Slashdot Mirror
Deathmatch On Mars: an Interview With Warren Ellis
pigrabbitbear writes "Iconic comic book writer (Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Red), cult novelist (Crooked Little Vein), futurist intellectual, and beloved Internet curmudgeon Warren Ellis, known for his impassioned arguments for space travel, talks to Motherboard about Newt Gingrich's presidential plans for lunar colonies and conquering Mars." Warren Ellis does not mince words.
And actually, all politicians in general. But these assholes spewing letting the church govern the USA and lowering the tax rates for the rich to 0% (allowing them to funnel even more money to the Caymans) boggles my mind. No jobs created there, my friends!
...the easier it is to promise
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Every new President has a space dream. And Congress has a different dream. In the end they make a compromise that does nothing but keeps jobs in Utah, California, and Florida.
I wonder how many times we could have gone to Mars and back with the money wasted in these compromises (like the ISS and the Space Shuttle)?
Space travel, real space travel not jaunts into earth orbit, is the most-challenging problem of our lifetimes.
If you like sci-fi, the Manifold series by Stephen Baxter (not a referrer link) makes a great argument about space travel and how "big dumb" technology from the past can be harnessed smartly to lower the costs.
We certainly will need more than reuse of old technology, but it is a start.
42
FTFA: "There’s bugger all worth mining on the moon."
Well, yes, there's nothing there worth bringing back to earth, but that doesn't mean there's nothing of value. Regolith contains several useful elements, such as oxygen, iron, aluminum, titanium. These are all fairly plentiful on earth, but in space they're worth a small fortune.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough of it. --AC
I almost gave up on the second question - because it by then it was already clear he was pretty much clueless. (Though most people won't realize it, because they've grown up on the same fairy tales about the Shuttle.) The third cinched it, and I did give up with his nonsense about the Saturn V. He's just another fanboy pining for the glory days.
This is a prime example of celebrity journalism - his words are only considered as being valuable because he's famous (at least in a narrow circle). What's next Slashdot? Interviewing Clint Eastwood for his opinions because he's played an astronaut?
I want an obrital death ray too.
... from New Jersey
This quote made my day.
Something practical, like provide electricity to earth, or a ubiquitous free satellite internet, or something besides, "It's really cool!" That's not going to go any further than revolutionary fervor did in sustaining communism. In the near to medium term, if you talk space, you'd better talk money. Mars and the moon have no profit possibilities. Near earth orbit, which is affordable, more easily achievable and potentially profitable needs to be our next focus. I'm sure this is what the Chinese will do, and what we in the USA no longer have the common sense to see.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
... who are shorter, smaller, weigh less.
Deathmatch On Mars: an Interview With Warren Ellis
I know I'm not the only one thinking of the title in gaming terms.
As a Republican and a Floridian, coming here and promising us a moon base is about the most cynical, callous thing a presidential candidate can do. I already didn't like him that much (as a person), and now he just lost my primary vote (as a candidate). As insane as it may sound, my only viable option left is Ron Paul.
So, what do you think of Gingrich, who you describe as King, criminal, mental patient, and "historian", and his plan to return to the Moon and go to mars?
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU.......!!!!
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-if-Low-Energy-Nuclear-by-Christopher-Calder-120103-869.html
"If LENR is real, then aircraft capable of flying at full speed for months on end without refueling will be possible. Vertical takeoff and landing aircraft could become commonplace, and flying wingless cars as seen in Star Wars movies will be buildable for those brave or reckless souls who don't worry about the potential for engine failure. LENR jet engines should be relatively quiet, resulting in nearly silent aircraft sailing through the skies.
[NASA scientist] Zawodny claims that reusable single stage LENR powered space planes will be able to take off from any commercial airport, fly to orbit to deliver satellites, and then land like an ordinary jetliner. This would not only lower the cost of satellite launches, but would allow the cost effective construction of very large space stations. Trips to the moon would become relatively cheap and commonplace, and trips to Mars with active radiation shielding would be possible with a 3 month travel time each way. Space travel could be pursued by private corporations for commercial, industrial reasons, not just by governments. We won't be able to fly to the stars with LENR, but our solar system would become easily navigable at a price we can afford."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I'm sorry, I've had enough of this crap from science fiction writers about space flight. I don't want them, (or crony politicians promising money for votes) to be guiding our government's decisions. Just because space flight is romantic and awe-inspiring doesn't mean we should do it. There's only one good reason for the kind of space travel they're advocating and it's the old don't-put-all-your-eggs-in-one-basket idea. But if the Earth were destroyed I don't have a lot of hope for people making it on the Moon or Mars. They'd still be completely dependent on resources from back home. Just try running a self sufficient society in the middle of the Sahara and see how long it lasts. At lest in the desert you still have oxygen to breathe and the temperatures are in the realm of habitable. Neither of which are true for the Moon or Mars.
They're also completely ignoring the fact that technology has become completely unpredictable for anything over 20 years from now. They have no idea what new things we'll discover in the next 100 years that could have profound impacts on space travel. Impacts that would make their current proposals completely meaningless. They sound like a salesman in the late 70s telling his company that they need to make their mainframes bigger and add more tape drives.
Our space-tech is either going to advance at a humdrum, linear pace, in which case we're never getting out of this solar system. Or it'll advance by leaps and bounds in which case just going back to the Moon, or building a rocket capable of going to Mars is pointless in the long run.
There's also no reason to have people on these flights other than to have a good old fashion feel-good PR story. You can have robots do anything you'd want a human to do and more. And you don't have to waste any money on food, oxygen, extra fuel, extra space, waste expulsion, and a return trip.
But what I love most about the interview is this quote:
You know, we must have already perfected space travel because I have no clue what planet Warren Ellis currently inhabits, but it's certainly not ours. Yeah, Obama has a whole bunch of cash lying around that he can just 'loosen up' at any given moment. It's not like we're running a huge deficit with programs and funding being cut left and right.
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
...as if the United States (or any other nation to first successfully colonize the moon) would pay one bit of attention to it. Now, if a successful colonization mission took the form of a joint venture, or even a corporate venture, issues of sovereignty will doubtlessly come to the fore. Frankly, I can't see one good reason that a nation that made it to the moon 40+ years ago cannot colonize it today.
I hate it here, and I want to go to Mars!
John Michael Greer's post on the end of the space age confirmed for me what I'd concluded myself: the stars are not for us. Nor the planets. Not even the moon. If you are a person of unwavering faith in the myth of infinite progress then you won't accept what he says. It may even seem ridiculous. Yet for those who've had nagging doubts, it can hit like a punch in the gut to finally hear it stated this firmly and this eloquently.
I was 8 years old when the Eagle landed on the moon. If there's ever a time to make a lasting impression on a boy, it's when he's 8. From that point on, humanity's expansion into space was a given: the bedrock of my vision of the future. In fact, it's hard to believe in infinite progress without taking space travel as a corollary. But I see the world declining now on so many fronts. The myth of progress seems not only false but absurd. Civilizations have their ups and downs. This last one has reached higher than any other, boosted by an enormous non-renewable energy supply, but that supply is now in decline and so are we, like all the others. We reached the moon at our apex, but did not grasp it, and now it is too late. Nobody's ever gonna stand on Mars. And I mean never.
When the first humans walked out of the Rift Valley and began the process of colonizing the world they were demonstrating good old monkey curiosity. What is over the next hill? And it has carried us in good stead all this time. Now we have run out of new frontiers to conquer and are doing a fairly poor job of conquering ourselves. Space is the logical next step. It will be hard, dangerous and expensive. But this drive to explore is part of who we are and we should not forget it.
What if a president's non-public (hidden) agenda involved successfully destroying a space station, ruining a nation's space agency, and belittling a nation's populace into lowering their brows and focusing on supporting his regime in stupider matters like killing populations and stealing their resources, or controlling the world's economies with extortion?
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
are exactly the same as sound, practical engineering reality.... Space Nutter Supreme Command!!!
"Absolutely nothing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun sideshow, but I don’t believe it says anything about the country other than that working democracy is like making haggis, in that you really don’t want to see what goes into that shit. It does say a lot about the state of the GOP, and I can’t help but wonder if the party moderates are just letting this parade of mental patients and unelectable criminals simply happen, so that they can detoxify the party after the inevitable firestorm of failure."
Most insightful shit concerning American politics that I've read in a while. And from a Brit!
Shuttle was such a crocked piece of shit that it couldn’t reliably go more than two hundred miles up. And sometimes exploded trying even that.
http://michaelsmith.id.au