Posted on 10/06/2016 11:20:40 PM PDT by aquila48
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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