Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
1–10 of 111 posts
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#2I love the last line:
“I would definitely like to go to Mars. I think it would be cool to be born on Earth and die on Mars,” he said as the night wrapped. “Hopefully, not at the point of impact.”
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#3Mars, sounds great! I am still amazed that the Rovers are still operational.
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#4I am convinced that Mars colonization should be seriously considered as a part of space exploration policy:
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#5Mars is a very harsh environment - and it's very far from Earth (6 months best case with current propulsion technology). I'd suggest a permanent base on the Moon as a useful first step - it has some water, abundant energy, plenty of Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium and a lack of atmosphere that makes metallurgy easy. Radiation is worse than Mars, but, in both cases, buried housing structures make sense and the Moon's low gravity would make construction easier and cheaper. With some infrastructure development, it would even be a nice launching point for Mars-bound spacecraft - think of a maglev train that reaches escape speed.
It's also close, so, even if someone screws up very badly, a rescue mission would be less than a week away. If someone on Mars manages to, say, contaminate the colony's water supply, all we can do is record farewell messages for loved ones and deal with the bad publicity for decades. I wouldn't like that.
A second step could be an Aldrin cycler space station - this way you could ride a small spacecraft to the cycler, live there for a couple months and depart to Mars when it passes by. Plus, you'd get some prime moving real-estate - one that goes between Earth and Mars without spending fuel.
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#6Mars is a very harsh environment - and it's very far from Earth (6 months best case with current propulsion technology). I'd suggest a permanent base on the Moon as a useful first step - it has some water, abundant energy, plenty of Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium and a lack of atmosphere that makes metallurgy easy. Radiation is worse than Mars, but, in both cases, buried housing structures make sense and the Moon's lo…
> If someone on Mars manages to, say, contaminate the colony's water supply, all we can do is record farewell messages for loved ones and deal with the bad publicity for decades. I wouldn't like that.
The same is true for a major disaster at the South Pole in winter, though. There's a several month period in which vehicles cannot reach the pole due to the temperatures and weather involved. We still go there.
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#7I love the last line: “I would definitely like to go to Mars. I think it would be cool to be born on Earth and die on Mars,” he said as the night wrapped. “Hopefully, not at the point of impact.”
I will take his grandest adventure line coupled with the part about, there will always be problems on Earth and waiting for a time there isn't will never come.
Far too many people criticize lavish dreams such as what Musk has but that is what separates the watchers from the doers.
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#8Mars is a very harsh environment - and it's very far from Earth (6 months best case with current propulsion technology). I'd suggest a permanent base on the Moon as a useful first step - it has some water, abundant energy, plenty of Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium and a lack of atmosphere that makes metallurgy easy. Radiation is worse than Mars, but, in both cases, buried housing structures make sense and the Moon's lo…
I hadn't heard of an Aldrin cycler. Very very cool! Here is an animation of how one could work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCVfUlFZQ4U
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#9Mars is a very harsh environment - and it's very far from Earth (6 months best case with current propulsion technology). I'd suggest a permanent base on the Moon as a useful first step - it has some water, abundant energy, plenty of Aluminum, Magnesium, Titanium and a lack of atmosphere that makes metallurgy easy. Radiation is worse than Mars, but, in both cases, buried housing structures make sense and the Moon's lo…
If you compare it with 19th century polar expeditions, a trip to Mars doesn't look that bad. They sometimes took multiple years, with men trapped in iced up ships, usually with no chance of rescue or even communication - at least we know how to prevent scurvy now!
Have a read of the book "Barrow's Boys: A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy":
http://www.amazon.com/Barrows-Boys-Stirring-Fortitude-Outrig...
NB Having read too much Kim Stanley Robinson and Zubrin, I'd jump at the chance to go to Mars.
Re: Why Elon Musk Wants To Bring People to Mars—and Go There Himself
#10Mars, sounds great! I am still amazed that the Rovers are still operational.
> I am still amazed that the Rovers are still operational.
A lot of people are. I had the pleasure of chatting with the NASA program manager in charge of one of the rovers. She was a bit hilarious: When it came time to set the height of one of the mission cameras, someone whipped out a ruler and measured the distance from the floor to her eyes -- and then wrote it in the spec.
Her comment on the first manned mission: Inevitably it leads to a discussion about one-way missions to mars. The next discussion is "who would volunteer", next followed by "who would you volunteer?"
[btw, she said NASA will not officially consider one-way missions as a matter of principle.]