Elon Musk Says There's a '70 Percent' Chance He'll Move to Mars:
Elon Musk has talked about personally heading to Mars before, but how likely is he to make the trip, really? Well, he just put a number on it. In an interview for the Axios on HBO documentary series, Musk said there was a "70 percent" chance he'll go to Mars. There have been a "recent number of breakthroughs" that have made it possible, he said. And as he hinted before, it'd likely be a one-way trip -- he expects to "move there."
The executive also rejected the idea that traveling to Mars could be an "escape hatch for the rich" in its current form. He noted that an ad for going to Mars would be "like Shackleton's ad for going to the Antarctic," which (though likely not real) made clear how dangerous and the South Pole journey was. Even if you make it to Mars, you'll spend all your time building the base and struggling to survive harsh conditions, Musk said. And while it might be possible to come back, it's far from guaranteed. As with climbing Everest, Musk believes it's all about the "challenge."
The interview is available on YouTube.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 27 2018, @11:26AM (2 children)
From where? Lot's of matter on the Moon, but it's at the bottom of a significant gravity well. A rebellious colony won't have the infrastructure to drop that kind of mass on Earth. Anything else is years to decades out and could be easily intercepted by the people with nukes.
Also, don't forget the atmosphere. It'll stop most of the box car-sized projectiles, particularly, if they're fragments.
The real danger is that someone on the Moon could dump enough random mass into Earth orbit to take out all the satellites.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 27 2018, @09:47PM (1 child)
I'd suggest reading the book. Sure, your assumptions on a Moon colony may not match the requirements yet but you may be surprised as the reasonably limited gravity well that the Moon poses.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 27 2018, @10:45PM