Richard Branson 'Determined To Start a Population On Mars'

RocketAcademy writes "British billionaire Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic company is backing the development of SpaceShip Two, has told CBS News he is 'determined to start a population on Mars.' He said, 'I think over the next 20 years, we will take literally hundreds of thousands of people to space and that will give us the financial resources to do even bigger things. That will give us the resources then to put satellites into space at a fraction of the price, which can be incredibly useful for thousands of different reasons.' Branson isn't the only billionaire interested in the Red Planet. Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), wants to put humans on Mars in the next 12 to 15 years."

Comments

Must he be the father?

[Garridan]

Familiar with Branson's previous shenanigans, I must wonder: does he intend to impregnate all the women before they leave for / on the way to Mars?

Re:Must he be the father?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Which reminds me...

  CBS News: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Branson: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious...service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a...highly stimulating nature.

Re:Must he be the father?

[Captain Splendid]

Hey, if serial killers can get groupies and girlfriends, anyone can.

Wait! Except slahsdotters of course....

Re:Must he be the father?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Except you wouldn't get any work done without men. Especially not any work that involves manual labor or operating machinery, such as building a colony.

I suspect that if you manage to fill a colony ship with women who can't handle manual labor in .38g, presumably with robotic assistance, or operate machinery even with tech support only a few light-minutes away, there is something deeply wrong with your selection criteria...

Re:Must he be the father?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can he be father? Isn't he a Virgin?

Re:Must he be the father?

[jbonomi]

You spelled "center" wrong.

Re:How much dough does this man have!?

[wierd_w]

Don't be silly!

It all depends on how you define "person"!

If you take the pro-life stance, you could send millions of people in a single trip, at lower levels of life support than you need to keep a container of mice alive!

(Course, turning them into productive colonists when they arrive is a problematic 18 year process, minimum...)

He might also decide to send midgets instead of full sized people, or any number of other shennanigans to cut the price.

Stop thinking inside the box over there!

Re:dibs

[CommieLib]

Get ready for endless bitching about network latency.

Re:dibs

[Hillgiant]

Don't worry. Once they solve the "there isn't any air" problem, the "there isn't any magnetosphere" problem, the "there isn't any water problem", and the "there isn't any soil" problem they will easily be able to whip up some FTL communications tech.

Re:dibs

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Your contract will probably be the equivalent of: "You work for us for 30 years for crappy pay in order to pay us back for transportation to Mars.

The pay is actually excellent. Buying oxygen at the company store, though...

Richard Branson Determind...

[wonkey_monkey]

Mrs Branson not so keen.