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Elon Musk Unveils SpaceX's massive Starship test rocket in Boca Chica, Texas

Bregor

Bregor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,477
Tfritz said:
if one group has the ability to create a sustainable, post-scarcity society on Mars, a planet that has more extreme temperatures than Earth, is more radioactive than Earth, where humans can't breathe, where no vegetation grows, where there's virtually no water for humans to consume, where literally everything used for survival has to come from Earth, then they absolutely should be pivoting that tech to helping Earth, where the entire human species currently resides.
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Eh, there isn't NO scenario - a massive impactor that was sufficient to convert the surface of Earth to magma would be one. Such scenarios are incredibly improbable, of course.

But still, from a practical point of view, Earth is likely to be the most habitable home for humans for thousands of years.

I still favor maned space flight and the eventual establishment of settlements. I think it is important to have ambitious dreams to reach for.

Musk is probably trying to do it too fast. There is no way I can buy a city on mars anytime soon. But I don't care - the tech SpaceX is developing will help manned space flight in many ways. And the space industry needed shaking up.
 
androvsky

androvsky

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,501
Tfritz said:
Because it's not. There's literally no scenario, be it nuclear war or the worst of climate change, where Mars is a more viable place for humans to live than Earth. Like if people want to go to Mars to explore it because it's cool or whatever, fine, but the whole "we need to colonize Mars to ensure the survival of the species" is like... honey, if we had the means to create a sustainable civilization of Mars, a planet that currently has nothing to meet the basic survival needs of humans, then surely we could create sustainable living situations on Earth much, much, much more easily.
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Mainly, the case for Mars being a backup for humanity is for cases like gigantic asteroid wiping out all life on Earth. Having a Mars colony would be useful for near extinction events like all-out nuclear war, as there'd be some civilization unaffected that could send backups of how to build important things... hopefully before the Mars colony falls apart due to lack of machinery and other supplies from Earth.

Also, keep in mind Mars isn't likely to be the end goal, as it's a good spot to refuel spaceships going everywhere else, due to the lesser gravity and thinner atmosphere than Earth. A Mars colony means the water-ice moons of Jupiter and Saturn are within reach.



I feel like pointing out to the thread in general that complaining about spending a few billion dollars (yes, the Starship is dirt cheap compared to every other big rocket) on science to spread humanity around the solar system a bit feels a bit weird on a video game forum. 43 billion dollars of revenue in the video game industry last year, and I promise little of it went towards humanity's survival. Quite the opposite sometimes, I'd wager. Pretend this rocket is entertainment for sci-fi fans; only four times the budget of Star Citizen and there's a real fucking spaceship at the end of it.

Or if you'd rather, and Musk stops building this thing tomorrow, the U.S. is still building the SLS for the same supposedly useless purpose, but using our tax dollars to do it for dozens of times the price and much lesser results.


Hycran said:
Friendly reminder that actual logistics of traveling to Mars really aren't the issue. The issue is that no human being can survive the 7-8 month trip due to cabin fever and going stir crazy.m

Here's just one example of shit going sideways:
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People spend nearly that much time on submarines and longer on space stations.
Valeri Vladimirovich Polyakov
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(Russian: Валерий Владимирович Поляков, born Valeri Ivanovich Korshunov on April 27, 1942) is a Russian former cosmonaut. He is the holder of the record for the longest single stay in space in human history, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months (437 days 18 hours) during one trip.[1]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeri_Polyakov#cite_note-nytimes-1
 

Deleted member 48897

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Oct 22, 2018
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Yeah also put me down on the side of "any attempts to terraform mars are hopelessly naive and trying to focus attention on them as a viable means to maintain the existence of humans is foolishly naive at our current state of technological development, and attention paid more to them than to the things needed to be done on Earth to keep it habitable is just going to make things worse socially"
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,950
Hycran said:
Friendly reminder that actual logistics of traveling to Mars really aren't the issue. The issue is that no human being can survive the 7-8 month trip due to cabin fever and going stir crazy.m

Here's just one example of shit going sideways:
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Not familiar that members on board of the international space station have been up there for a year at a time to prepare for such mission duration?

You might want to do more research.
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,950
muteKi said:
Yeah also put me down on the side of "any attempts to terraform mars are hopelessly naive and trying to focus attention on them as a viable means to maintain the existence of humans is foolishly naive at our current state of technological development, and attention paid more to them than to the things needed to be done on Earth to keep it habitable is just going to make things worse socially"
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So one private company doing this means the rest of private companies and governments on the planet cannot pursue the goals you speak of? That's news to me.
 
Dark Knight

Dark Knight

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,262
muteKi said:
Yeah also put me down on the side of "any attempts to terraform mars are hopelessly naive and trying to focus attention on them as a viable means to maintain the existence of humans is foolishly naive at our current state of technological development, and attention paid more to them than to the things needed to be done on Earth to keep it habitable is just going to make things worse socially"
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While true, the footwork has to be laid sometime for traveling further than Mars anyways. Establishing a foothold with bases and perhaps colonies that develop overtime on neighboring planets is key for long term progress. Nobody says you can't walk and chew gum at the same time in terms of human progress and sustaining earth, but they are kind of two completely different things that should rightfully be worked on by different appropriate organizations, departments, companies, etc. Earth is going to see some hard times no matter what, but people will live on regardless of the catastrophes and natural disasters we face. We should be working on both saving Earth and driving humanity forward, laying the path so that our descendants can survive and flourish.
 
Bregor

Bregor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,477
We don't even inhabit Antarctica yet, beyond a few small scientific bases. And the environment there is much, much easier than that of Mars.
 
Dr. Mario

Dr. Mario

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Oct 27, 2017
13,831
Netherlands
That's amazing. Had honestly not figured it would happen in my lifetime. Sure I'll be seventy by the time people really go to an extraterrestrial base, but still.

I thought 118 meter was ridiculous, but it's only slightly larger than the Saturn V. How can this transport 100 people?
 
KHarvey16

KHarvey16

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,193
muteKi said:
Yeah also put me down on the side of "any attempts to terraform mars are hopelessly naive and trying to focus attention on them as a viable means to maintain the existence of humans is foolishly naive at our current state of technological development, and attention paid more to them than to the things needed to be done on Earth to keep it habitable is just going to make things worse socially"
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This is a false dichotomy.
 
Josh378

Josh378

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,521
Alice said:
I'm sure these will be super useful once civilization collapses.

I wish this man would use his genius (as unstable as it is) to make an actual change on this planet. I'm sure there are plenty of ideas to be sourced from his mind if he at all brainstormed about how we can turn around the shitshow that are current day climate politics.

Sorry for the almost-whataboutisms, but it's soooo hard to be excited about commercial space flight plans when we're on the brink of extinction. :/
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Please, he probably thinks we're already too screwed and he's already attempting to try to colonize another local planet in our solar system. Obviously he won't be alive to get to that point in technology but at least he'll have his legacy passed down to the next person in Musk Technologies.
 
Zen

Zen

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Nov 1, 2017
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Are those fins movable at the top? They look like flappy paddles
 
SlothmanAllen

SlothmanAllen

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Oct 28, 2017
1,834
I wonder if this thing will work? The design has me fairly skeptical as it looks like something out of 50's Sci-Fi or Atomic Rockets.

I wonder what actual aerospace engineers think of the design. I would be interested to hear from people who have worked on the Space Shuttle and the current NASA project to see if they think this is feasible.
 

Deleted member 2625

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oh my god

every single Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov pulp dimestore airbish novel cover was right

I need to ly dow
 
Gashprex

Gashprex

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Oct 25, 2017
1,029
Zen said:
Are those fins movable at the top? They look like flappy paddles
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Yes movable - all part of the "belly flop" or "skydiving" maneuver to bleed of speed during re-entry



Keep in mind during the presentation Elon advocated for 99% of the world's resources to be used for fixing earth but 1% should be dedicated to making us interplanetary. His belief is that we should do something to preserve conscious life beyond our planet/

Also, this project is privately funded at this time (so nobody is "wasting" resources) - NASA has no involvement at the moment.
 
Gashprex

Gashprex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,029
SlothmanAllen said:
I wonder if this thing will work? The design has me fairly skeptical as it looks like something out of 50's Sci-Fi or Atomic Rockets.

I wonder what actual aerospace engineers think of the design. I would be interested to hear from people who have worked on the Space Shuttle and the current NASA project to see if they think this is feasible.
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Most people I've seen on twitter way more qualified than me seem to believe it will work - but are extremely skeptical of the time frames and concerns about how quickly Elon is pushing the project....but then again those same people believe you couldn't propulsively land a rocket.
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Gashprex said:
Yes movable - all part of the "belly flop" or "skydiving" maneuver to bleed of speed during re-entry



Keep in mind during the presentation Elon advocated for 99% of the world's resources to be used for fixing earth but 1% should be dedicated to making us interplanetary. His belief is that we should do something to preserve conscious life beyond our planet/

Also, this project is privately funded at this time (so nobody is "wasting" resources) - NASA has no involvement at the moment.
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This was the wild part

 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
Nerfgun said:
oh my god

every single Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov pulp dimestore airbish novel cover was right

I need to ly dow
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The renders are close enough

EFmQFf1U0AAVyJN


EFmQFf8UYAEIY0h
 
uncelestial

uncelestial

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,060
San Francisco, CA, USA
Mars is not habitable nor will it ever be. It has no magnetic field because it has no tectonic activity, and without a magnetic field, it will never have an atmosphere. It's dead, Jim.

You're much better off trying to fix Venus.
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,183
uncelestial said:
Mars is not habitable nor will it ever be. It has no magnetic field because it has no tectonic activity, and without a magnetic field, it will never have an atmosphere. It's dead, Jim.

You're much better off trying to fix Venus.
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Creating an artificial magnetic field or shield isn't impossible.
 
Gashprex

Gashprex

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,029
uncelestial said:
Mars is not habitable nor will it ever be. It has no magnetic field because it has no tectonic activity, and without a magnetic field, it will never have an atmosphere. It's dead, Jim.

You're much better off trying to fix Venus.
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At this point the plan is not to fix "Mars" but to create an artificial habitable colony on Mars - using resources on Mars like CO2 and water to make that artificial colony sustainable.
 
perfectchaos007

perfectchaos007

It's Happening
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Oct 25, 2017
12,230
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Shugga said:
Private space trip is the opposite of exploring space
Also no it doesn't even out lol
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Tens of thousands of drivers who switched from driving fossil fuel cars daily converting to Tesla won't make up from an emissions standpoint one rocket taking billionaires back and forth from space? Yeah I'm gonna have to see emissions receipts to believe that
 
papertowel

papertowel

Member
Nov 6, 2017
2,018
The real revolution this rocket will provide is not that itll make a city on Mars, which im skeptical about. Its about how cheap itll make rocket launches. Anybody with a decent idea will be able to get it up into orbit. Will be a game changer
 
Effect

Effect

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Oct 25, 2017
4,945
I was wondering when we'd get to this point. I like the retro design of it. Here's hoping the test go well!
 
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