Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mars Is A Hell Hole
The Atlantic ^ | 26/2/21 | Shannon Stirone

Posted on 03/04/2021 1:49:22 PM PST by Eleutheria5

There’s no place like home—unless you’re Elon Musk. A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship, which may someday send humans to Mars, is, according to Musk, likely to launch soon, possibly within the coming days. But what motivates Musk? Why bother with Mars? A video clip from an interview Musk gave in 2019 seems to sum up Musk’s vision—and everything that’s wrong with it.

....Sagan believed that if we had a photo of ourselves from this distance, it would forever alter our perspective of our place in the cosmos.

But there Musk cuts himself off and begins to laugh. He says with incredulity, “This is not true. This is false––Mars.”

He couldn’t be more wrong. Mars? Mars is a hellhole. The central thing about Mars is that it is not Earth, not even close. In fact, the only things our planet and Mars really have in common is that both are rocky planets with some water ice and both have robots (and Mars doesn’t even have that many).

Mars has a very thin atmosphere; it has no magnetic field to help protect its surface from radiation from the sun or galactic cosmic rays; it has no breathable air and the average surface temperature is a deadly 80 degrees below zero. Musk thinks that Mars is like Earth? For humans to live there in any capacity they would need to build tunnels and live underground, and what is not enticing about living in a tunnel lined with SAD lamps and trying to grow lettuce with UV lights? So long to deep breaths outside and walks without the security of a bulky spacesuit, knowing that if you’re out on an extravehicular activity and something happens, you’ve got an excruciatingly painful 60-second death waiting for you.....

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: aristophanes; cultofmars; mars; musk; nephrolokokkugia; ridiculous; shannonstirone; styrone; theatlantic; thebirds
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 141-150 next last
To: DoughtyOne

Don’t know what’s so useful about going to the Moon or Mars.

Now the asteroid belt! There’s some riches to be mined there!


81 posted on 03/04/2021 2:50:17 PM PST by airborne (Thank you Rush for helping me find FreeRepublic! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: kaehurowing

As I understand it, no ramshackle huts have been observed so far.


82 posted on 03/04/2021 2:51:54 PM PST by DoughtyOne (The Republican Party is dead. Long live the Founders Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: airborne

I’d agree with that.

The thought of going to Mars doesn’t disturb me at all.

I don’t spend time thinking of it, because that’s not going to
happen.

Still, I’m a solitary person and as long as there was a secure
way to set up a habitat, I wouldn’t be adverse to going.


83 posted on 03/04/2021 2:54:06 PM PST by DoughtyOne (The Republican Party is dead. Long live the Founders Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: ratzoe

I don’t think we are the only life out there.
The numbers are against that.
But think how many civilizations were wiped out
before they could breach the gravity well...
Hell, some were wiped out without leaving a continent.


84 posted on 03/04/2021 2:54:30 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: corlorde

Werner Von Braun wrote a story about the tunnel people on Mars. It was published in the Washington Post, if an old man’s memory serves.


85 posted on 03/04/2021 2:54:47 PM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Ezekiel

Mars hill is in Northern Maine. I learned to ski there.


86 posted on 03/04/2021 2:54:51 PM PST by BatGuano (color me "gone!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: z3n

They just need to find and turn on the giant alien atmosphere generators.


87 posted on 03/04/2021 2:55:10 PM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Eleutheria5

Mars isn’t the answer. But it is a step along the way. If we can get there and learn how to live there it starts the “process.” If we can learn to exploit its resources, build stuff there....we are just a hop away from real exploration.


88 posted on 03/04/2021 2:58:55 PM PST by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

Send Nanzi to heranus


89 posted on 03/04/2021 2:59:51 PM PST by PGalt (past peak civilization?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: Eleutheria5

But....they got 3 boob girls.


90 posted on 03/04/2021 3:01:47 PM PST by The Toll
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Rummyfan

It would start like VA: No work, no food.


91 posted on 03/04/2021 3:03:11 PM PST by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: Eleutheria5

Space flight and colonization has always fascinated me, and I’ve put an uncommon amount of thought into how I would go about it if I had Elon Musk amounts of money.

Suffice to say there is a whole long list of things I would want to do in pursuit of creating a self-sustaining civilization in space, and landing on or colonizing Mars is not even at the bottom of the list.

Why fight so hard to get up out of one gravity well just so we can drop back down into another? The resources we need are all to be found in asteroids or on various moons, from which railguns or space elevators or other techniques can be used to extract resources with decent efficiency. Rotating colonies can be built that will be custom-designed environments well suited to human life in space, far better than living on some hellscape with entirely wrong gravitation.

I’ve yet to come up with even a mildly interesting reason to land on Mars. If things go my way, the first person on Mars will be some poor sap space tourist whose rocket malfunctions while in orbit and leaves him stranded down there.


92 posted on 03/04/2021 3:04:13 PM PST by EnderWiggin1970
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kaehurowing

The correct term is not “homeless,” it is “unsheltered!”

All people on Mars are unsheltered.


93 posted on 03/04/2021 3:05:02 PM PST by BatGuano (color me "gone!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman
It’s much more feasible to build underground or underwater cities right here on Earth

Agree.

Of course, we won’t do either

Disagree. I think that the PTB have been on a subterranean building bing for that past twenty years to ensure that the “Arcadians” ride out whatever catastrophe awaits. I think there is evidence of this in our past. I. E . https://www.bing.com/search?q=Cappadocia%20wikipedia&form=WIKIRE&PC=APPL

94 posted on 03/04/2021 3:10:43 PM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: George from New England
is that lyrics in Rocket Man ?

Yes, sir.

95 posted on 03/04/2021 3:11:32 PM PST by Yo-Yo (is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: tet68
I don’t think we are the only life out there. The numbers are against that. But think how many civilizations were wiped out before they could breach the gravity well... Hell, some were wiped out without leaving a continent

I can agree with that, no doubt.
96 posted on 03/04/2021 3:11:37 PM PST by ratzoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: Eleutheria5

Mars was once green, with a breathable atmosphere and flowing water. A lovely place. Harsh Winters, but cool in the summer.


97 posted on 03/04/2021 3:18:34 PM PST by Flick Lives (“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kaehurowing; poconopundit

Inquiring as to whether or not masks are mandatory here, on Mars...How Musk manages to congregate with
these folks’ is beyond any comprehension. Mars residents would be an improvement over the junk yard dogs who write such trash in an attempt to bring down those above them.


98 posted on 03/04/2021 3:20:11 PM PST by V K Lee (Resist, we will! Remember, we must!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: Eleutheria5

The egg heads are desperate to find evidence of ancient life on Mars to prove science exists.


99 posted on 03/04/2021 3:21:01 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ratzoe

...I firmly believe, out of the TRILLIONS of galaxies out there, there is definitely intelligent life other than us.

I sure hope so, otherwise it’s sort of a sad commentary on the universe if we’re the high water mark.


100 posted on 03/04/2021 3:21:10 PM PST by Flick Lives (“Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives.”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 141-150 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson