Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#651

Post by novalis78 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:41 AM UTC

Debugreality wrote: post #588

beloch wrote: post #302

This new launch vehicle has a realistic chance of getting people and materials to Mars in sufficient quantities to build an outpost. I'd like to hear more about how they plan to build a self-sustaining colony on Mars though. There are some pretty big challenges to overcome, such as the relative lack of Nitrogen. A colony is going to have to grow plants but, to do that on Mars, we're going to need a way of fixing Nitr…

I noticed Musk tentatively mention nuclear - I think that's because it will be the only logical way to generate enough power to support a city in such an inhospitable climate. There is going to be a huge and ongoing energy need just to survive. Unless we build a battery/solar panel factory there is no way solar is going to cut it.

Sadly - but it just tells you that he is acutely aware of the public opinion aspect of his vision. Nuclear - especially a firm grasp and experience in Thorium reactors - would be a perfect energy solution for all industrial processes on Mars. One can only hope that a massive project as the one he is proposing here will lead to a renaissance in thinking big - colonial in its ambition - and with it in challenging the Unenlightened modern anti-nuclear phobia.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#652

Post by myroon5 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:42 AM UTC

encoderer wrote: post #615

I expect the "no children" rule to apply for roughly 9.25 months. What then I wonder?

Mandatory vasectomies?

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#653

Post by novalis78 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:50 AM UTC

banach wrote: post #500

The SpaceXes of the age of colonization, such as the East India Company, used to sell shares to fund their voyages. I was a bit surprised not to hear Musk mention this as a funding option, since he just delivered the greatest Kickstarter pitch of all time...

Lol - me too, that's when I thought of Marscoin.org

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#654

Post by shurcooL » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:50 AM UTC

Did anyone else notice the title of the presentation PDF [0]? It is:

    NINA_5_ FINAL_draft_MarsTalkRevised_v4_17_nm_112716 copy 12

I just thought that was an interesting bit of meta information. Looks like they're not using VCS for it, hehe.

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/mars_presentation.p...

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#655

Post by Ericson2314 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:53 AM UTC

norea-armozel wrote: post #338

My greatest fear is that space will become the playground for the rich and powerful where the rest of humankind is left to suffer on an overpopulated, polluted Earth. We as a society can't live on the kindness of individuals to achieve a better future and that goes double for leaning on SpaceX and Elon Musk. They are a for profit venture and that means unless you're rich enough to pay your way then you have to pay wi…

Too risky for the rich en masse at first. If they do go will be like the blandest suburb.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#656

Post by Chathamization » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:55 AM UTC

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,…

As of right now, the top comment is complaining about the negative comments, the next 75% of the comments or so are positive comments (even calling Musk a hero and saying that this is a historical moment), and there's about 25% or so that are skeptical (many of those offering valid criticisms and not simply complaining about it).

Yes, excessive negativity can be a bad thing. But when a small minority of the comments being critical (comments mostly downvoted to the bottom) is considered too negative (to the point where people are advocating scripts that remove or auto-downvote comments deemed negative), it suggests that there's a danger of people being overly sanguine and reflexively hostile to any criticism.

I'm not sure how something as massive as this could ever be accomplished without taking it seriously. And I don't think it can be taken seriously without taking a good, hard look at the numerous challenges that face it. Mindless hype doesn't really get us anywhere.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#657

Post by the_af » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

kamaal wrote: post #233

the_af wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even from that point of view, Mars is even more hostile to life (as we know it) than Earth.

Mars is just a placeholder for an alternate home to earth. Most technologies developed for these missions will be reused or new ones will built on top of them.

Yes, I understand Mars is a placeholder. But I life in a new planet that must be terraformed is even worse and more hostile to human life than, say, colonizing a new continent. Or building undersea colonies, like someone else said. Even the colonization of an Earth-like planet would be almost impossible, and we aren't aware of any nearby.

We would be going to a less inhabitable place, while taking all the problems of mankind with us. I must echo the grandparent post: Earth is not the problem -- we are.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#658

Post by snuxoll » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 1:58 AM UTC

nothis wrote: post #634

a_thro_away wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OMG; he says is going to build it, exactly like his demo. As a youth I received a brand new Matt Mason for birthday; it has been a very, very long time.

Oh, wow! I put the video in my watch-later-list, until then: What's the time frame, roughly? Are we talking 5 years or 20?

Take any estimate from Musk with a pound of salt, but his ideal estimate was 2023.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#659

Post by JBReefer » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:00 AM UTC

erikpukinskis wrote: post #611

JBReefer wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fires burn too fast for this analogy to work. Even in the worst climate change cases, we have a very long time to work out how to get off the planet. It would be great to avoid, but moving people out of coastal cities certainly has a precedence, and there's plenty of land in Kansas, the Taiga, etc. Life would be tougher than today, but it's not an existential thread.

I think there's a pretty high probability that such a migration would be accompanied by quite a lot of genocide and war.

What, NYC vs Rockland county? That wouldn't be a genocide, it would be a zoning argument. Same as Miami vs Georgia.

If waves lap up against my place in Queens, I'm not going to start killing my neighbors. I'm going to move to a Minnesota with better weather.

Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]

#660

Post by AdamJacobMuller » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 2:00 AM UTC

anexprogrammer wrote: post #93

I'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…

> One of my earliest strong memories was the last moon landing.

One of my earliest memories was the challenger explosion. I've basically missed out on any of the truly revolutionary space accomplishments.