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Originally Posted by Sun Tzu
This point is indeed the reality. Along with how to prevent muscle atrophy and accelerated osteoporosis from the VERY long trips in zero g. However, there is going to be a generation that must look at terraforming elsewhere. Its not an impending problem now, but its the kind of issue that will take hundreds of years to investigate. Earth populus will always create its own dungeons so when will there ever be a right time?
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We have pretty good countermeasures in place to combat the muscle and bone loss on ISS. The crew members have 4 different types of exercise equipment that they use for 2 hours every day. Their diet is structured to replace calcium and delay bone loss and they can take what is basically osteoporosis medicine to prevent bone loss.
Honestly the major things hindering us from exploring Mars at this point is the general will of those in charge and the available funding.
Sure you can point to issues like radiation shielding (which is really the foremost concern for travelling beyond low earth orbit) but given the proper funding and the goal we can solve that problem.
Even if we fully cannot mitigate the risk of radiation (space flight is all about managing risk) there will be no shortfall of willing volunteers to take on a risky mission to Mars in the name of exploration.
Really all the US needs to do is make space exploration a priority and fund it correctly and then leave it to the engineers to get it done.