Is Living on the Moon or Mars a Practical Possibility in the Near Future?

[AnTiFreeze3]

Where would your dream home be located?

I have always wanted to live somewhere snowy, particularly on mountains, if that were ever possible. I love the cold weather, and I feel like overly warm weather just makes me groggy and lazy.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I need me a city. I love cities.

 

[turbo]

No cities for me. I have never enjoyed Boston, NYC, Philly, Atlanta...

I wish this house was located deeper in the woods. The weather in Maine is OK, though this spring has been as hot as mid-summer.

 

[nitsuj]

Hmmm, I think Hawaii offers the best weather for me.

Lots of wind + heat and some fantastic storms, dry, windy & hot, that's for me.

Not allot of that here in Ottawa (it's in a bit of a valley too).

Going from a 45 min drive to work in the city, to a 5 min drive to work, I got to say while country life is great I see now "It's not that bad f a drive, and there's not much traffic." was just blissful ignorance.

45min drive now seems like quite a while to be sitting in the car.

I like cities, for transportation reasons. Too "wasteful" driving long distances.

That being said my dream home would be on a hill right next to the playboy mansion.

 

[Danger]

I'm very happy right where I am. The only thing that would make it better would be if my house was underground instead of on the surface.

 

[SHISHKABOB]

biiiiiiig city

NYC or something

 

[lisab]

Where would your dream home be located?

I have always wanted to live somewhere snowy, particularly on mountains, if that were ever possible. I love the cold weather, and I feel like overly warm weather just makes me groggy and lazy.

I agree about warm weather. I grew up in a Mediterranean climate (California) and I really hated it. You wake up and it's a beautiful, warm, sunny day, and think, Oh holy crap it's the same weather again...what's it been, like two freaking months now?!

So I moved to Alaska. Oops, an over-correction!

Western Washington fits me juuuust right.

 

[ThomasT]

Where would your dream home be located?

I have always wanted to live somewhere snowy, particularly on mountains, if that were ever possible. I love the cold weather, and I feel like overly warm weather just makes me groggy and lazy.

I sometimes miss being close to the Big Apple, but not because of the weather (I've spent most of my life in places above 40 N latitude). I wanted to be able to play tennis and enjoy the outdoors most days of the year without wearing a lot of clothing, so I moved to Florida.

 

[phylotree]

I like Vancouver, is it a good place to live ?

 

[lisab]

I like Vancouver, is it a good place to live ?

Well you should be aware that the place is chock-full of Canadians.

 

[rootX]

I looked at the title and came here to tell that BC is the place to be, I love Vancouver :!)

Now, not Vancouver itself but the area near Vancouver. My dream house is to be near Vancouver! I can live with inside Vancouver but not the downtown itself. North Vancouver would be really pleasant place to have a house at.

 

[theorem4.5.9]

Redwood City. Climate best by government test!

 

[Insanity]

I'm very happy right where I am. The only thing that would make it better would be if my house was underground instead of on the surface.

A proper hobbit hole, no?

 

[Bobbywhy]

I prefer North-central Brasil on the western edge of Amazonia in the state of Tocantins. Two large Native tribes (indigenous) live here and speak their own language and follow ancient customs on their reservations. Some get college degrees and have become legislators. Rivers of pure spring water cover the state map, there are over one hundred waterfalls within an hour of my home, and the soil is red with iron and is fertile. Ball lightning occurs here frequently; I've personally interviewed over a dozen different folks that have seen it. Cattle ranchers and soybean planters are expanding rapidly. Here the vegetation begins to change from tropical forest into cerrado or grassland "scrubland". The fauna and flora are so diverse that local biologists say no one has even inventoried the vast numbers of plants, animals, insects, or even fungi and lichens found here. I've seen anteaters, maned wolves, a jaguar, blue and yellow macaws, toucans, anacondas, monkeys, and not enough time to list all the rest! The population density is extremely low...one can travel all day and not see another person. Six months are dry, the other six are rain, so we get two distinct seasons with two populations of fruit, birds, and insects. The skies are so dark that the Milky Way gives enough light to walk around on a moonless night. Both the Large and Small Magellanic clouds are visible with the naked eye. With my little Questar telescope I've managed to see things never possible in light-polluted populated places. I stay busy with my Museum of Arts and Sciences:
http://www.aparecidadorionegro.com/?p=noticias/94/museu-de-artes-de-ciencias

There is the capital city, Palmas, two hours' drive from here, for medical needs and other civilized stuff.

 

[alan2]

Any college town where I can walk or ride my bicycle to an intellectually stimulating experience. If I never see another car or a woman with tattoos spitting in public I'll be happy.

 

[denjay]

Only have been there on vacation one time about 10 years ago but I would love to live in or near LA. There are so many comedy shows by my favorite comedians that I was just ooze happy. The Largo at the Coronet and the UCB theater would basically be down one seat because I'd be at every show.

 

[daveb]

I refer to Los Angeles as "that cesspool from whence I came" so no big city for me. A medium sized city such as Portland (OR) is my ideal in the states. Overall? There's a reason I'd kill for the job at the IAEA (Vienna? Hell yes!)

 

[Danger]

A proper hobbit hole, no?

Yeah!

 

[SW VandeCarr]

I looked at the title and came here to tell that BC is the place to be, I love Vancouver :!)

Now, not Vancouver itself but the area near Vancouver. My dream house is to be near Vancouver! I can live with inside Vancouver but not the downtown itself. North Vancouver would be really pleasant place to have a house at.

I do like Vancouver, but it does have some strange people (not that that's unique to Vancouver). I once drove there and just as I was getting out of my car, a panhandler asked me for exactly $7.43 (CAD). After hesitating a moment, I told him I didn't have any loonies or toonies and drove away.

 

[zacharyb]

biiiiiiig city

NYC or something

I agree, I am thinking about NYC, however, a nice warm beach in Cal would also be quite awesome as well!

 

[Insanity]

Yeah!

a hundred acres or so, hobbit hole in the middle, cleared space for farming, grains for brewing ales.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I agree, I am thinking about NYC, however, a nice warm beach in Cal would also be quite awesome as well!

You know of any? I live in San Diego and can't find one.

 

[Andre]

a hundred acres or so,

That's my wood.

 

[turbo]

Not so bad up here. When I'm walking Duke, we often see minks or martens/fishers crossing the road. Today, we were headed toward a neighbor's house on the paved road, and I saw a small "dog" heading right at us. Then the "dog" noticed us and bolted into the woods. It was a fox.

Despite his very muscular appearance, Duke is very gentle and non-confrontational. He has gone nose-to-nose with skunks, and with a porcupine that was living under the tarp on my tiller. Most wild animals will not use up their defensive weapons when they are not threatened, IMO.

We have to live close to the main road due to sometimes heavy snowfalls. It would be tough to plow 1/4 mile of heavy snow just to get down near the middle of the property.

 

[Astronuc]

Where I am is nice. It's rural/suburban near a small city. There are various farms including dairy, and estates were folks keep or raise horse. There's a several valleys, and the main one has a large river (really tidal estuary) transcending it.

I could live happily in most rural areas.

Coastal Australia would be nice, as would parts of the northern part of the S. Island of NZ. If I was single, I'd probably be in the Karakorum or Pamirs or the Wakhan corridor.

Maybe some day.

I'm a nomad at heart.

 

[turbo]

I should add that my wife's mother is in her 90s and my father is 85. It might be nice to relocate, but family obligations can anchor us...

 

[drizzle]

A place where plants can grow is sufficient for me, not to mention family and friendly people [can't imagine living alone]. I don't really like cities, especially the ultimate modern lifestyle.. Well, I do, but it won't take me long before I get bored and sometimes depressed..Astro, you GOT to try to go to the desert.

 

[phylotree]

What about Texas ?

 

[turbo]

What about Texas ?

Too big to generalize. The hill country north of San Antonio is not that bad, though I have never spent much more than a week or so there. Nice-looking place, though.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I refer to Los Angeles as "that cesspool from whence I came"

We have always felt the same way.

In many ways we've been living our dream for two decades here in the backwoods of Oregon. But if I had all the money I could want, I might choose to live on a very large yacht, perhaps even a ship, and make the entire world my backyard. At a minimum, I would want all the ammenities of home, and a medium-sized staff provided by Hugh Hefner.

 

[aquitaine]

I'd like to live on the moon. Some of the Mare regions in the Lowlands look inviting.

 

[Evo]

I've always dreamed of being in a cabin in a mountain wood, next to lake.

Next, deep in the woods in a stone cottage next to a stream or small river.

Third, on an island with temperate climate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar regions. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally relatively moderate, rather than extreme hot or cold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperateness

 

[sas3]

I am in the upper peninsula of Michigan (yes I am a Yooper now) lots of woods and dark sky's, just love it up here

 

[Danger]

a hundred acres or so, hobbit hole in the middle, cleared space for farming, grains for brewing ales.

Oh, no! Not at all. My home is on a double lot in a town. My grandfather built it in 1911. Back then, it was a small town. (I have a picture of my house when there wasn't another building within 1/4 mile of it.) When I decided that this is where I wanted to live, the population was 850. That was in '65, but I was shanghaied down east for 13 years. When I managed to move here in '78, it was up to 1,200. We're now at approximately 16,000 and growing at an alarming rate. That's great for me, because I can still get to most places with my walker, but have access to big stores and an emergency medical centre that is essentially a small hospital. I used to think that I had a perfect place chosen a couple of miles outside of town, backed into a river bank, but that idea vanished when I lost my driver's license. Besides, that area is now inside of the town limits and surrounded by houses.

I'd like to live on the moon. Some of the Mare regions in the Lowlands look inviting.

Okay, now... I thought that the question referred to currently practical locations. If not, I'd go for Gerry O'Neill's version of an L-5 colony. I love the idea of Larry Niven's ringworld as a project, but it's a little too "terrestrial" for me to live on.

 

[KiwiKid]

I'd happily spend the rest of my days on board of the USS Enterprise. (That's the starship, not the aircraft carrier.)

 

[GregJ]

Quite a few areas in Switzerland have interested me for some time I must say. The mountain range, villages and... well... everything just draws me to it.

Japan in general is quite good, as the country has the weather extremes (some of the best snowboarding in the north during winter and great sunny beaches and surfing in the south during summer). Big city life and super backwoods.

 

[aquitaine]

Okay, now... I thought that the question referred to currently practical locations. If not, I'd go for Gerry O'Neill's version of an L-5 colony. I love the idea of Larry Niven's ringworld as a project, but it's a little too "terrestrial" for me to live on.

In the next few decades it will be practical. In fact there's already a reality TV series that's been proposed about people living on Mars in 2023. If that's possible, why not the moon?

 

[DragonPetter]

I used to live in Norway for a couple years and would love to live there again some day. Beautiful water, woods, and mountains, and an amazing coast line with plenty of mind-blowing fjords.

Oslo is a great blend of international city life with modest, modern, and subtle Norwegian culture and nature, and it has a great view of its fjord. Bergen is my favorite city, and I loved eating fresh caught fish at the market on the harbor and hiking behind the mountain with the gondola. The older people have more respect and place a lot of importance in the younger generations rather than trying to acquire as much wealth and authority as they can in their lifetime.

The summers are very mild and comfortable without A/C and the winters are longer but no worse in extremes than a lot of other places in the world like NY or Chicago. My only complaints are that the long summer days (only dark from 11:30pm to 2:30am) can drive you crazy at night, everything is super expensive and you don't get the kind of selections of products you can get in the US, and things are slightly more inconvenient that I take for granted in the US.

I'm also interested in the pacific northwest, but have never been there. I also really like La Jolla, Ca, Peoria, IL, and Wyoming. Growing up in the Chicago suburbs has really rubbed me the wrong way with long stretches of flat land covered in roads, construction, subdivisions and planned neighborhoods, shopping centers, and factories every where I look.

 

[Astronuc]

A place where plants can grow is sufficient for me, not to mention family and friendly people [can't imagine living alone]. I don't really like cities, especially the ultimate modern lifestyle.. Well, I do, but it won't take me long before I get bored and sometimes depressed..

Astro, you GOT to try to go to the desert.

I've been to a few. Which one did you have in mind? an-Nafud? or Rub' al Khali?

The Sonoran desert is nice, so is the Extremadura and the Patagonian Steppe.

Australia has quite a few from which to choose.

 

[ThomasT]

... there's already a reality TV series that's been proposed about people living on Mars in 2023. If that's possible, why not the moon?

I doubt that anything like that would ever be done. There's just no good reason to colonize Mars or the Moon, afaik.

 

[turbo]

I doubt that anything like that would ever be done. There's just no good reason to colonize Mars or the Moon, afaik.

I hope that there is no drive to colonize South Solon, ME. I love being able to walk my dog on rural roads, encountering the random mink, marten, fisher, fox, etc. It's so nice here (most of the year, weather-wise) that it would be tough to justify a move to anywhere else. We both have older parents that pretty much anchor us here.

When I was a kid, my father used to bring home copies of "Arizona Highways" magazine that an older friend of his subscribed to. It was then that I learned that there were mountainous parts of AZ that had cool weather, snow, etc. Didn't sound too bad.

 

[Danger]

In the next few decades it will be practical. In fact there's already a reality TV series that's been proposed about people living on Mars in 2023. If that's possible, why not the moon?

When I said "currently", I meant "now". I don't have one decade left, let alone "a few". Of course it already is physically possible, but economic practicality is such an ephemeral concept that it can't be predicted. For sure, most governments won't bother; it will be up to the free enterprise system. Even now, that has begun.