Words matter. Images matter. The Scientific Inquirer needs your support. Help us pay our contributors for their hard work. Visit our Patreon page and discover ways that you can make a difference. http://bit.ly/2jjiagi
Building a civilization on Mars is no longer that much of a stretch. Of course, it won’t likely happen in our immediate futures but it’s not out of the question for subsequent generations. Much of the technology necessary either already exists or is in a nascent state. One of the biggest questions pertains to food. How can a sustainable source of nutrition be established. A recent paper takes a shot at imagining what it takes to feed a colony of 1 million people. As per Space.com, “The researchers noted that raising farm animals for dairy and meat would not be practical on Mars in the near term because of the challenges of shipping them across space. At the same time, they noted that most people do not want to go completely vegetarian. The solution? Insect farms and lab-grown meat, they suggested.” http://bit.ly/30gsopO
While we’re on the topic of Mars, SpaceX is inching closer to realizing the spacecraft it plans on using to colonize Mars, Starship. Elon Musk tweeted images of a spacecraft nearing completion. http://bit.ly/2OaOYZB
It’s avalanche season on Mars… Really… And NASA has images to prove it. https://go.nasa.gov/306wrVk
We’ve got some depressing news to finish things up today. A recent study published in Science indicates that since 1970, the United States and Canada have lost three billion birds. That’s “illion” with a “B”. As per National Geographic, “researchers discovered that birds found in grasslands—including well-known families such as sparrows, warblers, blackbirds, and finches—have been hit hardest, with their populations cut 53 percent over the last 48 years.” https://on.natgeo.com/30dFaoT
IMAGE SOURCE: Creative Commons