"Wealthy space tourists will last about a week on Mars and come back the first time the wifi goes out. Then Mars will just become a dumping ground for “undesirables,” basically Space Australia. They’ll toss poor people, criminals, and left-wing political activists into spaceships and hit the “So Long, Sucker!” launch button."
Silly, no one is going to spend the money to send undesirables all the way to Mars when scenic El Salvador is just a plane ride away.
I laughed at Space Australia. Indeed, Mars will become a penal colony. It won’t be useful for housing billionaires, though sending the worst of them there would be poetic justice.
I’m a Sci-fi fan and enjoyed The Martian, The Expanse (where Mars has a thriving human population), Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red/Green/Blue Mars books, and other stories of space exploration and colonization.
But they’re just stories. Maybe in a hundred years or so we could learn to live in such a hostile environment that SER describes.
I used to be all for NASA’s manned missions to the Moon, and say, that the technology gained by the space program is helping us on Earth (and in many instances, it has). But, now, I believe we do need to focus more on making this planet more habitable. I just hope my grandchildren will be able to enjoy it.
I don't understand the headline picture. Ray Walston was our favorite Martian. Are you suggesting that if Elon Musk went to Mars he would be our favorite Martian.? I'm confused. Maybe he would be Schrodinger's Martian since he would be the only one there. He would be both our favorite and least favorite Martian
"Finally, after centuries of hard work and materials and people from Earth, our Mars colony... no, our Mars home... is self-sufficient and stable!"
"What should we do now?"
"Go to war with those Earth motherfuckers."
"Yeah!"
_______________
Sigh... seriously, all this jackoff Musk really wants is to be the permanent dictator of his own cult living free from the laws, morals, and ethics of existing societies. He's a fucking loon and the only reason people take him seriously is from the failure of the free market to immiserate the idiot.
The upshot is, the ride over with SpaceX would be the Greatest Reality Show Ever!
We all see there's a point where someone has so much money after being born on third base (and thinking that they hit a triple) that they think they don't have to actually listen to anyone. This exemplifies Temu Blofeld.
I occasionally suspect the reason Musk wants to go to Mars is he’s trying to get home.
I would add a little more seriously: it might be nice if our technology in some century long after everyone alive as I write this is dead advances to the point an independent colony there is practical. In a civilization I probably wouldn’t even recognize. People have no conception I think how distant a milestone that is. The obstacles are not currently surmountable. Talk of oh we’ll solve the problems... Ummm... No. No you won’t. Not in either of our lifetimes. Might as well propose a colony on the sun.
Meanwhile, we are making the one planet we can survive on much less survivable far, far more rapidly. One rich idiot building big rockets that mostly explode is as much good as seeing apocalyptic consequences coming and setting off fireworks.
Oh wait no it IS setting off fireworks.
Fix the mess we’ve made, we have a decent chance. It’s not easy either, but a lot easier. The obstacles are absolutely surmountable, politics, human behaviour. Also: not really optional. That's the hard truth.
Indeed it seems disingenuous to talk about how “easy” or realistic it is to get to Mars but absolutely impossible to change our impending destruction of our own planet. I’m all for dreaming the impossible on the later.
he wants to go to Mars. just in the last day or so his space rocket had another "rapid unscheduled disassembly".
"Wealthy space tourists will last about a week on Mars and come back the first time the wifi goes out. Then Mars will just become a dumping ground for “undesirables,” basically Space Australia. They’ll toss poor people, criminals, and left-wing political activists into spaceships and hit the “So Long, Sucker!” launch button."
Silly, no one is going to spend the money to send undesirables all the way to Mars when scenic El Salvador is just a plane ride away.
"The soil is harmful to planets"
Should be plants, I think.
Too bad Illegal Elon didn't go to Mars (and not come back) before he took a sledgehammer to most of the Federal budget and wrecked many agencies.
For a wonderful look at what is entailed in going to Mars, may I suggest “Packing For Mars”? Informative and funny.
I laughed at Space Australia. Indeed, Mars will become a penal colony. It won’t be useful for housing billionaires, though sending the worst of them there would be poetic justice.
I’m a Sci-fi fan and enjoyed The Martian, The Expanse (where Mars has a thriving human population), Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red/Green/Blue Mars books, and other stories of space exploration and colonization.
But they’re just stories. Maybe in a hundred years or so we could learn to live in such a hostile environment that SER describes.
I used to be all for NASA’s manned missions to the Moon, and say, that the technology gained by the space program is helping us on Earth (and in many instances, it has). But, now, I believe we do need to focus more on making this planet more habitable. I just hope my grandchildren will be able to enjoy it.
This post is a real gem, thank you for being awesome.
I agree!!
I love space faring shows and books(Farscape, The Expanse etc) but those plainly show that life in space is not easy.
My wish is that rich assholes like Musk and Bezos start investing time and energy for earthly improvements. Too bad musk’s narcissism killed Tesla.
I don't understand the headline picture. Ray Walston was our favorite Martian. Are you suggesting that if Elon Musk went to Mars he would be our favorite Martian.? I'm confused. Maybe he would be Schrodinger's Martian since he would be the only one there. He would be both our favorite and least favorite Martian
😂😂😂😂
"Finally, after centuries of hard work and materials and people from Earth, our Mars colony... no, our Mars home... is self-sufficient and stable!"
"What should we do now?"
"Go to war with those Earth motherfuckers."
"Yeah!"
_______________
Sigh... seriously, all this jackoff Musk really wants is to be the permanent dictator of his own cult living free from the laws, morals, and ethics of existing societies. He's a fucking loon and the only reason people take him seriously is from the failure of the free market to immiserate the idiot.
Can’t he just get an island like those guys in the game Bioshock? Island…whatever it was…
That was part of the plot of the movie Don’t Look Up, and you see how well that turned out.
I was just thinking about the end of that movie, where the “elite” land on their new home world, and are promptly eaten by the local fauna.
And that weirdo guru character was an Elon-type guy.
What an underrated movie that was. I loved it
Thanks for this post, Stephen! It makes me think of this (grammatically incorrect) lyric from Elton John’s “Rocket Man”:
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact, it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
The upshot is, the ride over with SpaceX would be the Greatest Reality Show Ever!
We all see there's a point where someone has so much money after being born on third base (and thinking that they hit a triple) that they think they don't have to actually listen to anyone. This exemplifies Temu Blofeld.
Yep. All of that.
I occasionally suspect the reason Musk wants to go to Mars is he’s trying to get home.
I would add a little more seriously: it might be nice if our technology in some century long after everyone alive as I write this is dead advances to the point an independent colony there is practical. In a civilization I probably wouldn’t even recognize. People have no conception I think how distant a milestone that is. The obstacles are not currently surmountable. Talk of oh we’ll solve the problems... Ummm... No. No you won’t. Not in either of our lifetimes. Might as well propose a colony on the sun.
Meanwhile, we are making the one planet we can survive on much less survivable far, far more rapidly. One rich idiot building big rockets that mostly explode is as much good as seeing apocalyptic consequences coming and setting off fireworks.
Oh wait no it IS setting off fireworks.
Fix the mess we’ve made, we have a decent chance. It’s not easy either, but a lot easier. The obstacles are absolutely surmountable, politics, human behaviour. Also: not really optional. That's the hard truth.
Indeed it seems disingenuous to talk about how “easy” or realistic it is to get to Mars but absolutely impossible to change our impending destruction of our own planet. I’m all for dreaming the impossible on the later.
Musk has colonized the State budget instead of Mars..
We haven't mastered weather forecasting for Earth.
Baby steps, people.
My friend is making a rocket to the sun I would like to put him on.
Pro tip: go at night.