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HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY
THINK TO MAKE A COLONY ON MARS!? It will take most
likely more than 1
billion dollars, and without a GOOD plan that fullfills all of my
concerns, I will keep thinking it is no more than a dream to land on
mars, and most sensible people would too.
Dec. 19, 2001
Indeed, the cost of establishing a colony on Mars will exceed a billion dollars.
However, when one considers that the capitation of many of the large international
corporations runs into the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars it makes such a
plan seem much more feasible. Fortune magazine every year publishes a list of the
richest people and it always includes a number of
individuals who themselves are worth well over a billion dollars. How much does it
cost to build the factories that make the Pentium micro processor or the Boeing 747?
"In January [1998], four networks - Fox, ABC, CBS and ESPN - agreed to pay a
combined $17.6 billion to televise the
NFL for four years." Surely a project with the potential to transform human
civilization like the establishment of a colony on Mars deserves a greater piece of
the civilized worlds financial support than football. In any case, we could
probably sell television rights alone for over a billion dollars.
I hope that the answers given to the questions you asked shows that a colony
on Mars is within mankind's current technological and financial capabilities.
Sure there are challenges, but it is the overcoming of challenges that causes
science and technology to advance. A large number of people in the developed world
are happy with a dead end 8 to 5 job and are content to come home and watch TV all
night and have that be their primary hobby. Those are not the kind of people who are
going to work on a Mars mission or benefit directly by investing in the colonization
and exploitation of Mars. It will be those who are interesting in taking on
difficult challenges and in working on solving complex problems who will become
the heroes who will take humanity on to one of the most exciting adventures of
its existence.
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