Some people think living on Mars is easy. We know betah!

[JerryC]

For you folks who might be sci-fi buffs (when you are not being train buffs), The Martian is a fairly good matinee flick. It also features Sean Bean, the guy who voiced the annoying opening sequence for TS2015. He plays the NASA Crew Director for the Aries mission.

[CARex]

I hope he's got a percentage deal. I understand it did very handsomely on the opening week-end.

[Metrarailfan]

I saw that this weekend, It was a great movie. I would have liked a little more set-up a the beginning though.

[JerryC]

I saw that this weekend, It was a great movie. I would have liked a little more set-up a the beginning though.

The book started with Watney digging himself out of the dirt after the storm was over, so Ridley Scott took a little liberty with the opening. I noticed that there were a lot of similarities in the look of the movie with another little-known Scott movie named "Alien".

Sorry of the derail. Sean Bean, TS2015, now we're back on topic.

[CSX5202]

theoretically, living on mars is possible. First there is water, along with plenty of Carbon Dioxide. And there is plenty of O2 trapped in the rust. So, if one were to take enough C02 and H20 and through a chemical reaction, you could make fuel (CH4, methane) and oxygen. If the core of mars was still hot and molten like it's in the earth's core, then it would still have a magnetic field, and therefore have an ocean and green vegetation like here on earth. But nonetheless, with plenty of water (that is now becoming evident that there is more water on mars than once thought) and a habitation unit with plenty of water, oxygen and CO2, an astronaut could live

[JerryC]

Yes, asides from the nasty little problem of having your blood boil and your eyeballs freeze solid when you take your suit helmet off. The water is only liquid in the daytime, and the atmospheric pressure is far to low to keep your guts on the inside without a suit.

But I think I have an easy solution. Send all of our non-tier compliant locomotives ( and a few EPA politicos to run them ) to Mars. They should throw off enough CO2 to warm the place up sufficiently to start growing plants to supply O2. See, railroads are the answer for everything!