Re:Ask HN: How bad Earth would have to be for terraforming M...
by subject4056 on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @01:18PM
(#50075285)
Mars doesn't make a ton of sense as a backup earth because gravity there is too weak to carry a fetus to term. If we had the tech and the urgency to terraform mars, it would probably make more sense to put those resources into space stations where we could control the environment better (and less risk from losing any one station). Mars in this scenario is sort of like an offshore oil rig that people work on for some months at a time and then go back to their life in space (again provided we can't live on earth for some reason).
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Re:Ask HN: How bad Earth would have to be for terraforming M...
by Zambyte on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @01:27PM
(#50075401)
> gravity there is too weak to carry a fetus to term
This seems way down in the list of reasons Mars is hard. Possibly not on the list at all. Interested in your source on such a confident claim.
Re:Ask HN: How bad Earth would have to be for terraforming M...
by subject4056 on Tuesday October 13, 2026 @01:39PM
(#50075598)
You know I took the wrong conclusions from frog/rat developmental studies in space. As far as I can tell low gravity isn't known to be a killer, just that the whole process hasn't been studied (no mammal recorded to give birth in space).
As to whether or not that makes Mars hard, I think it doesn't matter how well you can control the climate if you can't have a second generation of people to live there.
Re:Ask HN: How bad Earth would have to be for terraforming M...
by gus_massa on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @03:18PM
(#50093430)
> gravity there is too weak to carry a fetus to term.
Why gravity is a problem? I only can imagine a problem in the fetus rotation during the last month, but I'm not even sure it's a real problem. Some mothers must be in bed for long time before the birth.