does anyone think we'll be able to live on the moon and mars in the near feature.?

Answer 1

No. In a sealed environment on the moon, that's possible, but what would be the point versus the trade off in how many billions of dollars it would cost. The south pole water ice theory is pretty much dead, so there's nothing there to justify the cost to build a habitat, unless private enterprise thinks it can get people to fork over a few million for a view of the earth from the moon. Too expensive.

As for Mars, that's even worse. Although there may be some stuff of interest and value in the Martian soil, and there is evidence of melted water during Mars' summer, there is no convenient resupply chain. With the Moon, you could have something there in a couple of days, with Mars it would take half a year, and the expense would be phenomenal.

This is not to say that a closed habitat environment will not one day be constructed on Mars, but those brave pioneers would be on their own for at least a year, so how would we get enough supplies there to last a year? The movie "Red Planet" with Val Kilmer is an excellent realistic depiction of Mars. Their idea was they had a habitat already constructed for the astronauts (presumably by robotic equipment sent there beforehand). Unfortunately, it was destroyed by the time they got there, but that's only science fiction anyway, although it is very good science fiction.

The real problem with Mars is that its atmosphere is so thin and there is no oxygen, so breathing is right out, we would have to bring the oxygen. Even if that snag could be surmounted, because of the thin atmosphere, deadly solar rays could penetrate through Mars' atmosphere and basically kill any living thing on the planet. That would have to be some thick-walled habitat to protect any humans living there, and the weight of such a habitat would definitely have to be "flown" there before any humans go to it. Still, not impossible, just highly impractical and improbable.

That's the near future. In the far future, if humans could survive that long, Mars may be a great alternative to the Earth getting too warm because of the sun is gradually getting hotter and will one day boil all the oceans off of Earth. By that time, though, in hundreds of millions of years, we would probably have star travel capability, and there most likely are much more hospitable worlds in our galaxy than those in our own solar system.

Answer 2

moon bases... yes
China plans on staring in 2015
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/chirbase.htm
then US is going to go in 2020
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061204174522.htm
then the Russians plan on going in 2025
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/08/31/science-russia-moon.html
each time, a country sets up a moon base. Now if thats not living on the moon, then I don't know what is. I figure they should connect them

I think the moon is a perfect opportunity to practice and develop new technology in preparation for mars

Private companies seem to be the way to go. cheaper quicker safe? and better looking
interesting private companies
http://www.virgingalactic.com/
http://www.galacticsuite.com/
http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/

35 years tops for a moon hotel ............

Mars is further down the road. maybe 60 - 90 years, but I believe THATS too expensive (unless phoenix finds life in april).

moon bases will help making it a bit cheaper to get tom Mars maybe.

Now staying and terraforming Mars and it's atmosphere to act like earth won't help much, since it had no magnetic field so to speak of. The sun's charged particles would kill us and our atmosphere.

Answer 3

I don't think anybody will call it home, but there could be permanent bases there. Kind of like what we have at the south pole now.