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Unrelated, but the Elon dream of getting a human colony on Mars seems beyond imagination. Ignoring safety of such a long travel, the radiation issue of Mar's su

by jadbox 1y ago

Unrelated, but the Elon dream of getting a human colony on Mars seems beyond imagination. Ignoring safety of such a long travel, the radiation issue of Mar's surface, and the massive infrastructure to have a self-sustainable biosphere (also somehow protected from radiation) to recycle enough oxygen, we still have to deal with the immense number of failures that could happen with no way to send help. Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous.

brazzy 1y ago
It's very clearly not "beyond imagination". It doesn't require any fundamentally new technology. It may well be beyond our ability to practically apply those technologies at the required scales and reliability levels, but that's hardly unimaginable.
- IAmBroom 1y ago
  Preventing cancerous damage from radiation is absolutely beyond our tech. Unless you consider launching a lead-lined spaceship "within our tech." The marsonauts won't die before reaching Mars, but their lifespans will be significantly shortened.
jandrese 1y ago
> Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous. I've been beating this drum for years. Elon is 100% focused on building the rocket that can get to Mars and neglecting absolutely everything else about the project. Where is the self contained biosphere pilot program on Earth that tests the Mars habitat? To be anywhere close to Elon's timetable it needs to be running today, and honestly it should have been running years ago. Given the extreme reliability requirements it needs long term testing to build any confidence at all in the numerous technologies involved. The closest model we have is the ISS, and it's mostly shown that we aren't ready for a Mars habitat. The ISS requires way too much maintenance and ground support.
- Ray20 1y ago
  [dead]
- jandrese 1y ago
  The problem with Mars is that if something goes wrong you can't just "fly back on the rocket". The launch windows are 2 years apart. You either fix it in place or you die.
_fizz_buzz_ 1y ago
At least theoretically it should be doable. But I think it will be similar to the moon landings. My prediction: People are going to lose interest in the project very quickly. It will be prohibitively expensive to maintain and there is simply nothing to do. You couldn’t even really have a remote programming job there. A light round trip takes between 6 and 44 minutes, completely unsustainable.
- Ray20 1y ago
  [dead]
Digit-Al 1y ago
If you're really interested in a deep dive on this subject then I really recommend "A City On Mars" by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith (of SMBC). It goes very deep into things like - can you have babies successfully in space?

by jadbox 1y ago

brazzy 1y ago

It's very clearly not "beyond imagination". It doesn't require any fundamentally new technology. It may well be beyond our ability to practically apply those technologies at the required scales and reliability levels, but that's hardly unimaginable.

IAmBroom 1y ago
Preventing cancerous damage from radiation is absolutely beyond our tech. Unless you consider launching a lead-lined spaceship "within our tech." The marsonauts won't die before reaching Mars, but their lifespans will be significantly shortened.

jandrese 1y ago

> Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous. I've been beating this drum for years. Elon is 100% focused on building the rocket that can get to Mars and neglecting absolutely everything else about the project. Where is the self contained biosphere pilot program on Earth that tests the Mars habitat? To be anywhere close to Elon's timetable it needs to be running today, and honestly it should have been running years ago. Given the extreme reliability requirements it needs long term testing to build any confidence at all in the numerous technologies involved. The closest model we have is the ISS, and it's mostly shown that we aren't ready for a Mars habitat. The ISS requires way too much maintenance and ground support.

Ray20 1y ago
[dead]
jandrese 1y ago
The problem with Mars is that if something goes wrong you can't just "fly back on the rocket". The launch windows are 2 years apart. You either fix it in place or you die.

_fizz_buzz_ 1y ago

At least theoretically it should be doable. But I think it will be similar to the moon landings. My prediction: People are going to lose interest in the project very quickly. It will be prohibitively expensive to maintain and there is simply nothing to do. You couldn’t even really have a remote programming job there. A light round trip takes between 6 and 44 minutes, completely unsustainable.

Ray20 1y ago
[dead]

Digit-Al 1y ago

If you're really interested in a deep dive on this subject then I really recommend "A City On Mars" by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith (of SMBC). It goes very deep into things like - can you have babies successfully in space?