| Author |
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Ferris_von_bueller
| | Posted on Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 06:27 pm: | 
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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hy-musk-subs idies-20150531-story.html
capitalism, my ass |
Pwnzor
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 09:24 am: |
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capitalism, my ass
So, are companies not supposed to capitalize on opportunities? My tax money is going to be used for all kinds of corrupt bullshit, so why not help fund this guy who is making great strides toward getting us off this rock?
NASA has been assigned to make muslims feel warm and fuzzy, so let Elon handle the space travel. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 09:43 am: |
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Sifo, scurvy, cannibals, extreme heat and cold, storms beyond description, methane bubbles that sink ships in an instant or suffocate crews, leaving the ship to sail on empty. ........ the Sea is a hostile environment for us land creatures.
If it was easy, everyone would do it. |
Reepicheep
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 09:49 am: |
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We need to get Mars self sustaining as the first step towards guaranteeing the survival of our species. I would expect it to take hundreds or maybe even a thousand years. Which is probably fast enough.
We are one "bad day" from extinction as a race. It is a low probability event in the short term, but it is a 100% probability event over the long term.
Short of massive breakthroughs in faster than light travel, they will all be basically one way pioneer missions. And I do have to say that we are further on FTL theory than I would have thought possible at this point (which isn't to say it will be possible to do it, just that people are figuring out ways it *might* be possible, which I wasn't expecting). |
86129squids
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 12:14 pm: |
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Whatever happened to the maglev railgun ideas I read about years ago? They at least could be used to beat the inertia load for takeoff- that to me seems to be what would eat the most fuel. Once the magnetic "slingshot" got the payload to its best velocity, THEN the secondary rockets would fire...
Where's that damn popcorn emoticon? |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 12:39 pm: |
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Great idea.
Now try and do the environmental impact statement.
Hawaii would be a good spot, but even the astronomers on top of the mountain would object to the sonic booms.
There are more ways to skin this cat than just rockets. But high speeds and rockets are needed. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 01:11 pm: |
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We need to get Mars self sustaining as the first step towards guaranteeing the survival of our species. I would expect it to take hundreds or maybe even a thousand years. Which is probably fast enough.
There are reasons that Mars is so inhospitable to life as we know it. Just to list a very few... Very little atmosphere. No oceans. No moon. No molten core, so no strong magnetic field. None of those things are easily fixed. |
86129squids
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 01:27 pm: |
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Ooops- forgot about cracking the sound barrier and stuff.
Carry on. |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 03:20 pm: |
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Crash a few comets onto Mars and gen mod plants. Long term project. Easier than Venus.
But Mars better have some stuff we need and don't know is there yet to make a base worthwhile.
Asteroid mining, that's where the money is. |
Sifo
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 03:31 pm: |
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Even if you start trying to create an oxygen atmosphere, it will get stripped away again by the solar wind. You need a magnetic field to help protect the planet from that solar wind, as well as other bad stuff that it protects you from. Even with that, being a much smaller planet, it will never sustain the atmosphere we have on earth. You would be lucky to get an atmosphere that would sustain consciousness. I won't even bother getting into the economics involved.
Why the concern about extinction of our species anyway? |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015 - 04:13 pm: |
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Human extinction wasn't My argument.
I'm the running dog lackey of the Capitalist pigs. I want us wealthy.
It would be wise not to have all the eggs in one basket, but that's a bigger subject.
A Lunar base underground will be more useful, initially than a Mars colony. First, we need to see if we can make solar panels there, ( shorter gravity well ) & find volatiles......... water by preference. Plenty out by Saturn. |
Ducley
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 01:51 am: |
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I would much rather ride to Mars on a rocket than across the ocean in an innertube.
Personally I would like to see another station at the L2 Lagrange point. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point)
A moon base may be necessary to generate fuel from water but whether to land and relaunch a full size ship vs a fueler to the Lagrange Point is probably just math.
We currently have steel and concrete buildings that are sealed and inhabited by people who live on one floor, work on another, shop on another and never need to leave. Not much different if that building were built down into a dormant volcano/crater.
All well and good to reduce the cost from Earth to orbit but at some point the manufacturing has to be done out there.
(Message edited by Ducley on December 31, 2015) |
Ducley
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 01:55 am: |
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How far are we from launching and landing a 10-12 foot diameter tunnel boring machine? |
Alfau
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 04:18 am: |
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Capitalist pigs
Donald Duck and Mitt Failed |
Alfau
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 04:26 am: |
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survival of our species. Is dependant on not breeding with sheep.
} |
Ferris_von_bueller
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 02:48 pm: |
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Solar Warden |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 03:40 pm: |
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Dudley.....
You need cheap orbital to get at the places to put industrial stuff.
I see the Robert Redford begging letters "please don't let the worst mine in history be allowed" ( or something like that ).
If it's a million bucks a pound in orbit it's cheaper to level mountains for ore. At a thousand bucks you can mine gold out there. At a few hundred you can mine nickel.
One mile wide nickel-iron asteroid brought back means you can turn every nickel & iron mine on the planet into an amusement park.
Heck, if there was oil on the moon............
People would be protesting the proposed pipeline.  |
Aesquire
| | Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2015 - 09:53 pm: |
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