Prof Stephen Hawking: man faces nuclear armageddon and must colonise space

[txlibdem]

16. We won't be living in some inhospitable environment: we'll bring Earth's environment to live in

You seem to think that people will be walking around the surface of Mars in shorts and a tee shirt, despite the -250 degree temperatures and near total lack of oxygen. Your vision is impaired.

We will live in underground habitats on Mars that have been dug out of the solid rock that we know is there. It will be more like the underground mall in Atlanta or Toronto's underground than anything your post seems to imagine.

There will be wide open spaces filled with trees, shrubs and flowers because *that* is how humans feel most comfortable. Actual food production will be by hydroponics -- Mars contains everything we need to grow as much food and natural environments as we wish, except for potassium. That we can ship from Earth until we perfect methods of mining the asteroids and the Oort cloud which contain everything we will need and more.

Daylight bulbs: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_12/182-7270502-2972002?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=daylight+led+bulb&x=0&y=0&sprefix=daylight+led%2Caps%2C293

Oxygen and rocket fuel:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,996600-2,00.html

Landing on the surface, the craft would begin pumping Martian atmosphere--which is 95% carbon dioxide--into a reaction chamber, where it would be exposed to hydrogen and broken down into methane, water and oxygen. Methane and oxygen make a first-rate rocket fuel; water and oxygen are necessary human fuels. All these consumables could be pumped into tanks inside the ship and stored there.
...
The technology needed to distill the Martian atmosphere is the stuff of first-year chemistry texts.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,996600,00.html#ixzz1jGfDx1Pl

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Can_People_Live_On_Mars_999.html
Moreover, the chemical analysis of the samples of the Martian ground, performed by the onboard laboratory of the spacecraft, showed that they contain all elements required for the origin and maintenance of life.