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CNet:
The first aren't even built yet, but [Elon Musk] already has big plans for his company's spacecraft, which includes turning humans into an interplanetary species with a presence on Mars. He crunched some of the numbers he has in mind on Twitter on Thursday.
Musk doesn't just want to launch a few intrepid souls to Mars, he wants to send a whole new nation. He tossed out a goal of building 100 Starships per year to send about 100,000 people from Earth to Mars every time the planets' orbits line up favorably.
A Twitter user ran the figures and checked if Musk planned to land a million humans on Mars by 2050. "Yes," . The SpaceX CEO has suggested this sort of . This new round of tweets give us some more insight into how it could be done, though "ambitious" doesn't do that timeline justice. Miraculous might be a more fitting description.
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fans, rejoice. there will be plenty of jobs on Mars. When asked how people would be selected for the Red Planet move, , "Needs to be such that anyone can go if they want, with loans available for those who don't have money." So perhaps you could pay off your SpaceX loans with a sweet terraforming gig.
Terraforming the planet should be easy if Quaid can get past Cohagen and start the reactor.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by oumuamua on Saturday January 18 2020, @07:08PM (6 children)
On the plus side, it has allowed Musk to pursue a vision, likely impossible to accomplish by any group-think committee.
On the minus side, to pursue his goal, he's had to approach it in a round-about manner. Every step of the way must follow capitalism's golden rule:
No profit, no go. And if any of his ventures turn south so do his Mars dreams.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday January 18 2020, @07:30PM
So? He is planning to offer the 21st century interplanetary equivalent of the transoceanic voyage. Sell tickets and send them on their way.
I wonder if that is actually true. Does SpaceX get shuttered if Tesla goes bankrupt?
Starship development cost seems to be coming in at the low end of the $2-10 billion estimate that was given. So at least the creation of some working Starships could probably succeed even if Starlink fails to generate any revenue.
If SpaceX goes out of business, they can sell off the Starship design to someone else. Probably limited to U.S. companies due to export laws. Blue Origin is the obvious choice. Musk might not live to see his dreams realized, but he won't care after he's dead.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @07:41PM (3 children)
Primary reasons to colonise another continent/planet:
- overpopulation at home, check
- underemployment at home, check
- tradable resources in other place, hmm TBC
- competitive interest (see last point), check
All other concerns like tech to do it and living arrangements will be important but secondary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @08:28PM (2 children)
You offer only two points that are certain.
Overpopulation? Rather underpopulation in the first world. Growth does occur in third world, but they aren't likely to fly to Mars.
Underemployment? Yes, but it's a socioeconomic issue, and martians will take it with them to Mars. Roughly speaking, ditch diggers with picks and shovels are no longer needed on Earth. They will not be needed on Mars either - they won't be useful enough to earn their pay in air and water and living quarters. Martian colonists will be excellent specialists, and each will be able to do one or two unrelated jobs. For example, a hydroponics specialist will double as an electronics repairman and a doctor.
Tradable resources? Why should we on Earth pay tens of millions per ton of Martian dirt? What do you expect to find there that warrants shipping to Earth and commands a good price?
Competitive interest? None visible so far. As matter of fact, money can be invested on Earth with much better results and less risk. Musk has his ideas, but not too many business people share them.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Saturday January 18 2020, @11:28PM (1 child)
The UK has been overpopulated ever since it went past 20 million. It is about 67 million now and rising all the time.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 19 2020, @01:29AM
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 18 2020, @08:15PM
The only alternative is to go full China. There are too many myopic people for a western-style democracy to ever accomplish great projects now a days. Even just getting to the moon we're forced to pander to identity politics rather than the technological/scientific/human merit. You can spend a trillion bucks blowing up the Mideast, but spend a hundred billion on Space and you'll get attention seeking fools ranting above starving babies in Africa. So instead of focusing on real and meaningful reasons, we're focusing on putting somebody with a vagina on the moon. And once that's happened and people get bored of it on social media a week or two later, people will be right back to starving babies in Africa. Yay democracy.
Yet even 'full China' only works so long as they maintain a technocratic leadership. There's a surprisingly thin line between ideologies that get man colonizing Mars and ideologies that suggest trying to killing all a nation's sparrows to improve grain yields. That's part of the reason that I think decentralization, while much less efficient than centralized authority in the short run, is probably more reliable in the longrun. Same reason I'm a fan of a multi-polar world. Basically capitalism sucks, but it beats every alternative.