Slashdot Mirror
First SpaceX Missions To Mars: 'Dangerous and Probably People Will Die' (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As we get close to the end of September, when Elon Musk has promised to lay bare his plans for colonizing Mars at an international space conference, it seems like the ambitious founder of SpaceX can hardly contain his excitement. In an interview with The Washington Post, Musk gushed, "I'm so tempted to talk more about the details of it. But I have to restrain myself." SpaceX fandom has speculated for years about details of Musk's ideas, which include the Mars Colonial Transporter concept. The Transporter likely consists of a large first stage rocket and an upper stage spacecraft meant to deliver hundreds of people to the surface of Mars during the late 2020s and 2030s. Unlike NASA, which relies on public money and is therefore risk averse when it comes to "loss of crew" requirements for human missions into space, SpaceX appears to be willing to take some risks with the unprecedented exploration to Mars. Those first explorers would understand the perils, just as the pioneers who explored the New World or the poles of Earth did. "Hopefully there's enough people who are like that who are willing to go build the foundation, at great risk, for a Martian city," Musk told Washington Post. "It's dangerous and probably people will die -- and they'll know that." Eventually it will be safe to go to Mars, Musk said, and living there will be comfortable. But this is many years into the future, he acknowledged.
Nice understatement there fella.
This isn't like the moon... which is at least theoretically close enough that it is at least technologically feasible to orchestrate a rescue mission to bring people home if things go awry, if such provisions are at least planned for... certainly getting people back to earth safely (or sending more supples up) before they starve to death if food supplies were suddenly lost, for example. Mars is, to put it quite bluntly, a fucking ONE WAY TRIP.
Until we have the technology to get to mars in a matter of only a few days or less, I predict that every manned mission to mars that we attempt will have a 100% fatality rate. It is suicide to go there... plain and simple.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Did you even fucking read what I wrote before responding, idiot?
Here, i will say it again, with big assed capital letters this time, so you cant possibly miss it.
YOU DO **NOT** NEED TO SEND THINGS BACK TO EARTH TO PROFIT FROM SPACE BASED MANUFACTURING.
That was the entire thrust in the prior post-- and your rebuttle? what are you illiterate or something? Maybe just lazy? WTF man!
The gravity on mars is roughly 1/3 that of Earths. That means for the same rocket, you and loft 3X as much mass.
Once a good manufacturing infrastructure is up and running, you can drive earth based launch services for anything other than transporting people out of business.
That's how you make money with it idiot. The same way that India is killing US IT with offshored call centers.
He wants to go and has no intention of staying 'safe' compared to anyone else. If Musk could he would be the first person to step foot there regardless of the risk.
He has made that quite clear with his statement "I plan to retire on Mars".
He doesn't mean living a long comfortable Florida existence playing golf, he means, if he has the chance, he is going to go, make some history, hopefully do some useful science and die. He knows this. Death is the end game for us all.