3 ms·

You can imagine them, but they are not actually realizabile with current technology, and there is 0 purpose to actually doing it. Making them self-sustaining to

You can imagine them, but they are not actually realizabile with current technology, and there is 0 purpose to actually doing it. Making them self-sustaining to act as a safeguard if the Earth is destroyed is also way, way beyond our current technology.

dyauspitr 2y ago
Why? 150 metric tons of concrete (what one starship can carry), is enough to build 4 single family homes. A standard excavator is 10-20 tons so you can carry 10-15 on one starship. It doesn’t take much more than that to build a deep hole and make a concrete hab. These would have to be modified for mars but not significantly. I’m not sure what this technology is that we don’t have. It sounds like you could have a functional research lab on mars with less than 5-10 starship trips. Purpose is purely subjective. You could have said the same thing about the ISS before it was built but it has been invaluable.
- tsimionescu 2y ago
  First, starship is not a working rocket today. It will be made to work, but that's still in the future. They are now at a stage where they can take one completely empty rocket and put it in LEO, with a little bit of fuel left over for descent. Getting a fully loaded rocket in LEO, then sending another twenty rockets to refuel it in space, then powering it on a trajectory to Mars, with enough fuel left over that it can safely land on Mars, is still probably around a decade away. And then getting it to launch again from Mars and land back on the Earth is a whole other can of worms, especially if you want it to leave with living humans on board. Secondly and more importantly, we don't have the robotics knowledge to do arbitrary construction projects in this way. Digging through frozen rocky terrain in the extreme conditions of Mars is not easy, and we don't even do that autonomous here on Earth. The Mars Rovers are at the forefront of technology in this area, and they can just about move over the rocky terrain. And of course, sending people there to operate the machines without first having a shelter is not an option, they will likely die of radiation poisoning long before they finish the project - the thin metal walls of a rocket are not a good radiation insulator.

dyauspitr 2y ago

Why? 150 metric tons of concrete (what one starship can carry), is enough to build 4 single family homes. A standard excavator is 10-20 tons so you can carry 10-15 on one starship. It doesn’t take much more than that to build a deep hole and make a concrete hab. These would have to be modified for mars but not significantly. I’m not sure what this technology is that we don’t have. It sounds like you could have a functional research lab on mars with less than 5-10 starship trips. Purpose is purely subjective. You could have said the same thing about the ISS before it was built but it has been invaluable.

tsimionescu 2y ago
First, starship is not a working rocket today. It will be made to work, but that's still in the future. They are now at a stage where they can take one completely empty rocket and put it in LEO, with a little bit of fuel left over for descent. Getting a fully loaded rocket in LEO, then sending another twenty rockets to refuel it in space, then powering it on a trajectory to Mars, with enough fuel left over that it can safely land on Mars, is still probably around a decade away. And then getting it to launch again from Mars and land back on the Earth is a whole other can of worms, especially if you want it to leave with living humans on board. Secondly and more importantly, we don't have the robotics knowledge to do arbitrary construction projects in this way. Digging through frozen rocky terrain in the extreme conditions of Mars is not easy, and we don't even do that autonomous here on Earth. The Mars Rovers are at the forefront of technology in this area, and they can just about move over the rocky terrain. And of course, sending people there to operate the machines without first having a shelter is not an option, they will likely die of radiation poisoning long before they finish the project - the thin metal walls of a rocket are not a good radiation insulator.