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Building a Marsbase is a Horrible Idea: Let’s do it!

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · 21.9M views · 2019-02-03 · 7:56

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Overview

A Kurzgesagt animation walking through how a Mars base could be built and why it would be punishing, covering radiation, temperature extremes, toxic dust and the need for shielding.

On Hacker News

Recommended as a sobering, accessible overview of the practical challenges of living on Mars.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2019–2024

Topics

Space exploration & spaceflight
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marsspace colonizationradiationkurzgesagthabitats

What people said

notTooFarGone · 2024-06 · Recommendation

I think you vastly underestimate the amount of radiation and how hard it would be to build a colony that is protected enough and is "self sustaining". Nice kurzgesagt video: [VIDEO] If we manage to terraform mostly using robots and bacteria that would be so much easier.

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Etheryte · 2021-04 · Recommendation

There is no sugarcoating it, Mars is a hostile environment and to claim otherwise would simply be lying. Between the radiation, temperature, microdust and more, inhabiting Mars will be very hard. Kurzgesagt has a great video outlining many of the challenges [0]. Regardless of how meticulously you prepare, mistakes on Mars will lead to death and it's good to be honest and upfront about it. [0] [VIDEO]

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abledon · 2019-06 · Recommendation

sobering run down of the realities when living on mars: [VIDEO] The layers of soil we'd have to cover our buildings in really got me!

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Sources

Video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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