4 ms·

"We're going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

10 points by rntn 2y ago

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
rbanffy 2y ago
The Moon is an excellent training ground for validating a number of technologies that will be needed on Mars, and a rescue mission is one week away. Let's say Musk manages to land multiple years of supplies for a Mars crew, a return vehicle, and fuel for it, then it'd be only slightly irresponsible to send a crewed mission. Also, remember he's using Artemis money to finance the development of Spaceship.
- taylodl 2y ago
  Reinforcing your point, Mars is the distraction. Your launch window is every two years, and the participants have signed-on to a suicide mission. There's no chance to change your mind should you realize you've made a mistake. With the Moon you don't have to sign-on for living there for the remainder of your life. You have the comfort of being able to see Earth nearby, and being able to get supplies as required on a regular basis. Sure, the goal is to build a self-sustaining colony, but there's a lot to figure out for how to take that out of science fiction and make it a reality. The lessons learned can be applied to a Mars colony. Ironically, Elon's obsession with Mars is the biggest threat to further delay our ability to create a viable colony on Mars.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
floxy 2y ago
I see the launch date for Artemis II is listed as "April 2026" on this NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ ...how likely is that?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  Artemis I already went around the moon and back in 2022.
Zigurd 2y ago
This is positioning for Starship being many years away from being human-rated and from meeting other specs required for Artemis. So Atremis now becomes a dumb idea. We are about to see a tortoise and hare moment where Jeff Bezos, who has to be cultivating that resemblance to Cecil from Looney Tunes, overtakes the guy jumping around like a mad hare. For years I thought Starship was a cautionary story about software guys running an agile-ish rocket project. I would not be surprised if they have daily scrums but no critical path analysis.

10 points by rntn 2y ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

The Moon is an excellent training ground for validating a number of technologies that will be needed on Mars, and a rescue mission is one week away. Let's say Musk manages to land multiple years of supplies for a Mars crew, a return vehicle, and fuel for it, then it'd be only slightly irresponsible to send a crewed mission. Also, remember he's using Artemis money to finance the development of Spaceship.

taylodl 2y ago
Reinforcing your point, Mars is the distraction. Your launch window is every two years, and the participants have signed-on to a suicide mission. There's no chance to change your mind should you realize you've made a mistake. With the Moon you don't have to sign-on for living there for the remainder of your life. You have the comfort of being able to see Earth nearby, and being able to get supplies as required on a regular basis. Sure, the goal is to build a self-sustaining colony, but there's a lot to figure out for how to take that out of science fiction and make it a reality. The lessons learned can be applied to a Mars colony. Ironically, Elon's obsession with Mars is the biggest threat to further delay our ability to create a viable colony on Mars.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

floxy 2y ago

I see the launch date for Artemis II is listed as "April 2026" on this NASA page: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ https://www.nasa.gov/mission/artemis-ii/ ...how likely is that?

2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
Artemis I already went around the moon and back in 2022.

Zigurd 2y ago

This is positioning for Starship being many years away from being human-rated and from meeting other specs required for Artemis. So Atremis now becomes a dumb idea. We are about to see a tortoise and hare moment where Jeff Bezos, who has to be cultivating that resemblance to Cecil from Looney Tunes, overtakes the guy jumping around like a mad hare. For years I thought Starship was a cautionary story about software guys running an agile-ish rocket project. I would not be surprised if they have daily scrums but no critical path analysis.