to sign a treaty agreeing not to colonize the antarctic is that none of them wanted to do it anyway.

Prior to the treaty, humans had already colonized every other continent, and had the means to travel to Antarctica for _thousands_ of years.

If colonizing Antarctica was in any way worthwhile, someone would have done it 100s (or 1000s, or 10,000s) of years ago.

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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by rbanffy on Friday July 17, 2020 @11:24AM (#23871516)
The reason countries sign such treaties is that they don't want to spend money in a race to colonize the place (and a war to decide who owns it) that has no obvious economic return.
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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by smegger001 on Thursday July 16, 2020 @09:03PM (#23865830)
>If colonizing Antarctica was in any way worthwhile, someone would have done it 100s (or 1000s, or 10,000s) of years ago.

except technology has advanced since then.

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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by Ericson2314 on Friday July 17, 2020 @01:25PM (#23873015)
And the global warming directly cuts costs regardless of technology level.
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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by dleslie on Thursday July 16, 2020 @09:04PM (#23865832)
We've had the means and ability to colonize it since the end of WW2. Chile and Argentina have civilian towns there, since the 50s&60s. Very teeny tiny towns, but they exist.
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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by LargoLasskhyfv on Friday July 17, 2020 @07:41PM (#23877360)
As I understand it colonization in this context means self sufficiency. Are they without delivery of food and other essentials by ship and plane? Could they grow their food there in greenhouses?
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Re:Mars is, at best, no less risky a place than Earth by xmprt on Thursday July 16, 2020 @09:04PM (#23865831)
Maybe that's why everyone signed the treaty in the first place. They didn't have the tech but now that they do, it's worth giving it another shot.
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