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   ninja8tyu (ninja8tyu@varishangout.net)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:10:28 JST ninja8tyu
   if we wanted to terraform a planet, i'd send insects and plants
   
   fauna will be the basic element, but insects are small and are pests, somehow thriving in places they shouldn't
   
   honestly they might find a small area to live and survive on mars, then from there, pollination and stuff happens and it'll be terrarformed soon enough
   
   and honestly, buggers live short enough that radiation probably won't matter as much, aside from their size as well
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     djsumdog (djsumdog@djsumdog.com)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:10:27 JST djsumdog

     in reply to
     In the book Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (my favorite Sci-Fi book series of all time), the first life that spread and took hold on Mars was Lichen (that dry flaky moss like stuff you see on rocks around a beach). That shit will grow anywhere.
     
     Also if you like terraforming games, I recommend Terra Nil. They've had a few updates since I wrote this and the game is a lot longer now:
     
     https://battlepenguin.com/gaming/terra-nil-final-fantasy-xvi/#terra-nil
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     djsumdog (djsumdog@djsumdog.com)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:20:02 JST djsumdog

     in reply to
     Because there could be life somewhere on Mars and if you just start sending whatever, you won't know what was there to being with and what was brought in (that was also a point in the Mars trilogy; Mars preservation and such).
     
     Also that idea of nuking mars .. also based on something from Robinson's book.
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     ninja8tyu (ninja8tyu@varishangout.net)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:20:03 JST ninja8tyu

     in reply to

     • djsumdog
     @djsumdog i don't mind a good terraformer/world building game, but i was thinking that if we really wanted to terraform mars or something, honestly, i figured maybe a simple approach would work
     
     sure, the scientists probably know a thing or two of some oddly specific thing that'll happen to all that's sent to mars in its environment and conditions, but genuinely, what the fuck is stopping us from just, throwing whatever or everything at it until something sticks and "infects" the planet?
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     djsumdog (djsumdog@djsumdog.com)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:32:11 JST djsumdog

     in reply to

     • LoliHat
     The first colonists anywhere (except the moon) would have to be ready for a one-way trip. There's no realistic way of coming back from anywhere at this point. And long before you could send people, earth would need to prefect automated mining and fabrication. You'd realistically need machines the size of cars that could land, dig and start creating ingots and other raw fabrication material.
     
     And of course, the best place to experiment with all of that is the moon. But Artemis is a fucking joke and a money pit. There's no way we're ever going back to the moon (if we were ever there in the first place) in any reasonable amount of time with any of the current programs. I think it's much more likely humanity dies here within 10k years before ever colonizing the stars.
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     LoliHat (lolihat@varishangout.net)'s status on Wednesday, 07-May-2025 14:32:12 JST LoliHat

     in reply to

     • djsumdog
     @ninja8tyu @djsumdog I am honestly bemused by the obsession with terraforming Mars. One of the major problems with offworld colonization is lack of sufficient gravity. We know that mammals can not properly reproduce without enough gravity, and Mars' gravity is likely not sufficient. The best place outside of Earth that has near-Earth gravity and would be the best for long term human colonization is *Venus*, specifically high up in the atmosphere where the temperature and pressure are almost identical to Earth. Aside from the effective rotation time (day/night cycle), it's almost exactly the same except for atmospheric composition. However, our atmosphere of nitrogen/oxygen is a lifting gas and would be at equilibrium. You could have floating cloud cities if you got an outershell resistant to the sulfuric acid clouds. The best part of this is that these floating cities are already technologically feasible.