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SpaceX Mars mission vision = Elon's grand folly

#1
Kornee Offline
Elon Musk has done very well with Tesla, but success doesn't always breed further success. Here's a bucket of cold water dumped on his way overoptimistic Mars colonization ambitions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EOjSGVrMxw
Humorous - unless you have somehow invested lots of money in that hugely improbable venture.
The Red Planet survivalist lure looks set to become a massive red ink ledger sinkhole.
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#2
confused2 Offline
Possibly wrong forum. With FAA clearance 150 tons lofted to low Earth orbit every time (barring sudden structural changes). 1,500 tons in 10 launches. 3,000 tons in 20 (July?). Explore Mars with a 99% of dying - you'd have to fend them off.
Edit LGBQT+ seek compensation for discrimination re flight to Mars
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#3
Kornee Offline
(Apr 3, 2022 11:29 PM)confused2 Wrote: Possibly wrong forum. With FAA clearance 150 tons lofted to low Earth orbit every time (barring sudden structural changes). 1,500 tons in 10 launches. 3,000 tons in 20 (July?). Explore Mars with a 99% of dying - you'd have to fend them off.
Edit LGBQT+ seek compensation for discrimination re flight to Mars
All the extra lawyer's picnic issues that mercifully never burdened the Apollo era missions. How times have changed. Rolleyes
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#4
confused2 Offline
From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship
Quote:Starship is a spacecraft or second stage of the rocket, located at the top. The spacecraft is 50 m (160 ft) tall, with a dry mass of less than 100 t (220,000 lb) ...
Dividing the 50 m shell into 'apartments' (vertically) you'd get about 20. A 30foot diameter living space might seem small to a US citizen but in the UK everybody would probably be happy with half of that. Flop a starship on its side and you have four floors of (potentially) of public space.
Given that Mars gravity is about 1/3 of Earth's the spaceship that can loft 150 tons from Earth to low orbit you can land 450 tons on Mars.
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#5
Yazata Offline
I'm like Chad

https://twitter.com/cb_doge/status/1619140353743015936



(Apr 3, 2022 11:29 PM)confused2 Wrote: With FAA clearance 150 tons lofted to low Earth orbit every time (barring sudden structural changes). 1,500 tons in 10 launches. 3,000 tons in 20 (July?).

A great deal depends on Starship's reusability. If SpaceX can fly their giant ships over and over, the cost per kg to orbit will come down by orders of magnitude. The ability to launch large massive cargoes into Earth orbit at relatively affordable prices will make all kinds of orbital development possible, orbiting laboratories, observatories, hotels, factories and shipyards, and all kinds of things formerly known only to readers of science fiction. Perhaps supplied by asteroid mining which would be cheaper than lifting raw materials up out of Earth's gravity well. Add in lunar bases, cities, laboratories, factories, mines and a whole lunar ecosystem. Mars is the focus of Elon's interest, but I can't help thinking that Starship will enable a lot more besides Mars.

Quote:Explore Mars with a 99% of dying - you'd have to fend them off.

I'd go. Dying on Mars sounds a lot better to me than dying here on Earth in an ICU or a nursing home.
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#6
Kornee Offline
I guess the ultimate attraction of snuffing it on the Red planet would be drifting off while viewing the soothing picturesque landscape. Or perhaps not.
One thing is for sure - the dangerously reduced gravity will hasten the final departure considerably viz a viz Earth living.
If way enhanced meteorite bombardment, owing to the extremely thin atmosphere, doesn't step in first.
One plus though is a very low likelihood of Martian nuclear Armageddon. The same can't be said of here, given how things are inexorably heading politically.
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