Imagine there was another Earthlike planet in our system

[Olgar Shiverstone]

If we can move in on target, they can potentially move it back off target as a countermeasure. Assuming otherwise could have disastrous consequences, including the Martians redirecting the asteroid to a hit a target on Earth, so any competent battle strategist will have to include that possibility.

Though from the asteroid belt the delta-V required to drop an asteroid on Mars is quite a bit less than getting it to Earth, so assuming relatively equal tech Earth has the advantage if we get to the asteroid first. Pushing an asteroid back out of the Sun's gravity well takes even more energy, so if the Martians are trying to push the asteroid out while we push it in they lose. The smart defensive play is to push it inward, though do it wrong and you might get a highly eccentric orbit that becomes a danger to both planets.

If we want to plan a mega-strike, we sneak into Mars orbit and drop Phobos on them.

 

[Umbran]

If we can move in on target, they can potentially move it back off target as a countermeasure. Assuming otherwise could have disastrous consequences, including the Martians redirecting the asteroid to a hit a target on Earth, so any competent battle strategist will have to include that possibility.

Yes, but the Martians don't have Bruce Willis!

This is one of those cases where the attack is easier than the defense - the small amounts of force we can apply over time have large cumulative effect. But, on defense, you don't have the time. You've taken a decade to set it up, but leave them at best months to fix the problem. They have to discover it is coming, develop the specific technology, launch the mission, and have it arrive in time to make a difference. Right now, we here on Earth do not have suitable asteroid defense - heck, Congress was hearing options for asteroid defense just last month!

As for figuring out the whodunit...well, if the Martians are similar in thought process to humans, its not a question of would any of them suspect Terran treachery, but rather how many and do they have the ability to convince their fellows of their suspicions.

As I said, a bioweapons program presupposes there has been some kind of study of the biology of the target

You think, "some kind of study," equates to, "can whip up a globally virulent and deadly bioweapon without testing"?

I'm sorry, but that's not how biological sciences work. You cannot design things in theory and have them just work. We couldn't even perform this feat for a terrestrial species, much less an alien one.

even if its just the of the old Sci-Fi horror show trope of ships dropping out of the sky to abduct the unsuspecting for "probulation."

Going back and forth is still expensive, remember. With chemical rocketry, you don't get to just land and take off again without anyone noticing.

 

[Umbran]

If we want to plan a mega-strike, we sneak into Mars orbit and drop Phobos on them.

Phobos is the right size, but it's relative speed with respect to Mars is not great.

 

[Morrus]

Yes, but the Martians don't have Bruce Willis!

Yeah, but they're on a messageboard thread on Mars right now typing "Yes, but the Earthlings don't have Martian Bruce Willis!"

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Would we be at war with them? Would their existence be a prompt to advance our space industry faster?

We would have been preparing for war for as long as we could have, to kill them all, it would have pushed technology faster, so we could kill them all, then we would go there and try to kill them all.

Humans are pretty horrible.

Edit: I wonder what would happen when Earth Chuck Norris and Martian Chuck Norris fought.

 

[Bullgrit]

I didn't expect for the discussion to go this way, and now I feel kind of bad that everyone is talking about how to kill the Martians. And I agree with those who have said there's no reason to war with them.

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

Edit: I wonder what would happen when Earth Chuck Norris and Martian Chuck Norris fought.

...Well, you know, something has to make all those stars go supernova, right?

 

[Jemal]

I have a few notes:
First, According to what I've heard from astro-physicists, we started sending radio signals into space about 60-70 years ago. Signals would take between 5 and 30 minutes to reach Mars, depending on relative positions due to orbit, so once both of us were able to send and recieve, we'd know almost instantly about each other - even assuming we hadn't already figured it out via telescope. Assuming our relative forms of communication were similar enough for translation to be possible - Which is reasonable if we can understand that they ARE communicating, and virtually impossible if we cant - Linguistics shouldn't take too long to do so, even if we have to get by communicating via math.

How we would respond to each other would greatly depend on the above - If we can't communicate with them, then Darwinism kicks in - If we can't know they aren't meaning to destroy us, we will - as a dominating and very self-preservative species - destroy them first.
"If you can't speak to the other guy, you can never be certain he's not trying to kill you."
On the other hand, if we CAN communicate with them, then other possibilities open up - Yes, conflict would be all but inevitable given our history, but it would be very similar to what happened when different societies first encountered each other on Earth.

Now, as to the travel.. The problems with sending stuff into space is Politics. Yes, it's costly, but think about this : The recent Curiosity mission to mars cost 2.5 Billion, from R&D to Launch, sending a nuclear powered mobile science lab across space and landing it safely without any assistance at the other end - and that was far over the estimate due to problems that I won't get into other than to say they wouldn't have happened if there was political motivation to get there.
The United states Dept of Defense spent ~700 Billion just last year. Many current fighter jets cost around 100 Million each. Not counting the few billion they spend on R&D every year. Heck, the B22 spirit bomber.. which they have a couple dozen of.. EACH cost the same as Curiosity. Not counting the bomber's R&D budget.

Now take into account that if there were KNOWN Intelligent life out there, the drive to go out there - whether for trade, war, exploration, whatever - would be so much greater than it currently is. Especially if they're that close. If we found out about them around the 60s, when all the space programs were getting started, we'd probably have had unmanned probes there by the early 70s, and a manned mission by the 80s at the VERY LATEST. It took NASA 8 years to go from 'holy crap the Russians put a guy in space!' to "Hey look, we're on the moon" because there was drive to do so.

Though that's assuming we're more advanced than them and they don't beat us to it.


Consider this; A 5 minute video of thoughts from Astrophysicist, Science Popularizer, and Directer of the Hayden Planetarium - Neil Degrasse Tyson.
It's called 'we stopped dreaming' and combines a lot of his great quotes/thoughts about the american space program. I seriously suggest watching it. It's a bit heavy on the american patriotism, but still very insightful and moving to anybody who's interested in space.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXc

Imagine if instead of the Americans slowing/stopping space exploration, they and all the rest of us had encountered a catalyst to go further - Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

I cannot fathom the concept that we would NOT be capable of travelling between Earth and Mars efficiently and readily by now.

 

[Derren]

I didn't expect for the discussion to go this way, and now I feel kind of bad that everyone is talking about how to kill the Martians. And I agree with those who have said there's no reason to war with them.

Bullgrit

Since when do we need a reason except "they are there and could hurt us"?

 

[Umbran]

now I feel kind of bad that everyone is talking about how to kill the Martians.

Don't feel bad. Us talking about it is more inevitable than us actually doing it. We're people who play games based in the "kill things and take their stuff" tradition, after all. Thinking about how to kill stuff is what we do.