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Elon Musk Hints 1st Person To Mars May Go Via New Brownsville Spaceport

MarkWhittington writes If SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has his way, the first astronaut to set foot on Mars may begin his or her journey from the new commercial spaceport being built at Boca Chica Beach, just outside Brownsville, Texas. The Texas Tribune reported on Monday that Musk made the suggestion at the ground breaking ceremony of the commercial spaceport. The ceremony was also attended by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and various other Texas politicians and dignitaries, Musk's desire to establish a Mars colony and even retire to the Red Planet himself is not a secret.

13 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Is this anything other than a press release? by khr · · Score: 2

    The announcement is as void as space.

    "In space no one can hear you announce."

  2. Re:One's dreams may be superseded by TheCarp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then he will spend his latter years telling people how he traveled to Mars before it was cool.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  3. Re:One's dreams may be superseded by kruach+aum · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would certainly be funny, but it would also never happen, because the Singularity is the nerd version of the Rapture. Human consciousness is not hardware agnostic.

  4. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I mean, "We're building a [cool thing] and [cool related activity] might happen there" isn't really meaningful outside of a PR office.

    Because nobody on /. wants to go into space or go to Mars.

    We all live in our mom's basement and are afraid to go outside.

  5. Re:One's dreams may be superseded by NoImNotNineVolt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Human consciousness is not hardware agnostic.

    [citation needed]

    --
    Chuuch. Preach. Tabernacle.
  6. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 2

    > as there is nothing there

    There is as much land area as the Earth. It just needs proper development. Las Vegas is in a fucking desert, and people live there anyway. The real problem is people who look at an empty piece of land and see nothing, rather than seeing the potential for what it could become.

  7. Re:One's dreams may be superseded by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    I thought he would be telling them "Get off my regolith!"...

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  8. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Antarctica is the most comparable place on Earth, and we've not managed a large-scale colonization of it yet despite the easy access, regular resupply flights and air.

    --
    This space intentionally left blank
  9. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by BringsApples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wish I had mod points for you. Imagine shipping off for 6 months, excited to begin a new. That whole six months, you are thinking about what the future holds, what exciting new things there will be to explore, or at the very least, experience. Then *PSSSHHH*, the doors open, and you are basically in Antarctica - for LIFE!

    No thanks.

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
  10. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Because there is no reason to colonize Antarctica. It has all the negatives without any of the positives.

    Mars has some huge positives, namely the fact that it's not Earth. Think of it as an offsite backup for the human race.

    Colonizing Antarctica would be like making a backup of your computer on a USB stick and then leaving it plugged in.

  11. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by sexconker · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because there is no reason to colonize Antarctica. It has all the negatives without any of the positives.

    Penguins are a huge positive.

  12. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by itzly · · Score: 2

    There are only a few and very unlikely scenarios where humans on Mars would have a better chance of survival than humans on Mars, and many likely scenarios where humans on Earth would have a huge advantage. Even something similar as the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is survivable for a group of well prepared and sheltered humans on Earth, at a tiny fraction of the cost it would take to colonize Mars.

  13. Re:Is this anything other than a press release? by KeensMustard · · Score: 2

    Mars has some huge positives, namely the fact that it's not Earth. Think of it as an offsite backup for the human race.

    Colonizing Antarctica would be like making a backup of your computer on a USB stick and then leaving it plugged in.

    If you were my backup guy, I'd fire you. Your backup plan is analogous to moving (not copying, moving) a few gigabytes of a petabyte production system onto a usb stick, and then storing that usb stick in a ziplock bag under an iceberg on the arctic circle. This is not a good backup plan, owing to the following:

    • You backup plan doesn't actually copy any data, it just moves it
    • The vast majority of the important data lies unprotected
    • The "backup" itself is inadequately protected and subjected to such hazard that you will lose that data (permanently)
    • A large part of the plan is difficult and hazardous for reasons that are arbitrary. If you want to protect the data, why store it in such an inhospitable place? Why store it in a place that is so difficult and expensive to get to?