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SpaceX organizes inaugural conference to plan landings on Mars
No one can deny that SpaceX founder Elon Musk has thought a lot about how to transport humans safely to Mars with his Big Falcon Rocket. But when it comes to Musk's highly ambitious plans to settle Mars in the coming decades, some critics say Musk hasn't paid enough attention to what people will do once they get there.
However, SpaceX may be getting more serious about preparing for human landings on Mars, both in terms of how to keep people alive as well as to provide them with something meaningful to do. According to private invitations seen by Ars, the company will host a "Mars Workshop" on Tuesday and Wednesday this week at the University of Colorado Boulder. Although the company would not comment directly, a SpaceX official confirmed the event and said the company regularly meets with a variety of experts concerning its missions to Mars.
This appears to be the first meeting of such magnitude, however, with nearly 60 key scientists and engineers from industry, academia, and government attending the workshop, including a handful of leaders from NASA's Mars exploration program. The invitation for the inaugural Mars meeting encourages participants to contribute to "active discussions regarding what will be needed to make such missions happen." Attendees are being asked to not publicize the workshop or their attendance.
The meeting is expected to include an overview of the spaceflight capabilities that SpaceX is developing with the Big Falcon rocket and spaceship, which Musk has previously outlined at length during international aerospace meetings in 2016 and 2017. Discussion topics will focus on how best to support hundreds of humans living on Mars, such as accessing natural resources there that will lead to a sustainable outpost.
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(Score: 2) by Weasley on Wednesday August 08 2018, @09:55PM (4 children)
How about expanding the territory of whatever nation pays for the trip? You can't very well claim a territory if you have no presence on it. A colony is a legitimate claim.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Thursday August 09 2018, @01:06AM (3 children)
Currently illegal, see the Outer space treaty [wikipedia.org]:
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 09 2018, @02:29AM
We'll see how long some "law" proclaimed by ideologues lasts in practice. It's meaningless. Which court on earth even has jurisdiction on Mars? If a bunch of people arrive on Mars, and proclaim that they have established the New Mayan Empire, wtf is anyone on earth going to do about it? New Rome? New Beijing? Depending on the name used, various actors on earth will take meaningless stances praising or condemning the establishment of the colony - and nothing will happen.
Given time, those various actors will attempt to establish their own colonies, in hopes of challenging that first colony.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Thursday August 09 2018, @10:47AM
Already figured out.
(Score: 2) by Weasley on Thursday August 09 2018, @02:32PM
A roll of toilet paper that will last as long as nobody is actually using those celestial bodies.