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Elon Musk: "I would like to die on Mars"
- johnnyg 14y agoYeah, you and me both Mr. Musk.
- juiceandjuice 14y agoIt's statements like this that have made me seriously consider applying for a job at SpaceX.
- uptown 14y agoSo do it. (I'm sort of hoping a reply like this is enough to bump you forward)
- juiceandjuice 14y agoI started looking at jobs two weeks ago after Neil Armstrong died out of curiosity. I have a job at a place I love doing astrophysics, and I can't complain much about that, but I need to update my resume anyway.
- mrfairladyz 14y agoWhere are you currently working, out of ahem curiosity?
- juiceandjuice 14y agoStanford, I work on software for big physics experiments.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 14y agoEven the most pessimistic climate change predictions don't have Mars being more habitable than Earth in any imaginable future.
- gnarbarian 14y agoThat can be done for far less than establishing a long term colony there.
- enraged_camel 14y agoWell, he did qualify the statement by adding, "and not during landing."
- 27182818284 14y agoThis is exactly what I tell people and they're surprised. If I was offered the chance to homestead Mars with the caveat that LEO and landing must be reasonable safe so I don't die in the boring parts, I'd sign up right away!
- ChuckMcM 14y agoYou and a lot of people. I'm sure a big chunk of the seasteaders would jump at the chance to live on a moon city. So here is the entrepreneurial challenge, believe Elon, in that he will make it possible to go to Mars, and before that it will be a lot easier to send stuff to the Moon. What can you start researching today so that 10 years from now when everyone realizes that this is going to come to pass you'll be way ahead of the game and visionary?
- jk4930 14y agoWhat about early settlement tech. Not only the habitats etc. but procedures a.s.o. for the first years: in what sequence to create stuff, run explorations, have emergency routines etc. all under the tight constraints of an early colony. Intelligent robotics as assistants and autonomous explorers etc. with a focus on space conditions. Advanced space medicine (say, transhuman spaceflight), modifications for the body, brain-machine-interfaces etc., there are many non-trivial issues: gravity, temperature, light, acceleration, radiation, ... Interested? ;)
- 14y ago
- Bud 14y agoNow that Jobs is gone, Elon is probably the coolest guy in the world. Can't wait to see what he comes up with in the next 10-20 years.
- marcoamorales 14y agoJobs was never a cool guy in my book. For me, Steve Jobs was an egocentric and self-centered. Elon is a visionary, just read this quote: “I came to the conclusion that we should aspire to increase the scope and scale of human consciousness in order to better understand what questions to ask. Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.” Steve isn't even near to the impact of what Elon will have on humanity.
- pork 14y agoWhat you can surmise from that is that they've both probably taken some acid in their lifetimes. If Jobs were alive and younger, he too would probably have been at Burning Man, place of many a revelation to the technologically inclined.
- nitrogen 14y agoYou don't need acid to say things like that, just Star Trek.
- psbp 14y agoComing to this conclusion on acid is much more gripping and powerful than while watching star trek.
- stcredzero 14y agoHe did too much LDS in the 60's.
- pork 14y ago
- it 14y agoSaying it that way makes it sound like a new retirement community. Why not say he would like to live on Mars? Maybe because it's a dead planet and not very livable.
- artmageddon 14y agoI think the point is that he knows while he still has many years of his life ahead of him, eventually he'll be faced with mortality, and when that time comes, he would like to have pushed humankind's ability to reach Mars to the point where he could step foot there, live for awhile, and eventually be buried there.
- stcredzero 14y ago> Why not say he would like to live on Mars? Maybe because it's a dead planet and not very livable. One could grow plants on Mars. It has close to a 24 hour day-night cycle, and enough sunlight. Growing plants on continental agricultural scales is infeasible with artificial light, but on Earth and Mars, you don't need that. All you need are pressurized greenhouses, and you could have full-blown agriculture on Mars. The industrial processes for creating polymer films from Martian resources on Mars to enable this have already been worked out. With some genetic engineering, we might not even need the greenhouses.
- codex 14y agoGiven Mars' weak gravitational field, extremely low atmospheric pressure, lack of breathable oxygen, deathly cold temperatures, and weak magnetic field (leading to high levels of radiation), he may well get his wish. Many others will likely get this wish against their will. If he would like to get a taste of realistic Martian colonization here on Earth, may I suggest living underground in a windowless tank, surrounded by a partial vacuum, next to a nuclear reactor.
- fghh45sdfhr3 14y agoWell you're just mister sunshine, aren't you.
- dredmorbius 14y agoWell, on Mars, he's Mr. 50% Earth-intensity sunshine. We call him "50-cent" for short.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoIf only humans had demonstrated some ability to construct defenses against hostile environments. You know, like they've done since the invention of fire and the construction of lean-tos.
- dredmorbius 14y agoYou snuggle up in your Martian lean-to while tending to your zero-oxygen, 1% atmosphere fire. I'll take Mr. Sunshine's pressurized, nuclear-powered, underground bunker.
- jfoutz 14y agoThe self sustaining communities in the middle of the sahara give me enormous hope for these types of projects. The self contained undersea habitats as well.
- mc32 14y agoWhere's the sense of adventure and romance in that? Lots of explorers of yore could have met with the similar arguments. Some people can stay behind and man/woman? the home front, others can go off to explore and expand our existence. Not that there's no cost to it, but let's hope, that overall, it's a net plus. As a species we have wanderlust built-in, perhaps.
- mej10 14y agoHow about... you know, not dying? At least in the foreseeable future. You can do a lot more awesome engineering and science and exploration if you don't die after ~80 years.
- dredmorbius 14y agoMy first thought: how about reproducing on Mars? Now to find a suitable Mr. & Mrs. Smith, if you grok me.
- kmfrk 14y agoif you grok me. How appropriately Heinlein. :)
- randallsquared 14y agoYou didn't quote enough.
- kmfrk 14y agoYou're right. I need to read that book this weekend.
- evoxed 14y agoMr. and soon-to-be-Mrs. Smith here. Where do we check our bags?
- ktizo 14y agoI think it is hard to foresee removing from the foreseeable future one of the few bits of the future that is foreseeable.
- MikeCapone 14y agoNot that hard to imagine and plan for: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/39 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/39 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8554766938711591377&hl=en http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8554766938711591377&... http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312367066 http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312367066 http://citywire.kuluvalley.com/view/E586AD51-418F-C8CE-442B-828A9164D788?vtguid=70B21F9A-4BCA-C090-62F2-F77C0B007FE2 http://citywire.kuluvalley.com/view/E586AD51-418F-C8CE-442B-... http://michaelgr.com/2011/10/24/aubrey-de-grey-on-the-diseases-of-aging-video/ http://michaelgr.com/2011/10/24/aubrey-de-grey-on-the-diseas...
- kilroy123 14y agoI sure hope SpaceX ends up being a success. I also hope, if successful, they put a lot of money toward research on carbon nano tubes. Hopefully, they or some other organization, could move towards building a space elevator sometime in the next 50-100 years.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoI'd really like to hear more about Google's rumored work on space elevators.
- shawnee_ 14y agoOn the assumption that people will be living on earth for some time, Musk is cooking up plans for something he calls the Hyperloop. He won’t share specifics but says it’s some sort of tube capable of taking someone from downtown San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. He calls it a “fifth mode of transportation”—the previous four being train, plane, automobile, and boat. “What you want is something that never crashes, that’s at least twice as fast as a plane, that’s solar powered and that leaves right when you arrive, so there is no waiting for a specific departure time,” Musk says. His friends claim he’s had a Hyperloop technological breakthrough over the summer. “I’d like to talk to the governor and president about it,” Musk continues. “Because the $60 billion bullet train they’re proposing in California would be the slowest bullet train in the world at the highest cost per mile. They’re going for records in all the wrong ways.” The cost of the SF-LA Hyperloop would be in the $6 billion range, he says. The estimated cost projections for the bullet train project keep getting bigger. I've seen estimates as high as $68 billion: and that is for construction alone (not including maintenance, etc). If Elon Musk can come up with a better idea, I hope we can remove enough of the red tape (that incidentally makes endeavors like this so expensive) to at least let him try.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThe California "high speed" rail project is depressing. In theory, I'm a huge fan of high speed rail. But the California project is going to end up costing over $100 billion, and everyone knows it. It's going to take decades to complete. If, indeed, it's ever completed. It's routed to go places no one wants to go. And, as Mr. Musk says, it' not actually going to be very fast. It's pretty much a classic textbook boondoggle. I wish they'd cancel it and start over again from scratch in 10 years. It could still be finished faster.
- dredmorbius 14y agoEven magabooster Quentin Kopp is strongly recommending they scrap it.
- stcredzero 14y ago> It's routed to go places no one wants to go. Big. Red. Flag. The Minneapolis light rail uses the same equipment as Houston's light rail. The big difference is that the Minneapolis light rail goes between the airport, downtown, and the Mall of America. People can immediately see its value. Houston's light rail doesn't go to either of Houston's airports, even though it's sorely needed.
- wooptoo 14y agoAt first I thought they were talking about Elop from Nokia and I thought to myself 'yap, we could send him to mars tomorrow'.
- vannevar 14y agoI love what Musk is doing, but both of his current engineering successes---Space X and Tesla---involve building well-understood vehicles, just faster and at less cost than competitors. Doing entirely novel projects like a manned mission to Mars or some new kind of mass transportation system are orders of magnitude more difficult and uncertain, and I think he's grossly underestimating the time and cost for either of his more ambitious new goals. I'd like to see him make plain vanilla space transportation and electric cars into business successes comparable to PayPal before he moves on to Mars and Hyperloop.
- eru 14y agoI also hope he'll be making lots of money on Tesla and SpaceX. I don't know whether he'll be able to make going to Mars pay, but the money he'll spend will do the market some good.
- robryan 14y agoI would like to see him do both. Even if the Mars stuff doesn't work out perfectly on his ambitious timeline SpaceX devoting resources to pushing the boundaries as well as refining the well known processes is going to create more innovation in the long run.
- vannevar 14y agoI would too, but in terms of immediate impact Tesla will have a greater social and economic significance for the planet than the Mars mission, and the company is really only getting started. I would hate to see Musk get bored with it and move on to a new toy while Tesla fails for lack of leadership.
- rdl 14y agoI'd prefer to not die, but dying on Mars would be ok if dying is necessary.
- dhughes 14y agoMy guess is it would be hard to not die on Mars, just keeping alive would be a challenge.
- dandrews 14y agoDying at Alcor seems preferable to dying on Mars.
- sonnenkiste 14y agoOld things should go away after some time and make space for new things. Dieing is the prefered way. As long as we have limited space and resources. ;o) Otherwise there will be no real development. We will more or less stuck in where we are.
- damoncali 14y agoEnough of the hero worship. If Musk gets on one of his rockets in 15 years and launches it towards Mars, he will certainly die. Long before he reaches Mars. Yes, he's a great, fascinating man. I enjoy observing this stuff as much as the next guy. But Good God - stop slobbering on yourselves. This is marketing fluff of the highest order.
- dasil003 14y agoIs it "of the highest order" because it's marketing something substantive?
- damoncali 14y agoExactly the opposite. It's the grand marketing of an even grander vision - the ultimate vaporware. Where people with can dream up supersonic aircraft that are massively more efficient than the highly refined subsonic craft that have been built by thousands of very smart people over decades. Where magic tubes will transport people near the speed of sound whenever they want for a mere $6B. Where the realities of space flight are to be ignored because, well, the leader of the venture is a really good business man and has a lot of charisma. Is this not the same hacker news where people get bent out of shape when Apple bends the truth on their iPhone marketing copy? Fuck Mars. I'm going to Jupiter. In 2015. The emperor has no clothes.
- untog 14y agoIs this not the same hacker news where people get bent out of shape when Apple bends the truth on their iPhone marketing copy? Er, no, it really isn't. The implication here is that he is actually working on these things, having had a "breakthrough" over the summer. It could be absolute crap, yes. But he has a number of previous successes that indicate he is capable of delivering. The overall point is that he isn't just dreaming, he is clearly spending a lot of money on doing as well.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
- jboggan 14y agoI have always told myself that ending my days on another planet will be an absolute definition of success for myself no matter what else I don't manage to accomplish. It's a sufficient but not necessary condition. In ten years I hope to be working in a business related to space exploration.
- badcrowd-JG-IW 14y agoDJ Lee Kalt. Vergeet hulle bestaan.
- greesil 14y agoOr maybe die on the way there. McCoy: Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull, and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait till you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding! Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. Substitute Andorian shingles with just going crazy being cooped up in a tiny ship.
- autophil 14y agoI would like to die on Mars. Oh brother. How come "shut up and just do it" applies to everyone but Elon? Why does he only have to talk about doing something to be hailed a hero? Start backing some of this stuff up with action Elon.
- blhack 14y ago>start backing this up with action Not sure if sarcastic... Elon Musk, as in: the guy who's company just ran a private reapply mission to /the international space station/.
- damoncali 14y agoI hate to break it to you, but everything NASA builds is built and operated by private companies. SpaceX is an incremental improvement on something that has been done for decades. That is a far cry from Musk's fantastic claims.
- jlgreco 14y agoHow do you propose he try harder?
- dasmoth 14y agoCommercially built: mostly true Commercially operated: much less so (with exceptions, e.g. shuttle processing was kind-of commercial) Commercially designed: nope. The commercial resupply contracts may not quite meet everyone's idea of what "commercial" means (and there certainly was/is a lot of NASA scrutiny of the spacecraft -- rather less of the launch vehicle), but it's still a substantially different model from anything NASA has tried on a major project in the last half century.
- damoncali 14y agoThis is just not true. NASA outsources pretty much everything to private companies. I designed NASA hardware myself while employed by a private company.
- the_mitsuhiko 14y agoI think dying on mars can be accomplished in a reasonable timely manner. Living on mars however might be hard.
- knodi 14y agoDon't worry Mr Musk, you won't have to die pretty soon.
- AYBABTME 14y agoI recently discovered who Elon Musk was and I'm always astonished to read about him, and realize that he seems to have all the dreams that I have; plus the money, the wisdom and the experience to accomplish them. I never had a model or a 'hero' in my life, but I find it hard to deny Elon this role. He's kind of imposing himself to me. For some parts, he pisses me off. He doing it removes me the feeling that my dreams were mine. On the other sides, my pride motivates me to accept his theft as a challenge to try at surpassing him. Now I'm only 25, so I guess I still have the time required to get on par, if I keep working hard enough.
- xal 14y agoInstead, go work for him. Go help make it all come true.
- jk4930 14y agoOr do a complementary business. Something SpaceX et al. could need.
- AYBABTME 14y agoWell, right now I'm still doing my undergrad and they (SpaceX) only take US citizens or permanent residents for internships and COOP terms (I assume because of the legal complications given the nature of their work). But I know your company does take interns and you guys are at a 5 mins walk from my campus. So on a short term side, I'm focused on building my skill set for an internship in your shop! (Sorry for the cheap plug!)
- maaku 14y ago> I assume because of the legal complications given the nature of their work. Unfortunately, yes. Google "ITAR aerospace" for why :\ Still, the American aerospace industry has a long and illustrious tradition of bringing in experts from around the world and getting them citizenship. Get an internship somewhere that isn't ITAR-restricted and get yourself on the fast track for a green card.
- 14y ago
- benl 14y ago"Hopefully not on impact"
- photorized 14y agoRe: “Boeing just took $20 billion and 10 years to improve the efficiency of their planes by 10 percent. That’s pretty lame. I have a design in mind for a vertical liftoff supersonic jet that would be a really big improvement.” I respect what the guy has done. But a vertical liftoff supersonic jet is going to be more difficult than anything he had encountered, including rockets.
- jlgreco 14y agoHis entire life seems to have been spent doing progressively harder things. I would be surprised if he decided what he is currently doing is as hard as it is going to get.
- philhippus 14y agoI wonder if the Hyperloop is a maglev propulsion system contained within a vacuum tube? That would essentially be space travel - on earth. It would also allow for efficient use of energy, as long as the vacuum could be easily maintained.
- kmfrk 14y agoThat's only until the TSA gets involved.
- mherdeg 14y agoIt always astonishes me that not only did Heinlein invent the Segway ("The Road Must Roll"), he also invented the idea of people like Elon Musk (as D.D. Harriman in "Requiem").
- stickhandle 14y agoa man of my generation sees a little of the Larry Ellison swagger about Elon Musk. I hope he does more.
- sfriedrich 14y agoGo Elon! Big vision. Big execution. They ARE delivering. Get's my motor revving.
- eckyptang 14y agoConincidentally, I actually had a rather lucid dream about this a few nights ago. I can see it is possible even with today's technology to get there and stay there. It's just a matter of cost and inclination. We need to send lots and lots of larger seed probes out there first though - not the limited scope probes and landers we're using now, but general purpose, long life scouting probes with engineering, tooling and life support payloads.
- Zenst 14y agoFor those who fiscaly are less likely to get to Mars and still wish to die on Mars can always read this and smile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-fried_Mars_bar on another less serious note I believe the chap in this news item will beat him too it: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/573673/mars-addict-lives-on-chocolate-for-17-years http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/573673/mars-addict-lives-on... Most people want to die in peace, but when you have to go to another planet to get peace then you just know noise polution has got a little bit out of hand.
- JVIDEL 14y agoI would like to die on Mars, just not on impact. Easy, remember a few years ago when some guys at NASA proposed that the first guys to Mars should be in their early 60s? That's because getting there is not the problem, the problem are the copious amounts of radiation you would absorb on the way which means that even if you make it back you probably wont live much more. So what those guys proposed was sending old astronauts on a one-way trip.
- gtirloni 14y ago"SolarCity, where Musk is chairman of the board, is a player in the residential and commercial solar markets, with more than 28,000 customers, and is expected to go public imminently at a value of about $1.5 billion." We're valuing crap, err FB, at $50 billion these days. Why is a company with actually something to offer to society getting valued at only $1.5bn ?