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Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

spacex.com

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Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#641

Post by onewaystreet »

nixos wrote: post #534
mikeash wrote: post #148

Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…

It's human nature to attacks a reality-distortion field. If he would have said "You know guys. We're going to Mars. But right now, we're working on making rockets that go up, on time, in one piece. When we finish with that, we'll show how to go. It'll be hard. Here are the technical and sociological issues involved. When we're getting close to being ready to go, we'll get working on them."

But why do you care if Musk and SpaceX have a reality-distortion field? Worst case (or best case for you) is that he fails and you get to gloat.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#642

Post by [deleted] »

dreamling wrote: post #566
sAuronas wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I hear him talk about Mars (placing it before curing cancer), I think "if only he had grown up wanting to eradicate poverty." Still...rather than think ill of his idea - and work - we should celebrate his innovation and the way he will inspire others. As I thought about how he is perfecting rocket technology, I wandered off on a tangential rocket technology (thought) that would tract nuclear rockets launch…

how many things were invented as byproducts of the space race? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

[deleted]

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#643

Post by erikpukinskis »

carleverett wrote: post #637
erikpukinskis wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If there's even a small chance of success in establishing a self-sustaining colony [...] then any degree of personal risks levied on individual colonists are "worth it" from the species level No, the risk v reward curve has to be better than an equivalent risk v reward curve for a terrestrial species survival project to justify the mission. I would argue that just about any PhD in epidemiology, disaster relief, or…

> The choice is a two-planet species versus a more prepared one-planet species. That's not the choice. Those two options are not mutually exclusive.

Sure they are. Every engineer working on a Mars mission is not working on sustainability/stability engineering.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#644

Post by beau26 »

wwarner wrote: post #636

I'm skeptical for two reasons. Living on Mars won't be like living in California at all. And two, building a colony there will be very, very, even catastrophically costly, so yes it will hurt everyone else who chooses not to participate. There are only so many platinum mines. Resources should be focused here. Think about it: how much water and air have left Earth to date? A miniscule amount, all due to space explorat…

>Earth Loses 50,000 Tonnes of Mass Every Year. According to some calculations, the Earth is losing 50,000 tonnes of mass every single year, even though an extra 40,000 tonnes of space dust converge onto the Earth's gravity well, it's still losing weight.

scitechdaily.com/earth-loses-50000-tonnes-of-mass-every-year/

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#645

Post by tempestn »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #533
Rezo wrote: post #2

SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qo78R_yYFA

Why do they launch the passengers first? Passengers eat and shit and breathe while they wait. They're also liable to be more upset if their mission is aborted, due to a failed tanker launch, while they're in orbit.

If they do, I assume because it's easier to transfer fuel than passengers.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#646

Post by rtpg »

wyager wrote: post #609
jpm_sd wrote: post #158

I'd like to see humans establish self-sustaining colonies in the Gobi Desert, the Laurentian Plateau, and the equatorial Pacific first. All much easier environments.

That would have none of the advantages of a Mars colony.

what are the advantages of a Mars colony? It's not like we'll be shipping things back to Earth.

I'm for exploration and all that but there's a pretty good point. Figuring out how to make the desert habitable on this planet is a pretty good test run for the Real Deal.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#648

Post by mulcahey »

zerooneinfinity wrote: post #489

I wish there was local groups or meetups with people to talk about and maybe even potentially contribute to this effort. I kind of feel this way in general about science. I'd love to go somewhere after work and experiment in labs.

That's part of how SpceX started.

Tom Muelller, SpaceX employee number 1 and current VP of propulsion was part of a liquid fueled rocket club and was building what became the Merlin engine in a garage. Elon came by and asked if he wanted to start a rocket company.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#649

Post by hamai »

anexprogrammer wrote: post #473
mikeash wrote: post #148

Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…

We need a lot more like Musk, whether you agree with space or not. Investing their resources in crazy ideas of their heart, some might just work. We don't progress the species with digging up more rocks, building more stuff, selling more stuff, or dare I say it, finding a new way to get a cab. A few more vastly wealthy eccentrics building teams to play with space, fusion (carefully I hope), generation, or whatever pi…

> What will the moon landing conspiracy theorists do then? :)

they say NASA has changed Mars colors in the photos, it is more Earth-like, because something

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#650

Post by SXX »

kfrz wrote: post #631
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you prefer? Rolling applause for every idea anyone presents? One benefit of criticism is we might get to read an angle of attack we hadn't thought of and thereby improve our ideas and designs. Sure, when people blow off an idea by saying "pointless, let's save the baby dolphins first" I don't find those comments helpful, but HN almost always has far more in-depth critiques. Edit: fixed a word

Compared to reddit, you're 100% on the money. At least here, I'm looking at the news/writings I'd be looking at elsewhere, but the discussion is much closer to humane than some things I've seen elsewhere on this internet. We'll all in this game together, learning how to be a single mind. Be nice to your fellow human-cells no matter their goal, if their goal is for the greater good. The thing is - we can save the dolp…

In past there was "Why Explore Space?" letter from 1970 linked on HN:

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/08/why-explore-space.html

Considering progress humanity made this letter is more actual than ever. So I wish more people understand that it's super important to work on what you like and can do the best since there always chance that space exploration help to solve other problems too.

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