Many of the greatest minds on the planet are trying to find a way for humans to reach Mars and one day start a colony there but Bill Nye isn’t buying into the idea. Elon Musk may think we can pull it off but Nye feels that the colonization and terraforming of Mars is pure “science fiction” and something humanity will likely never achieve.
With Musk being one of the most vocal proponents of humanity getting to another planet that could almost be seen as a direct jab at the iconic visionary. He further went on to share a rather pessimistic view of humanity that is hard to argue with when he stated that, “We can’t even take care of this planet where we live, and we’re perfectly suited for it, let alone another planet.”
When asked if humanity would ever live on Mars he did jokingly share that we wouldn’t and that “people disagree with me on this, and the reason they disagree is because they’re wrong.”
He did expand on this by saying:
“Nobody’s gonna go settle on Mars to raise a family and have generations of Martians. It’s not reasonable because it’s so cold. And there is hardly any water. There’s absolutely no food, and the big thing, I just remind these guys, there’s nothing to breathe.”
Even if most of those options could be overcome through technology, it should be noted that “Nobody goes to Antarctica to raise a family. You don’t go there and build a park, there’s just no such thing.” That is the closest thing we can have to an Earth-like comparison to Mars as at least we have oxygen.
All of that being said, he does feel that humanity should look further into exploring the Red Planet:
“I want to find evidence of life on another world in my lifetime, so Mars in the next logical place to look. People say what are you gonna find there? We don’t know, and that’s why we go and explore the unknown horizon.”
The significant impact here would be that “if we were to find evidence of life on Mars … it would change the course of human history. Everybody would feel differently about being a living thing in the cosmos.” This would drastically change the course of human history and many belief systems which are currently in place across the globe. However, I don’t think we’ll be seeing any manned flights to Mars happening too soon.
Do you agree with Bill Nye that we’ll never live on Mars? Is the Science Guy right that finding life, even if only as microorganisms would change everything? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: USA Today
