Science & Technology
Musk said that he expects humans will land on Mars in around six years, and that he's "fairly confident" in that timeline. That's based on the fact that Earth and Mars are in sync in terms of their relative orbits around the sun approximately every 26 months. SpaceX plans to do an uncrewed launch and landing on Mars hopefully at the next opportunity in about two years from now. He added that with luck, a first human landing could happen during the next Mars-Earth synchronization after that, in four years instead of six.
Asked when Musk's own first trip to orbit would happen, he answered "possibly two or three years," though he qualified that his primary focus is to ensure the technology is in place to enable "a lot of people to go to Mars and make life interplanetary, and to have a base on the moon," downplaying his own personal spaceflight goals.
He also reiterated his ambition to eventually be buried on Mars (though not due to accidental death on impact in a spacecraft crash) and talked about while he believes that becoming a spacefaring society is existential in his opinion, and will ultimately be necessary for human survival, he also hopes to make it fun, exciting and attractive rather than a necessary risk.
Starship is gearing up for its first big high-altitude flight test, as mentioned. It'll be flying at SpaceX's Texas development facility, and that test launch could happen as early as later this week, though the company still has to conduct a key static engine test fire of its prototype ahead of an actual flight.
Comment: See also:
- SpaceX launches 58 Starlink satellites and 3 Planet SkySats, nails rocket landing
- US 'not relying on Russia anymore' & keeping China on the outside: Trump campaign manager turns SpaceX launch into politics
- SpaceX signs testing agreement with US Army for use of Starlink communications network
- NASA awards contracts to Blue Origin, SpaceX & Dynetics to begin work on lunar landers; Boeing left out
- SpaceX loses third Starship prototype in cryogenic ground test
- SpaceX's Starship SN1 prototype blows up during pressure test on its Texas pad
- SpaceX satellites could blight the night sky, warn astronomers
Reader Comments
I find myself in disagreement with Musk about the way forward, but I've grown to accept that he's likely right about the future regarding transhumanism and humans as an interplanetary species. Even so, even if the neurolink ends up being free to everyone eventually, you'll find me hard-pressed to decide to artificially enhance myself in that way. I don't think we need it, but I also think a certain cross-section of humanity will demand it because they don't have a concept of the middle way and no concept of what humans are capable of as-is.
Remember the Kanamit voices from the classic Twilight Zone episode,To Serve Man? That sounded a heck of a lot like it was Mike Wallace but it was someone named Joseph Ruskin. I had always thought that Wallace had done the voices since he had a working relationship with CBS since the time he worked for the CBS radio network in the 40s(CBS was TV network Twilight Zone was broadcast on) and it sounded almost exactly like him![Link]
RC
Mars contains (according to what they tell us) 95% carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide is a gas consisting of one part carbon and two parts oxygen. It is one of the most important gases on the earth because plants use it to produce carbohydrates in a process called photosynthesis.
2019: Scientists Cook Up a New Way to Make Breathable Oxygen on Mars (from carbon dioxide)
[Link]
You can bet your ass that they have known how to create oxygen on Mars for over 40 Years or so.
NASA a private institution which is funded with billions and billions and more billions in taxpayer money, has lost the race to mars to Elon Musk, Musk a single person with no billions in tax payers money.. I'm very glad about that.
In his usual CGI style, I mean ...