Posted on 10/06/2016 11:20:40 PM PDT by aquila48
Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg believes that it's his company that's sending the first humans to Mars, not SpaceX. At a Chicago event sponsored by The Atlantic, Muilenberg declared that he's "convinced the first person to step foot on Mars will arrive there riding a Boeing rocket." SpaceX chief Elon Musk recently laid out his grans plans to ferry people to the red planet aboard the Interplanetary Transport System, a powerful ship the company's already working on. While Boeing has comparatively been quieter, Muilenburg isn't just all talk.
The older aerospace corporation has been working with NASA to build the Space Launch System, the agency's most powerful rocket yet designed to fly to our reddish-colored neighbor. Besides, Boeing has great track record: it helped the US beat the Soviet Union to the moon. If you'll recall, the company built the first stage of the rocket (Saturn V) that took astronauts to our planet's satellite back in the '60s and the '70s.
Musk didn't seem to mind Muilenberg's statement, though. When asked at the same conference whether he wants to be the first person to reach Mars, he replied:
"I think it's actually much better for the world if there are multiple companies or organizations building these interplanetary spacecraft. You know, the more the better. Anything, I think, that improves the probability of the future is good. And so multiple companies doing it, I think, would be great. So I wanted to come describe the architecture actually in the hopes that this would encourage companies and organizations around the world to perhaps do something like this."
Last we checked, SpaceX is aiming for a 2024 manned mission, while NASA and Boeing are looking to launch their first manned flight in the 2030s.
(Excerpt) Read more at engadget.com ...
It includes Amazon's Bezos, too with Blue Origin.
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-space-mars-moon/
I love that the free market is producing these amazing goals...when NASA is busy working on a Muslim outreach program.
Intergalactic Imperialism!
Manifest Destiny!
No, 1960s Apollo technology deserves the adjective "amazing", not this Elon Musk / Blue origin flying junk. And Apollo wasn't the result of an Ayn Rand free market fantasy.
wow, Apollo was a government initiative. That’s irrelevant as today’s government agencies and the cronies who run them lack incentive and ingenuity. Free market isn’t a fantasy and only entrepreneurs can step in where they continually FAIL.
Musk, Diamondis, and many others are at the very least thinking big where the stooges cannot. If they don’t eventually get to Mars, so what? All of the new technology and intellectual capital gained can be utilized in other ways.
If you hate Rand so, much try Marx, I think you’ll be happier.
But why go there?
As I have said before, going from Earth to Mars is like moving from the Pacific Northwest to Death Valley for the “greener pastures”. :)
For the same reason men climb mountains, columbus sailed the seas, Lewis and Clark headed for the unknown west, we went to the moon...
So the reasons are...
1. because it’s there
2. because I can
3. because I want to
4. and who knows what I’m going to find there
Actually Musk’s stated motivation is to provide another base for humanity, a redundancy if you will, in case something horrific were to happen to our earth and wipe out humanity forever. A rather noble, chivalrous thought, even if a bit Quixotic.
Mars has no breathable atmosphere, hence we will always be in a relatively fragile shelter. It is no “Plan B” for Earth.
What would YOUR plan B be in case, say, earth gets hit by a huge asteroid that kills all life on earth?
I would love to believe that a Star Wars galaxy exists some place in the universe, but I think it's unlikely.
Solving the speed of light issue and the particle-spacecraft high speed collision issue will take thousands of years, and perhaps can never be solved.
I think that at one time, the Spanish and later the Mexicans thought the same of California. To them, it was at first a hot and unbearable desert. Then they discovered the nice ports along the coast. But they still thought little of California.
Once the Americans took over, the riches became apparent.
Same may happen regarding Mars. At first, it's just a bunch of rocks and dirt. We don't know what riches may lie below the surface. It might be the start of another gold rush. Not necessarily just gold. In California, the early gold miners were throwing away some nasty minerals in the way of their search for gold, it just happened to be silver which made a lot of towns spring up overnight and was very profitable. Then there's oil, uranium and other good stuff. Mars could be very profitable for humans.
Back in the 60's, the only rockets that returned to base and landed vertically were science fiction, the LEM being the only possible exception (out of necessity).
Because it's another PLANET.
That's like, significant, all by itself.
In addition, there could be ruins of other civilizations there, and of their technology. After all, there's no weather to speak of to erode anything.
Mars is a stepping stone to the stars. If we can survive that, we can go beyond.
Really. I don’t get it. Why Mars?
Makes more sense to me to just park a Space City in a LaGrange point. Start working on the next generation of drive, nuclear, gravity, whatever. If it turns out there is some treasure on Mars we can pick it up in time. One thing for certain, it will never be anything but a barren desert.
We’re going to find the same thing on Mars that we found on the Moon... Nothing! And that’s why we essentially stopped going there, so why should we do what we’ve already done?
Been there, done that. Probes and robots do a better job and cost a lot less, so let’s put this idea of travelling to Mars in the category where it belongs... Stupidity!
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