Required reading:
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Mars-Trilogy-Stanley-Robinson/dp/...
Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
101–110 of 1001 posts
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#102It looks from the videos that the boosters return to land using strictly thrust from the rocket. Can someone explain why it's done that way and a parachute isn't used for at least part of the descent? Seems like an awful waste of fuel.
Part of it is that there's not a good middle area for them to work. F9 has to use rockets at the beginning for the boost back burn in space and would need to use it again around landing because parachutes aren't gentle or controlled/precise enough for a landing on land or a barge.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
We can't solve simplest problems on Earth (like re-capturing CO2 for example), but believe we'll be able to terraform a planet to which we haven't even been able to send a human yet?
Given hundreds (or thousands) of years, yes.
Yeah, I don't argue it can't be done in thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of years.
I'm just saying it's probably unwise to focus and spend time and money on this right now. We probably won't even make it to that day. It's better to learn to live on Earth responsibly and then maybe, once we've learned our lessons, start looking further.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#104I'd really like to see us taking space seriously. While I'm still here. One of my earliest strong memories was the last moon landing. This was followed by years of "Tomorrow's World" and "Horizon" telling us about the Moon bases, Mars bases and orbital platforms that would soon follow. We got Skylab and some very interesting probes. I'm a tiny bit disappointed in that. We were meant to be en route to Starfleet Comman…
This brings up a good point. Why mars first? Why not a moon colony first?
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
> CST sigh Central standard time I'm guessing, so mid-US I guess "central" and "standard" mean here, so I'm guesstimating GMT-7. That would put it around 8:30 GMT.
Google "1:30pm CST". It shows it in your local time.
Yet if we'd just use GMT+/-x nobody would have to look up anything.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's actually not a bad way to put it! Think about it this way. What if there was an uninhabited island out in the Pacific that was hard to get to. What makes it worth trying to get to? There isn't anything any more special there than here. In fact from all we've seen so far it's much less special. Same goes for Mars. What is the value in being "multi-planetary?" I mean the idea that this is a hedge against some ex…
If humanity lasts, in about a billion years the Earth will be no longer be in the Sun's habitable zone. Might as well start preparing from now.
Better (probably easier too) to start transitioning humans to a different being. Make the merge with AGI and move out of traditional biology.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#107I have a better idea:
Let's focus all the money and effort we would spend on getting to Mars and living on its wasteland, and use it to understand the human mind and digitize it into a realm not individually constrained by physics? I actually think that may be a more realistic and practical goal, and our quality of lives could be much better. I mean, what do we really get from living somewhere like Mars? A storage compartment for excess humans? To what end? What will happen to it when we cure aging?
The idea of terraforming Mars cracks me up. Maybe when Musk completes his hyperloop will also be when I start taking him more seriously.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unconventional design. The rocket looks very large and they mention 120 million newtons takeoff thrust so the weight is about 10 million kg, 3 times Saturn V size. The first stage lands back on launch stool, the tanker stage is put on top of it and it launches again. This implies a relatively fast turnaround. Both the second stage and the tanker seem to have complete heat shields and stub wings and ability to re-ente…
Speed to Mars though is really relative speed along whatever orbit (Hohmann transfer or the moral equivalent) that you choose. Only in SF stories do we have fully powered propulsion to Mars. I am very curious what the selected family of orbits is, and even more importantly how long & how much life support for the large passenger number.
Yeah, transit time & payload mass seem to be the major missing numbers in a video that wasn't shy about including them.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#109We won't really be an interplanetary species until we can get back from Mars. Imagine being colonists on Mars without the ability to be totally self-sustaining without technology and supplies from Earth and nuclear war breaks out. It's going to be a long time before any Mars colony can survive on its own.
The first colonists will most likely not come back. Make no mistake, people are going to die in the first several runs. This will be one of the most dangerous endeavors mankind can attempt. As far as war breaking out, we're not going to make it to Mars in our current state. I don't think Mars is viable until we enter a post scarcity world. I find it unlikely we can even attempt it if we're still in a money based econ…
Why can't we be money based and have relatively high redistribution and taxes?
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#110I'd really like to see us taking space seriously. While I'm still here. One of my earliest strong memories was the last moon landing. This was followed by years of "Tomorrow's World" and "Horizon" telling us about the Moon bases, Mars bases and orbital platforms that would soon follow. We got Skylab and some very interesting probes. I'm a tiny bit disappointed in that. We were meant to be en route to Starfleet Comman…
This brings up a good point. Why mars first? Why not a moon colony first?
Musk just addressed this. Mars has an atmosphere of CO2 and Nitrogen, so we can grow plants, a day length similar to Earth's (24.5 hours), and is larger.