Alternatives to Mars Colonization

[Jason76]

Elon Musk badly wants his plan, but honestly, it's not realistic. Well, why not develop the Canadian Shield, as an alternative? That landmass could house millions of people, assuming scientists could make the soil fertile, but even if they can't, people can still live there. I mean, compare that to transporting humans to a planet with no breathable air, bad gravity, and poisonous radiation.

 

[Riberet19]

I believe that the colonization of Mars in the short term is not viable, at least that is my opinion, I think that instead, we should look for solutions on earth, such as the one you mention, or improve life on earth itself and develop defense technology if needed, for example to defend against asteroids or other possible threats.

 

[Jason76]

Another option is going underwater. However, that seems way more expensive than developing polar or desert areas. I don't see the advantage of that at all, aside from the fact the ocean is near many populous nations like Japan.

 

[deucher]

I think you are greedy, but it is not so interesting for him and he wants to go down in history as a colonizer of Mars, and for colonizing the Canadian shield he will not go down in history as a great man. I also believe that these funds would be more profitable to spend within the borders of the Earth, but these are his finances

 

[Joshua Farrell]

There is Venus, if a large enough quantity of water was transported to it to cool the planet off. One of the moons of Jupiter should do the trick, as the largest moon is basically a planet sized ball of ice. The downside of that, is the length of time it would take to get that water to Venus. That, and the slow daily rotation of the planet. If the planet had the water it needed to make it habitable, the high temp for the "day" side would be livable, but always hot. If there was a feasible way to speed up the rotation of the planet, then we would have a second planet in our system that wouldn't have any issues with gravity.

 

[Nomad]

While I kind of laugh at the word "mars colonization" I believe interplanetary travel to Mars for recreational purpose is possible and rich people might visit mars as tourist but not to stay there.