Posted on 03/11/2018 12:00:46 PM PDT by Simon Green
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk told an audience at South by Southwest that his timeline for sending a space vehicle to Mars could mark its first milestone early next year.
The privately-funded venture, announced in September 2017, aims to send a cargo mission to the Red Planet by 2022. SpaceX's ultimate objective is to plant the seeds to put a human colony on Mars.
Musk held a surprise question and answer session at the annual technology and culture festival in Austin, Texas on Sunday. The billionaire told attendees that "we are building the first Mars, or interplanetary ship, and I think well be able to short trips, flights by first half of next year."
Mindful of elevating expectations too high, Musk hedged a bit. "Although sometimes, my timelines are a little, you know..." he said to laughter.
SpaceX's BFR rocket system is expected to have capabilities for interplanetary travel, and be fully reusable. A flight will cost less than the initial Falcon 1 flights, which Musk pegged in the $5 to $6 million range.
He hopes if BRF launches, others will believe Mars travel is possible, and follow suit.
"The biggest thing that would be helpful is just general support and encouragement and goodwill," Musk said. "I think once we build it we'll have a point of proof something that other companies and countries can go and do. They certainly don't think it's possible, but if we do they'll up their game."
In the immediate term, Mars will need Glass domes, a power station, and an assortment of basic living fundamentals, he cautioned. After the infrastructure is complete, "then really the explosion of entrepreneurial opportunity [will begin], because Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints," he said.
In a wide-ranging series of remarks, Musk regaled the audience with anecdotes about several of his other ventures, including Tesla and the Boring Company, with the billionaire joking he tweets about the latter more than he actually spends time working on it.
He also raised eyebrows when asked the source of his inspiration, citing iconic entertainer Fred Astaire and irascible hip-hop artist Kanye West.
They didn’t lose $675 million per quarter.... Besides, they finally started selling something... Products, products that go to consumers... Elon Musk sells electric cars. Electric cars that aren’t being made and delivered on time, and cars that only a minority of consumers are interested in... The internal combustion engine will always be king of the hill... Ford sells and delivers more F150 trucks in 2 months than all the electric cars that Tesla can currently make and sell in an entire year.... Wake up, smell the coffee and if you have stock in Tesla... Dump it before you lose your retirement money.
BTW - Rockets have been going to space since the 1950s and they’ve been landing since then as well... Did you not watch the moon landings? Space X will likely survive Musk and his lunacy, but it will be under different management and once again... Government money from taxpayers still pays for most rockets blasting off, and the cash received from private enterprises is still being subsidized in some form by government incentives.
Gotta love this guy. And let's refrain from bashing him this week as he PRAISED Trump's trade policies.
This is really great news.
They can have a landing pad ready by the time NASA arrives in 2035
In the immediate term, Mars will need Glass domes, a power station, and an assortment of basic living fundamentals, he cautioned. After the infrastructure is complete, "then really the explosion of entrepreneurial opportunity [will begin], because Mars will need everything from iron foundries to pizza joints," he said.
He should be required to take a heavy quota of lawyers to Mars. We'd be rid of them for a while, and he'd wind up compelled to stop making stupid statements like, "living on Mars will be the easy part", or like the above one, about building iron foundries on a planet where there is next to no atmosphere and zero coal deposits.
Pinging the APoD list. Thanks Simon Green.
I believe he's doing excellent work getting us back into space. I honestly think his Dragon 2.0 manned crew capsule will get us back into space faster than NASA's Orion capsule. And he's got rockets landing vertically, like God and Robert Heinlein intended. (credit to another FReeper who said that first.)
Unless the guy has come out and said "I hate the US and I hate Trump", I'm going to keep rooting for him to march us onward and upward.
I think alot of those libtards would feel more at home on the planet Uranus.
CGato
Elon Musk projects Mars spaceship will be ready for short one-way trips by first half of 2019
there fixed it
What will you do when you get there? The mean temperature is 90 below.
...
Elton John warned us about that decades ago.
Musk Derangement Syndrome.
FReepers never mention anymore the bailout GM got.
Don’t forget about Boeing, their maned spcecraft is due for an unmanned test in August to the ISS. Unlike SpaceX it will come down overland. I agree with you, I like what Musk has been doing. In the beginning of Falcon 9,he was the only Engineer, they could not afford one.
I guess you have to be an optimist in his line of work.
He's all-in on the global warming hoax, so I wouldn't call that optimism, so much as gullibility.
SpaceX's BFR rocket system is expected to have capabilities for interplanetary travel, and be fully reusable. A flight will cost less than the initial Falcon 1 flights, which Musk pegged in the $5 to $6 million range.
OTOH, that's pretty optimistic, right there! :^)
If your body were able to adapt to low G without loss of robustness, then you could never have quality of life on the Earth because your bones, muscles and connective tissue would be too underdeveloped to handle a full G. Imagine if today you went from Earth to a planet with nearly 3 times Earth's gravity. Your impairment would be similar to that of someone who's morbidly obese and wearing a hat made of lead.
Rods From God—how much to put system in place? No, they don’t pack the energy of a small nuclear weapon; but, all the energy released from ten tons of TNT, applied at impact in the direction of travel, will be interesting all the same.
Believe everything the Los Angeles Times prints?
I see dim prospects for humans living on Mars long-term. The human body is not designed for 0.38 G.
It’s the radiation. The radiation in space getting there and the radiation on the surface living there. For the living there, colonists could dig tunnels, but has any robot dug a tunnel on Mars yet to see how feasible it is? And if you start sending humans right away there’s no robots to dig tunnels for you so you have to dig them yourself. How long before your tunnels are deep enough and comfy enough to allow you to duck out of radiation-range most of the time? And if you’re going to live in a tunnel, why not do it on earth, where the gravity is more healthy?
The whole idea is stupid to me. We should be going to the moon, setting up tourist destinations in lunar lava tubes, pre-made tunnels. We can get there in days and stay for a short time and come back long before our bones atrophy.
Going to Mars, even if there are tunnels waiting there for you, will expose you to 6 months of deadly solar flare risk and constant bombardment from galactic cosmic rays (for which there is NO adequate shielding outside a deep atmosphere or tunnel).
Take all the progressive leftists and start your own planet.
This one is perfectly fine and will be better off without the loons.
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.