Talk:Public interest

Mars Society's growing

The Mars Society's growing seems to be a pretty linear process, despite economic crisis, environmental incidents and other short term influences. On the contrary, my personal impression of the public interest is even on the decline. I start to wonder why that is so. Any idea? -- Rfc 20:41, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

I think people have gotten around to realizing what a forbidding place Mars is in its unmodified state and how difficult sending a human exploratory mission would be. They mostly have not grasped the potential for expansion as a space faring civilization that humanity is near. I see Mars as a storehouse of great wealth if we can manage to open the door. It would be easier to develop self replicating industry on Mars than on Luna if an Artificial Intelligence were developed that could run the thing with no more than a communication of daily reports and receipt of daily instructions. It is possible, but works of genius are impossible to predict.

There are possible electro-magnetic acceleration schemes that could make massive shipments of cargo from Mars to orbit cheap per pound, and not require super-strong materials. I will write one of them up eventually. It is only natural that many people lose interest when they hear that some development like this cannot be completed during their lifetime. If they just see the picture of raw food that you uploaded and find out we plan to grow that on Mars, they may forget to worry about how long it will take. --Farred 00:59, 13 October 2010 (UTC)