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Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

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Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#51

Post by danielweber »

netcan wrote: post #41
catch23 wrote: post #3

There's one interesting quote in the article: Musk: I can’t tell you much. We have essentially no patents in SpaceX. Our primary long-term competition is in China—if we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book. If your process/ideas are sufficiently complex, it reduces competition if you don't file a patent.

What are the main differences between martian & earthling patent laws?

You joke, but the largest export of Martian colonies will probably be patents. Frontier living tends to push envelopes a lot.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#52

Post by jpxxx »

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 chance to go swimming, never meeting a stranger until they're suddenly your neighbors for life, no chance to ever get away and start anew, and no chance to go back to Earth.

In a box, on a dead planet, for life.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#53

Post by 46Bit »

jlgreco wrote: post #22
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…

I think the limitation is actually put in place by the US government because rocket technology is basically weapons technology. I may be wrong about that though.

It very much is a government thing, yes. I've looked into this in the past when looking at internship opportunities.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#54

Post by eru »

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…

Exciting, isn't it?

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#55

Post by mbrubeck »

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 talking about an eventual permanent colony, it will definitely need some brave souls willing to make a one-way trip -- but so have many colonies in Earth history. And the colonists needn't be as cut off as you say if they could have visitors from Earth coming and going regularly. The round-trip radio delay between Mars and Earth is anywhere from 7 minutes to 45 minutes (I think your "ping time" was off by an order of magnitute or two), which is far shorter than the delay for, say, European colonists in 18th-century America or Africa to write to their friends back home.

By the time we are thinking about raising children on another planet, we might even be able to build them an indoor swimming pool. :)

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#56

Post by ricardobeat »

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.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#57

Post by zacharycohn »

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…

That problem seems like Step 2, where Step 1 is getting to the point where that's a problem.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#58

Post by zacharycohn »

mbrubeck wrote: post #36

I was at the University of Washington science and engineering career fair last month, recruiting for Mozilla. Our booth was reasonably busy, but the SpaceX booth had a gigantic mob surrounding it at all times. People are seriously excited about space.

Did you come to my Hacker News meetup last month? Chris Lewicki from Planetary Resources spoke, which was pretty awesome.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#59

Post by danielweber »

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…

Don't forget that Elon Musk was born in South Africa and became an American citizen. You would definitely have to move to the US and plan to stay, but Musk won't hate immigrants.

Re: Elon Musk’s Mission to Mars

#60

Post by larrydag »

simba-hiiipower wrote: post #43
hi wrote: post #5

If you have't already seen it, Kevin Rose interviews Elon Musk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-s_3b5fRd8 Also, Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about if there was a space race with China the US would be on Mars in 18 months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c... It would be truly amazing if a private company was the first to set foot on another planet.

very cool; thanks for the links. and that would be absolutely amazing; though in some ways (and not to discount musk’s undertaking at all) i feel it speaks more so to a failure of governments (generally speaking) in investing to drive technological advance. it should be the public sector that leads in these types of endeavors. one of the most important functions of a state is its ability and willingness to invest in…

While I agree the state can provide financing it is the private sector that is going to innovate. When you look at the astonishing transportation and exploration break-throughs of humanity it was mostly the private individual (Columbus, Howard Hughs, Lockheed) with the exception of space. Why is that so? Risk. Astronauts from NASA have been saying for years that the cost to launch increased so much because of the aversion of risk.

That is now changing. Space is becoming an endeavor of the private sector and its even on pace of becoming profitable (see Planetary Resources). While NASA has definitely proven humanity can still explore I believe it will be the private sector that will truly set the pace for human break-throughs.

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