Hacker News Reader

> what are the advantages of a Mars colony?

Survival of our species. Protection from an extinction event on Earth. Stepping stone to further expansion (interstellar).

View on HN

This argument about Mars protecting us from an extinction event on Earth any time in the next 250 years seems like baloney. If that's an actual concern I would invest in something Earth-based first (e.g. underground bunkers).

Hey underwater would check two of those boxes

EDIT: or moon surface

It wouldn't check any in the event of a large asteroid impact.

It's a lot harder to build a self-sustaining colony on the moon than on Mars. Mars is rich in carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen. The moon is not.

Asteroids don't cause extinctions by coming in and blowing everything to smithereens. Rather, the ejecta causes firestorms, and an impact winter can wreck the biosphere and prevent sunlight from reaching the surface. But even during the worst of this, Earth will remain more hospitable than Mars.

There's no reason for a self-sufficient (nuclear?) underground or underwater habitat to notice global firestorms or impact winters. They would notice a direct hit, but you can hedge against that by building them in multiples around the globe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com