Elon Musk announces plan for Mars

Elon Musk has gone over his plans to colonize mars. I think everyone is pretty much under the impression that this is not going to happen anytime soon, but it's definitely something to aim for to further our species.

What do you think?

 

I've got some thoughts on the subject, but can't at the moment watch the whole video.

So before I really get into a discuission, if you've watched it, can you tell me: does it discuss the way in which the prospect of multiplanetary habitation (from an ethical standpoint) depends first on how we manage the earth?

 

No. It was a very technical talk about how we get there. He did say he wants to do it to reduce the risk of a apocalyptic event wiping out the human race but he did not go into how the colony would work or be run. It was nearly entirely about the technology for how they would get there and back.

 

I am incredibly excited to say the least. I don't know if I'd say it's not going to happen anytime soon, Musk is aiming for the first manned mission in 2025 and while it may be delayed, I have no doubt he will achieve it. Elon Musk is truly one of the geniuses of this time and I have no doubt in his ability to revolutionize space travel among other things.

SpaceX's Big Fucking Rocket – The Full Story - Wait But Why

Is a pretty good article about it.

 

A project that seeks to spend $300m annually. I'm all for high level innovation, but at this price it reeks of waste. Let's say this project comes to fruition, the average ticket cost is 100-200k. I only see the extreme wealthy benefiting/experiencing this in our lifetime.

 

Sure, our future is probably being an multi-planet-inhabiting species. But I don't think we are ready for it yet. Too much shit is going on our own planet at the moment.

Why not spend the money on technology to stop comets and asteroids from hitting our planet first or even harvesting them for their minerals? I think that should be our main focus and be used as a stepping stone to creating civilisations on other planets.

 

Developing a new rocket system costs huge amounts of money. It cost around 150 BILLION for all of the Apollo missions and Musk thinks it will take ONLY about 10B to be regularly bringing people to Mars. That's cheap as fuck!

 

Their budget will be the highest this year too. I imagine they will draw this project out for a while.

 

NASA has absolutely nothing to do with this project. This is entirely funded and developed by SpaceX.

 

NASA resources are used. Afterall, SpaceX is under contract with NASA. The NASA budget increased by more than a billion because of this SpaceX project.

 

No, they aren't. The NASA budget was not icreased for this project. SpaceX has a contract with NASA for ISS cargo and another one for bringing humans to the ISS. there is no contract to bring people to Mars. They are using their profits to fund the Mars project themselves.

 

Again with the strawman. I never indicated what the contract was for specifically. In fact, they hold contracts under the CCP (Commercial Crew Program).

Source

 

Yes, that is one of the two contracts I mentioned. The Dragon V2 has literally nothing to do with the Mars mission. Again, there is no NASA funding Musk's Mars plans.

 

The CCP is funded by the government and administered by NASA. Musk revealed plans to use the Dragon v2 in conjunction with the Falcon Heavy launch to transport science cargoes across the solar system to regions like Mars. Not to mention they have received much of their financing for rocket development from NASA.

 

You are misunderstanding. The mars colonial vehicle that Musk just announced is NOT the Dragon. It is an order of magnitude larger than the dragon and has nothing to do with the dragon. The rocket that will lift the colonial lander is not the Falcon Heavy. It is an order of magnitude larger. So as I have repeatedly said, NASA has literally nothing to do with the announcement Musk just made, they did not request it nor are they funding it. The contracts SpaceX already have have nothing to do with what was just announced.

 

Really cheap for what they're doing. Even if the program is a complete waste and we don't send anyone to mars for the next 75 years, the technology developed could go to something. $300m invested into a company like SpaceX could benefit everyone. Besides it's not like the Government is funding all of this, just a portion.

Not everything is about improving your life, it's about improving life for humanity.

 

I'm excited to say the least. Its amazing to see how far our species has gone, and like another poster above said, I have no doubts that Musk will be able to achieve this.

Also, that is one big fucking rocket lmao. Why is the video unlisted though?

 

you never know, may some day be essential in saving humans