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Originally Posted by BigJim
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There's no economic justification for going to Mars
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The deuterium abundance is five times that of Earth. Even at present launch rates that would be a profitable business. Also, Mars has undergone the same hydrological and volcanic processes that we have, so it undoubtedly has large untouched reserves of gold, platinum, copper, silver - all the metals that are important to civilization and industry. Also, in the long run, the Martians will probably develop many technological advances, which will be driven by need, like the situation in America in the 1700s. |
Right now i don't see deuterium mining as providing an economic incentive to go to Mars. I haven't looked into the situation, but the UN is making lots of noise about water shortages. Nuclear desalinators ought do drastically reduce the price of deuterium.
I have some doubts about the availability of minerals on Mars as well. This could be settled relatively cheaply--perhaps it already has and i didn't see the results. It might turn out that the asteroid belt would be a cheaper source of minerals than Mars--if so, it would be cheaper to ship them to Earth directly from the belt rather than to use Mars as a staging or processing area.