Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 150 posts

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#71

Post by martincmartin »

forgottenpaswrd wrote: post #63
jpxxx wrote: post #52

The complexity of getting to Mars is nothing compared to the complexity of creating a social unit that can survive and thrive on another planet. Specifically, an Antarctic planet covered in chlorinated brominated rusty dust with essentially no air pressure or atmospheric water, a dim sun, rotten weather, two ugly little moons, and 57,600,000 millisecond ping times. No chance to ever feel fresh air on your face, no ch…

"Men wanted for a hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success." More than 5000 applications followed. Not everybody is made for adventure though.

This was the ad that Shackleton placed in the paper to find a crew for his most famous expedition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedi...

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#73

Post by javert »

anonymouz wrote: post #65
ricardobeat wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you're a space explorer, at the very edge of civilization and technology, pushing the human race forward and signing your name in history for the next thousand years.

I am all for people being motivated by a higher calling and trying to be explorers, but you'd better forget about the "signing your name into history" bit. Unless you're one of the very first or do something very special, very few people will remember you. Could you, off the top of your head, recount the names of all the Apollo astronauts? Could you list, even with some research, say, the first 100 people from Europe…

"Signing your name into history" does not have to equate to "having your name remembered." In other words, it would be great to make history (in such an important way as this), whether you are remembered or not.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#74

Post by Retric »

marvin wrote: post #68
jpxxx wrote: post #52

The complexity of getting to Mars is nothing compared to the complexity of creating a social unit that can survive and thrive on another planet. Specifically, an Antarctic planet covered in chlorinated brominated rusty dust with essentially no air pressure or atmospheric water, a dim sun, rotten weather, two ugly little moons, and 57,600,000 millisecond ping times. No chance to ever feel fresh air on your face, no ch…

Seriously, are dismissive and pessimistic remarks like this the top-voted comment on _every single_ Hacker News post these days? Elon Musk has built a fucking space rocket company and is defeating Boeing, Lockheed Martin and MDD in a business they've dominated for the last 40 years. I think this is an incredibly impressive accomplishment, and SpaceX's ambitions to make it possible to do manned missions to Mars is exa…

There competing and making money, but they are still a tiny player so I don't know if you can say there winning. The space industry is much like the healthcare industry in that once your a large player you can't really grow much and there are a lot of perverse incentives to be less efficient.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#75

Post by damoncali »

marvin wrote: post #68
jpxxx wrote: post #52

The complexity of getting to Mars is nothing compared to the complexity of creating a social unit that can survive and thrive on another planet. Specifically, an Antarctic planet covered in chlorinated brominated rusty dust with essentially no air pressure or atmospheric water, a dim sun, rotten weather, two ugly little moons, and 57,600,000 millisecond ping times. No chance to ever feel fresh air on your face, no ch…

Seriously, are dismissive and pessimistic remarks like this the top-voted comment on _every single_ Hacker News post these days? Elon Musk has built a fucking space rocket company and is defeating Boeing, Lockheed Martin and MDD in a business they've dominated for the last 40 years. I think this is an incredibly impressive accomplishment, and SpaceX's ambitions to make it possible to do manned missions to Mars is exa…

I think you're being a bit hyperbolic. Musk built a small aerospace company. He's not exactly crushing Boeing.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#76

Post by hnriot »

ricardobeat wrote: post #56
jpxxx wrote: post #52

The complexity of getting to Mars is nothing compared to the complexity of creating a social unit that can survive and thrive on another planet. Specifically, an Antarctic planet covered in chlorinated brominated rusty dust with essentially no air pressure or atmospheric water, a dim sun, rotten weather, two ugly little moons, and 57,600,000 millisecond ping times. No chance to ever feel fresh air on your face, no ch…

Or you're a space explorer, at the very edge of civilization and technology, pushing the human race forward and signing your name in history for the next thousand years.

but it's not really pushing anything, it's just a huge waste of money that would be better spent on developing technologies for extra-solar system travel. People living on a dead planet serves no purpose, it doesn't even increase the species potential for surviving cataclysmic events, because without an earth bases resupply any martian colony will be soon dead. Build spaceships that people can live on and head out of the solar system, not set up camp on the doorstep.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#77

Post by mdonahoe »

anonymouz wrote: post #65
ricardobeat wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you're a space explorer, at the very edge of civilization and technology, pushing the human race forward and signing your name in history for the next thousand years.

I am all for people being motivated by a higher calling and trying to be explorers, but you'd better forget about the "signing your name into history" bit. Unless you're one of the very first or do something very special, very few people will remember you. Could you, off the top of your head, recount the names of all the Apollo astronauts? Could you list, even with some research, say, the first 100 people from Europe…

I don't remember apollo astronauts, but Wikipedia does.

Hopefully our records will be better preserved than those from the Mayflower.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#78

Post by starpilot »

Osmium wrote: post #14

Apologies for being somewhat off-topic, but does anybody know if there are citizenship requirements for working at a place like SpaceX? I have a solid background in materials science and metallurgy from a world-class university, and find what Musk is doing very inspirational. After I finish my PhD, I'd love to be a part of it, but I'm British and I know with some companies in the industry there're citizenship require…

It's not that hard to become a US permanent resident. SpaceX doesn't hire many PhD's though, they're quite manufacturing/design oriented. The guys I knew who got in were all bachelor's and master's holders with hands-on experience building stuff that flies (mostly via student projects) and high gpa's (3.7+) from good schools.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#80

Post by robotresearcher »

mbrubeck wrote: post #55
jpxxx wrote: post #52

The complexity of getting to Mars is nothing compared to the complexity of creating a social unit that can survive and thrive on another planet. Specifically, an Antarctic planet covered in chlorinated brominated rusty dust with essentially no air pressure or atmospheric water, a dim sun, rotten weather, two ugly little moons, and 57,600,000 millisecond ping times. No chance to ever feel fresh air on your face, no ch…

Why "for life"? Even if a permanent base is established, what would stop people from traveling there to work for a year or so and then returning home? I know health concerns related to radiation and gravity may impose some constraints, but would a round-trip journey be out of the question? Musk's explicit goal is to make and use fully-reusable rockets, so obviously he intends them to travel both directions. If you're…

> what would stop people from traveling there to work for a year or so and then returning home?

It might be cheaper and easier to deliver sustainable life support to Mars than the fuel, oxidizer and engines to return (or the machinery needed to harvest it in situ).

Post reply on HN