Mars colonization
What do you think about colonizing Mars? Any ideas? Please by scientific about it.

I think it's possible within fifty years or less, depending on politics and spenditure. The technology is already well enough that it's consistently possible to send humans into space. A larger complex than simply a small research base would be my goal, something capable of at least a population of one hundred and fifty to circumvent problems with inbreeding should the need arise. Something such as the Lifeboat Foundation is trying to accomplish, the same people who tried and failed to create Oceania(The Atlantis Project) a man-made continent. If they had more legitimate support, such as the government and NASA it would leave the realm of crackpots. Some of the technology that foundation intends to use is pushing the envelope of feasibility. More low-tech solutions should be explored, while bio shields, etc are nice on paper implementation and development would take years. Current technology should be pushed to it's limits, and effort made to go within the fifty year time frame.

That's very interesting. I believe we should do something to repair the damage we've done to Earth prior to colonizing anything else. I also think we should perhaps put some kinda algae on Mars? Something that could survive with little water, can obtain that water from the atmosphere, and can quickly convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. I'm not sure we have somethign like that, I don't think it would survive the onslaught of ultra violet waves coming in from Mars' thin atmosphere.

I wouldn't bother trying to grow on the surface, but instead have an arboretum inside the complex.

That would work just as well.

I believe it is in California where an engineer discovered a way to create concrete domes for housing, etc in about an hour. You spread a layer of concrete over an inflatable balloon and slowly inch it up as it's drying using air pressure. He's successfully built dozens of them using the procedure, and it's being copied for military use(inflatable concrete tents instead of canvas). You can create domes large enough to cover football fields.

That would work very well, considering Mars has no way of stopping lethal radiation from solar flares like Earth does (Mars has no magnetic field). So we just need a big concrete dome full of plants and water, solar panels (they need to be frequently cleared of dust though, so maybe some wind generators too), a heater, and a magnetic field generator. Hell, we could have done this crap back in the 50's.

Well you wouldn't want just a dome, perhaps a work dome something to provide protection while constructing a multi level complex that extends above, and below ground. Then the dome itself would become a secondary protective shell for the complex within. Designing it that way would allow you to perform oxygen experiments on the surface and have them protected by the dome. So you could have a field of moss, or an atrium/park producing oxygen for the inside of the dome(put the garage on the surface as well, with an airlock to the outside) and line the interior of the dome with synchronised projection screens to mimic days and nights on earth(so people are less likely to go stir crazy, with storms playing overhead while the sprinkler systems water the foilage).

I agree, that would probably be a better course of action. If trees and moss can survive the radiation of the Chernobyl Disaster, then I think they can survive the radiation that manages to penetrate the dome.