Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Saturday June 17 2017, @04:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the vision-and-a-plan dept.

Elon Musk has published a plan to colonize Mars using as many as 1,000 Interplanetary Transport System spaceships to transport a million settlers at a cost of $200,000 per person:

Elon Musk has put his Mars-colonization vision to paper, and you can read it for free.

SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO just published the plan, which he unveiled at a conference in Mexico in September 2016, in the journal New Space. Musk's commentary, titled "Making Humanity a Multi-Planetary Species," is available for free [DOI: 10.1089/space.2017.29009.emu] [DX] on New Space's website through July 5.

"In my view, publishing this paper provides not only an opportunity for the spacefaring community to read the SpaceX vision in print with all the charts in context, but also serves as a valuable archival reference for future studies and planning," New Space editor-in-chief (and former NASA "Mars czar") Scott Hubbard wrote in a statement.

[...] ITS rockets will launch the spaceships to Earth orbit, then come back down for a pinpoint landing about 20 minutes later. And "pinpoint" is not hyperbole: "With the addition of maneuvering thrusters, we think we can actually put the booster right back on the launch stand," Musk wrote in his New Space paper, citing SpaceX's increasingly precise Falcon 9 first-stage landings.

Also at The Guardian.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 17 2017, @08:07PM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Saturday June 17 2017, @08:07PM (#527125)

    >That is a LOT of tonnage of computers, industrial tools, flatscreen TVs, smartphones, etc.

    Sorry, computers, flatscreens, smartphones - these are not my first concern when I go on a camping trip. Food, shelter, oh and breathable air and potable water - those are up near the top of the list.

    >a need to design a whole line of consumer products with 10-20+ year expected service life. If that happens I hope we Earthers are allowed to buy it.

    I wouldn't call it a "need" - but it would make more sense for Mars and Earth. My 70 year old mother and I were lamenting how you used to be able to buy towels that last 20+ years (as evidenced by the old towels we have still in service) while anything new from the stores is in shreds within 2 years or less.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Saturday June 17 2017, @08:16PM (3 children)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Saturday June 17 2017, @08:16PM (#527126)

    What is she doing to her towels??

    • (Score: 2) by leftover on Sunday June 18 2017, @12:56AM (2 children)

      by leftover (2448) on Sunday June 18 2017, @12:56AM (#527234)

      Ordinary laundering will do it. Today's towels, like today's nearly everything, are complete shit compared to the products 50 and more years ago. This from personal observation, not hearsay.

      --
      Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 18 2017, @04:06PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 18 2017, @04:06PM (#527501)

        Socks, underwear and plastics too. Maybe it's a result of those "degradable" campaigns that actually means more crap ends up in the ocean (because it falls apart into tiny pieces that eventually get washed into the ocean).

        The plastic toys from the 1970s seem to last quite long: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1972-Vintage-Fisher-Price-966-Little-People-Airport-Helicopter-Trams-Cars-/272713134464 [ebay.com]

        I've one of those and it might last longer than me :).

        Whereas many plastic toys from more recent era seem to get "powdery" and eventually disintegrate...

        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday June 18 2017, @05:00PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday June 18 2017, @05:00PM (#527523)

          The powdering effect lets the lead out where it can be ingested by the children. You know that these toys are all imported from China now, right?

          --
          🌻🌻 [google.com]