281–290 of 800 posts
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Is the main radiation danger the Sun or the background "cosmic" radiation? I've been assuming the latter, but I realize now that I don't actually know.
Doesn't matter too much for the rocks: if a few metre of rock won't absorb the radiation, neither will your body.
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We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.
Is the main radiation danger the Sun or the background "cosmic" radiation? I've been assuming the latter, but I realize now that I don't actually know.
This is very, very wasteful compared to actual mass transit. A subway network is much more effective at delivering people. If he's looking for mega-good, Musk would do significantly better to drop a full subway network. edit: tunnelling is a broadly solved problem. It's difficult, expensive, slow, etc. But there's no engineering reason why a hole in the ground can't happen. Musk might be able to drive some significan…
Hilariously so even. This is basically a subway system, except you have to provide your own seats. All this is succeeding in doing is making Musk look hilariously out of touch.
Even in London, where you have a major, successful transport engineering project (Crossrail) completing, and an entire city dependency on, and supportive of, public transport, you only hear the most anemic plans for future expansion.
For example, TFL is pushing a "New Tube For London" plan that consists of little more than trivial improvements. Some new trains, platform edge doors, etc., scheduled to be delivered in 2050 or so. But absolutely nothing with real ambition, like entirely new lines, that would actually solve London's insane congestion problems.
This is the dumbest thing I've seen him produce. Reliable rapid public transit is better in dozens of ways.
... except in the crucial way of "getting people to buy more Teslas", which is the metric Musk is most concerned about.
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then the vehicle on a tray is accelerated up to high speed inside a tunnel without its axles or body being secured onto the carrier. Then a vast network of these tunnels is somehow posited. I don't think reality was one of the constraints applied to this concept.
> without its axles electric hub motors would work here quite easily.
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We'll have to look seriously at living underground on mars. It won't protect us from solar rays on the surface. One of the cheaper ways to protect yourself is to put a layer of rock inbetween you and the sun.
Is it possible to make a huge nuclear explosion/reaction that produces the same atmosphere we have on earth?
This is the dumbest thing I've seen him produce. Reliable rapid public transit is better in dozens of ways.
I feel like everything Elon Musk undertakes with his companies is just one huge Mars Beta Test. - SpaceX: Obvious, got to get to space somehow - Tesla: Build cars/machines to run on something that is guaranteed to exist on Mars (the sun) vs. Oil - Gigafactory: How to build batteries 101 - Solar roof: While Earths environment may not be as harsh as Mars you still learn something, and improve solar panel production in…
Musks starts a healthcare company? Mars-related of course, he wants to solve the cosmic radiation problem on route to Mars. Buys Netflix? Heh, that's pretty obvious, people on Mars will need some entertainment!
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By the time we've learned how to live on a planet as inhospitable as Mars, maybe we'll know how to make a home on Earth.
I thought we already knew how to make a home on Earth. What is this in reference to? That our current methods are unsustainable? There are plenty of ideas for solutions. That the current state of human cooperation is below the necessary threshold to achieve a self-sustaining society on Mars? Maybe, but I'm optimistic that we'll find the inspirational leaders that are required.
- Even if all of Musk's enterprises were aimed at colonizing Mars (like gp suggested), they can be quite useful here.
- Turning Mars into a self-sufficient habitat is both an absurdly long-term (and laudable) goal and no guarantee of survival. We have to worry about the problems of surviving on Earth today and, in the very long run, how to live in many other places.
(upvoted your comment, because I agree with it)
I feel like everything Elon Musk undertakes with his companies is just one huge Mars Beta Test. - SpaceX: Obvious, got to get to space somehow - Tesla: Build cars/machines to run on something that is guaranteed to exist on Mars (the sun) vs. Oil - Gigafactory: How to build batteries 101 - Solar roof: While Earths environment may not be as harsh as Mars you still learn something, and improve solar panel production in…
> Or he just hates LA traffic. Nope that's the main one. You obviously haven't lived in LA :)