Ask HN: As a Software Engineer how can I help in colonizing mars? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: As a Software Engineer how can I help in colonizing mars?

I've always been fascinated with space exploration but have no clue how as a Software Engineer can I contribute to this.

I'm not American.

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1. Work for SpaceX

2. Work for NASA

3. Work for your local space agency or aeronautics concern

4. Amass a large amount of money through software engineering and donate / invest

5. Amass a large amount of money through software engineering and create your own colony initiative

Might have some issues with ITAR with the first two, since OP is not an American citizen.

Working for SpaceX is the dream but I don't have a Green card nor am I in America.

There aren't any serious efforts to colonize Mars, and I don't think there's any special need for software developers. Your options to be involved even tangentially are pretty slim. If you want to be associated, your only serious options are a national space agency (NASA, ESA, or one of the few other spacefaring nations), or the few commercial space companies, with SpaceX being the only one that's expressed any interest in Mars.

I've indirectly worked for NASA a few times, through university-run, NASA-funded programs (Mars rovers and orbiters, and some other planetary missions). It's interesting work, and I felt like I was contributing in a small way. I'd encourage anyone with an interest to get involved in that way. I can't say I felt like I was important at all, but it was more rewarding than working on Wall Street (except financially).

I should have been clear. I am not overly attached to Mars, I just want to help in space exploration and space colonization seems like a fine idea but again what you suggested are probably the only options.

Get involved in the Mars Colony competition 2019 discussed here a few days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18305464

That seems fairly interesting.

My question would be...why exactly would you want to help do this? Um, have you not seen what we've done to earth? Why would you want to help spread our human-ness to Mars?

I'm always so confused by people who want us to go to Mars (cough Elon Musk), like that's suddenly going to make humans not do human ish. Like Mars is going to make us suddenly not racist. Like Mars is suddenly going to make us start giving a damn about our environment and fellow man. It's kind've laughable honestly.

This is a well-discussed topic (roughly twice a month on HN, to my experience) so I don't think there's a point in going again over all the reasons for Mars colonization. But making humans better at humaning isn't the reason anyone is advocating. Like you observed, it would be dumb. The reasons range from dreams of exploration, through science, raising morale, creating a backup to mitigate impact of planetary-scale disasters, technology spinoff, to pushing humanity out into the void - where we should have been present for decades now.

I don't think there is a hope in hell that we can achieve it. Just look at how much effort it took to get to the moon, colonising Mars is an infinitely more difficult problem.

They were on the moon in 9 years and we have had fifty years since. Peter Thiel, would call the lunar mission a part of our "Deterministic Optimisim". If you assume humans keep progressing,after a certain point we should be able to colonize different plants. Its not about if its about when.

Human beings are explorers. It'd be sad for us to not explore whats out there. To explore whats out there, given our limited life spans it makes sense to have bases in space and mars seems like a good start. As a Engineer it seems logical to have redundancy for our civilization.

Its not about being humanish. Sure there are other problems to solve, but there are 7 billion people on Earth and people might have a different calling. We can handle different problems concurrently.

> Human beings are explorers

Um and why is that exactly?

The rest of your comment is pretty off base from the parent, so I won't address.

I think the most realistic avenue to take would be using your software eng skills to assist interest groups that are focussed on increasing funding for the sciences / space exploration.

I bet they have terrible websites, difficulties getting content to people etc. Also Im sure there are plenty of opportunities to create tools / games that encourage public interest in space exploration.

Figure out an unsolved problem required for colonizing mars and work on it. Build a startup, have billions of dollars exit then redirect all your money towards the unsolved problems.

Run simulations.

Why bother colonizing Mars at all? The place is worse than a dump.

Even the moon would be a better choice, this century at least. The cloud tops of Venus are heavenly, by comparison. Even asteroids have more appeal.

Antarctica or northern Greenland would be overwhelmingly more pleasant than any of those. Likewise the ocean floor, on any continental shelf. Texas.

>Why bother colonizing Mars at all? The place is worse than a dump.

Well, to play devil's advocate, if you know that there's likely to be a WWIII (or other catastrophe) that wipes out all life, establishing a sustaining base on Mars is the best way to ensure the return of human civilization.[1]

[1] The whole talk is worth a listen, but he talks specifically about this starting at 7:20: https://youtu.be/B-Osn1gMNtw

If a WWIII were to happen would we want to ensure the return of human civilization?

Mars as a first step is definitely debatable but the importance and advantages of establishing colonies in space are clear. We can create homes in the solar system that are actually superior to life on Earth in the same way our houses are superior to life in the wilderness. We can build them from the ground up to suit not just our needs but our preferences (e.g. no mosquitos). These new homes will displace nothing but dead rock and will be incredible new worlds. Resources in the solar system in terms of materials and energy are far superior to what is found on Earth and once industry is established, the resources can be extracted far more efficiently. We can comfortably house literally trillions of humans in just our solar system using only technology currently available to us. All that is required is the will and the initial investment (which I will admit is considerable). Old Earth can be returned to nature and only those who want live in harmony with it.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of that?

To quote Sam Seaborn in The West Wing:

> 'Cause it's next. 'Cause we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill and we saw fire; and we crossed the ocean and we pioneered the west, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on a timeline of exploration and this is what's next.

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