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Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

arstechnica.com

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Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#141

Post by toomuchtodo »

addisonl wrote: post #64
toomuchtodo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You jest, but he actually does it. Executing the right idea is the value, not the idea. Everyone else is cush and doesn't want to rock the boat (SLS, legacy automaker leadership, etc). For those, innovation has no incentive. "Innovator's dilemma" [1] and all that jazz. Disclaimer: Not a huge Musk fan anymore, "world's least worst billionaire", but credit where credit due. I don't endorse sweat shops, but he has teach…

Everyone does trial and error. Look at every major aviation achievement, were those done on the first try?

If so, why is everyone else so far behind?

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#143

Post by kaycebasques »

de_watcher wrote: post #103
kaycebasques wrote: post #81

I respect the clarity of the vision and the drivenness to make the vision a reality. I disagree with the vision. The best analogy I can think of right now is high school kids renting a hotel for a party and trashing it and then doing the same thing next week. That’s humanity right now. There is no Planet B until we build a mutualistic relationship with the one that created us. And yes when I say “there is no Planet B…

Need to ask the question "What is life?" Maybe it's just the thing that tries to fill the volume. Because otherwise it's displaced by a different one that does it faster. You argue about "how fast" should it be so life won't starve itself, but I think everybody is familiar with this danger. Then we can approach it more formally: what time/speed/volume/survival probability we want, try to calculate it for different op…

> Maybe it's just the thing that tries to fill the volume. Because otherwise it's displaced by a different one that does it faster.

This sounds like parasite logic to me. We can do better. The fact that I can even conceive thoughts of doing better is all the proof I need to know that we can do better. That’s what vision is about.

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#144

Post by allannienhuis »

bergoid wrote: post #129
daxaxelrod wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could be living underground. Water is also an effective radiation shield. Combined with predictive modeling, we might have a chance. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/spaceweather/ind...

Agreed. You could cover your above-ground pressurized habitat with blocks of ice. Or with a thick layer of dirt. But the subjective experience remains about the same as living underground.

There are a lot of people who live indoors almost 100% of the time in the winter in northern climates. A lot of the larger northern cities have underground walkways between buildings with subway access etc. No one wants to even walk across the street when it's 40 below. :)

I expect that designs for 'permanently underground/inside' cities would need to include some high-ceiling park-like areas with some bright UV lights, and other considerations, but that sort of thing seems pretty doable. Whether it would be enough to maintain a population's mental heath I guess would need to be seen, but generally speaking I think humans are a pretty adaptable bunch...

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#145

Post by nixpulvis »

throwaway13337 wrote: post #23

It's quite inspiring to see a real goal and drive towards it. Purpose is so hard to come by now because we all don't know what we want. When we do know, we're constantly unsure about it. Such a clear goal makes it easy to have greater purpose that you don't second guess. This isn't a scheme to get rich, a zero sum political movement, or a narcissistic artistic endeavor. It's pretty unique there. There's that whole da…

> It's quite inspiring to see a real goal and drive towards it.

I'm throughly uninspired... As a friend of mine once said: "progress when you're going the wrong direction, is turning around".

The idea that we'll settle Mars while the Earth burns in borderline sinister. It reminds me of the elite outpost from Kingsman (the movie).

We have a planet that is in dire need of this kind of motivated action, and yet Elon would rather be distracted by this dream.

Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the "cool" factor of expanding to other planets. I too enjoy a good science fiction story. Who wouldn't want to escape the problems we've inherited, and proliferated.

But escapism solves nothing for "us", and it's foolish to think Mars is anything else. If we as humans can't live on Earth responsibly, we frankly don't deserve to exist at all.

(Perhaps we should pull a Titan A.E., and preserve some DNA in the vast wasteland of space. Just in case an alien species decides to give us another go)

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#146

Post by kaycebasques »

kaycebasques wrote: post #81

I respect the clarity of the vision and the drivenness to make the vision a reality. I disagree with the vision. The best analogy I can think of right now is high school kids renting a hotel for a party and trashing it and then doing the same thing next week. That’s humanity right now. There is no Planet B until we build a mutualistic relationship with the one that created us. And yes when I say “there is no Planet B…

A related question: What’s your bet on how long until the US government starts taking SpaceX seriously and commandeers it under the pretext of national security? Or is Musk already cozied up with the MIC?

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#147

Post by rococode »

schaefer wrote: post #121

A Linguistic Beef: The word "Starship" means specifically that the ship is capable of traveling between stars. At a minimum, it should travel from it's home star to the nearest neighboring star. What we're talking about here are "Spaceships". -- The only way I can lighten up and enjoy the name Starship in this context is to assume it's being used ironically... like someone who's named their cat "Dog".

It's going to be really interesting to see how vocabulary changes as frequent space travel becomes a reality. This may be one of the few times in history where a field has had so much imagination invested into defining it (sci-fi stories making up words for things) before it slowly becomes a reality.

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#148

Post by StaticRedux »

airstrike wrote: post #124
StaticRedux wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do they have to? I have that drive, but my wife is perfectly happy with a calm, comfortable, stress-free life. And in fact it helps to bring me back down to Earth sometimes also. There's nothing wrong with wanting a life that free. In fact it's oftentimes admirable. Especially at times when I'm wound so tight I feel like I could pop. If you're choosing a partner based solely on whether they want to be the next El…

> Why do they have to? Not speaking about (or judging!) anyone individually, but because if none of us did, we'd still be living in caves. Or, more likely, be extinct. The reason all of us are having this conversation now is because many people before us had purpose and built something

The question posed was why do they Have to? Not why Should they.

Of course we need people driven to move society forward. But there is a stigma in modern society it seems around people who are perfectly happy being who they are and not "striving to be great". And that's ridiculous.

The previous poster asks all his potential dates, with what seems to be a fairly heavy helping of disdain for the "wrong answer", what their plan to change the world is.

Why does it matter? You go change the world. Let your spouse or your friends or your colleagues be content with not changing the world and just be happy living in it.

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#149

Post by PedroBatista »

widowlark wrote: post #112
PedroBatista wrote: post #18

I don't know about the Starship a week but he definitely fulfils his hyperbolic bullshit per day quota. And it's mostly "our" fault, "we" let him getaway with so much shit ( from market manipulation to criminal workplace offences ) because he entertains our egos with the promise of getting all our problems solved ( which is ridiculous at so many levels ). OK let's pretend Elon builds one Starship a week, at which cos…

I am curious what your complaint will be when they are actually building a starship a week

And why would they do that? Please, I beg you to explain it to me.

Re: Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

#150

Post by jimbokun »

StaticRedux wrote: post #99
grecy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Purpose is so hard to come by now because we all don't know what we want. When we do know, we're constantly unsure about it. This statement resonates deeply with me. Whenever I meet someone new or that I might be interested in dating I ask "What are you doing with your life?" or "What are you striving for?" and I find the extreme majority of people don't have an answer beyond "I just go to a job I don't really like…

Why do they have to? I have that drive, but my wife is perfectly happy with a calm, comfortable, stress-free life. And in fact it helps to bring me back down to Earth sometimes also. There's nothing wrong with wanting a life that free. In fact it's oftentimes admirable. Especially at times when I'm wound so tight I feel like I could pop. If you're choosing a partner based solely on whether they want to be the next El…

Why are you dictating what other people should look for in a partner?
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