this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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Obviously Luna and Mars aren't interchangeable! They're very different. However, you both agree they're different, but also think there's nothing that can't be done exclusively there? What?
No. I mean growing food without soil. There is no soil on Mars. We either need to make it (which is useful to learn how), or we need to do without, such as with aquaponics and aeroponics. These all would still help life on Earth too (they already do).
Why can't we do both? I hate the idea we have to only do one thing. That's not how this works. Developing technology to live on Luna and Mars would help us tackle the issues on Earth. It also doesn't exclude focusing on Earth. We are currently terraforming the Sahara. Since we are working on that, do you agree we are now fine to work on other things?
You are severely underestimating the effort that it takes to send people to Mars, unless you want them to expire there quickly. So yes, sending people to Mars really does compete with other efforts. Therefore we have to weigh the utility of such an undertaking against its benefits. It is true that sometimes "crazy" projects like this does reveal findings that you weren't actively looking for. But that is the best argument for this crazy idea - that maybe it will turn up something unexpectedly cool! And I don't see why we would divert a significant amount of resources to something like that when we have so many other fields that desperately need attention, where we know that we will find good and useful stuff without endangering the lives of people.
You mentioned soil research as one avenue for why going to Mars might help. Why do we need Mars to practice growing food without soil? What is it about Mars that provides a significant advantage for that type of research? None, you say? Then I say, let's do it on Earth or in orbit.
I am also confused as why you keep referring to Earth's moon as "Luna". In my experience that's mostly practiced when we're comparing solar systems to each other, and in that context the Earth would be named "Tellus". Although I think it's rare to call them anything except "Earth" and "the Moon" in practice, at least it was when I did my physics degree.
I'm done with this conversation, but I'll address this:
Luna is the name of Earth's moon. Have you heard of the term lunatic? That term came from people worshiping Earth's moon, Luna. I don't know why some people don't know its name. The Moon is not a name. Moon is a description. Luna is the name.
Earth is named Earth. It's not "The Planet" which would be the equivalent name as The Moon. Earth is a name. Terra, Tellus, Gaia are all also names for it. Mars is the name of the fourth planet from the sun. The sun is named Sol, which is why solar system means our star system. There are other star systems, but only one solar system. You can't compare solar systems to each other because there aren't any other solar systems. There's only the one.
Maybe a colony on Venus would be an even more exciting challenge than Mars?