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Well, I would be glad if he would do it in person - and stays there.
They have done zero work on actual habitation. It would make more sense to make life on earth sustainable. If you can’t do that you have zero chance of sustained life on a planet as hostile as Mars.
But then how could they make ungodly amounts of money while looking down on the peasantry?
Mars is an uninhabitable hellscape that I sincerely hope Musk and his billionaire friends colonize so that they all become one with Martian soil
I think the average person (and average Musk acolyte) doesn’t grasp how hard spaceflight is, much less sustainably living there.
Colonizing the bottom of the ocean would be orders of magnitude easier. Or the South Pole. Or Kīlauea’s open lava pit.
The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human/plant bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.
…Look, I’m all for science mission there, but “escaping” to Mars is the wildest fantasy. A few years ago I’d say Musk was lying or exaggerating, but I think he’s actually drinking the Kool-Aid, and doesn’t even understand the basics of modern spaceflight.
The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human/plant bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.
That sounds like an argument for a Mars colony, not against it.
Not that I think continuousness uploading or AI have anything to do with a Mars colony… Even terraforming is totally unnecessary.
Honestly, I don’t think Mars is a great candidate for a space colony, though probably not for the same reasons you’re thinking. But I think it is in fact vital that we start colonizing space soon, and I think the technologies developed in pursuit of that goal will absolutely aid us here on earth.
Eh, none of that is something one casually develops for going to Mars. Is tech that fundamentally transforms the nature of society on Earth and being human, and again, is way more impactful than going to Mars.
Again, the argument I’m trying to make is that, by the time one can settle Mars without supplies from Earth, you mind as well get your robotic swarm to make space habitats or something.
Again, the argument I’m trying to make is that, by the time one can settle Mars without supplies from Earth
Well, that’s not exactly the goal. No nation is really self-sufficient in modern society. Everyone engages in trade. So the question is really, when will a space colony become profitable or maintainable? And that’s trickier to answer, because it isn’t “not for hundreds of years”, but it also isn’t now, it’s somewhere in between.
Cheaper access to space would change the equation immensely. Being cheaper to resupply would mean the colony wouldn’t have to be as profitable to be sustainable. In-situ resource utilisation (using water found off of earth for drinking, oxygen and fuel) will also make an enormous difference as it would reduce the amount of supplies needed from earth. (This is incidentally one of the main goals of NASA’s Artemis program, to figure out how to utilize water resources on the moon)
It was the same situation when Europeans settled the Americas, at first it was just a money suck. Entire colonies were lost, lots of people died, they weren’t really prepared. But then they started to figure out what crops worked there, how to survive harsh winters, etc. Once they figured out how to make the most of this new land, they thrived. Unfortunately, the way they treated the locals was pretty horrific. Fortunately, we’re pretty certain there aren’t any locals on the moon or Mars.
Truth be told, I think a Mars colony won’t happen for quite some time, but I believe a moon colony will certainly happen before 2100. And if we’re lucky, maybe since orbital colonies. That’s where the future really lies, orbital colonies.
I think the (ideal) future looks more like an accelerated Orion’s Arm, where humanity-changing technologies take over.
Again that’s what I’m getting at. We will never be colonizing Mars as squishy humans… We‘ll be augmented, modified, interfaced with mechanized AI, uploaded, maybe even just mechanical intelligences, something like that. We’ll be using nuclear propulsion, at least. There will be no need to worry about drinking water, breathing oxygen, radiation, psychological/physical impacts of space travel/low gravity, or even traditional resupplies, because that will all be irrelevant.
The New World is (IMO) a bad analogy because baseline humans could live out an existence, mostly, from the local environment, and the incentives were clear from the start. The “profit” motive for Mars is purely scientific at this point.
Mars colonies are mainly a terrible idea because companies like SpaceX ruin our living space on earth to get ahead. Just look around their launch sites that have transformed once vibrant ecosystems into a post apocalyptic hellscape. It‘s simply unsustainable to ruin a livable planet in order to colonize a dead rock. The whole Mars mission is a scam from that perspective alone. I think even entertaining the idea of a Mars colony and debating about it‘s independence from Earth is missing the point.
It’s hyperloop V2
for the uninitiated: getting federal money and running away with it.
What is the suggestion, then? Assuming a colony does ever get established, it’s impractical and naive to expect those who now live there to never demand land rights. The author makes good points but fails to discuss any potential solutions other than ‘stay earthbound’.
God bless Elon and his endeavors.
You’re a troll.
No, everyone deserves a prayer. Even you
Tell that to the rapist Catholic priest who went after little boys.
I know this won’t make sense to you, but even him, maybe even more so. We condemn his behavior, pray against the evil in him and ask God to heal and change him and make him clean, not cursed and cast into hell.
You’re an idiot. Go back to X and Facebook to keep sucking billionaires assholes. They so care about you! Their company treats you like FaMiLy.
