Hurry Up Elon!

Heads Up Mr Musk-if the space race between private companies isn't enough of a challenge for you how about a different kind of competitor..

China.

China’s plans for the future of space exploration include a Mars base, planetary development, and a ‘sky ladder’ to transport cargo.
The first of a three-step plan involves androids launched to take samples of Mars and look for the location of a Mars base site, said Wang Xiaojun, head of the state-owned China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) at the Global Space Exploration Conference, as reported by Global Times.
Following that will be a manned Mars mission to develop the base, while the third stage will be transporting cargo fleets from Earth to Mars to construct a community on the planet; the current timetable schedules these launches approximately every two years from 2033 until 2043.
A potential fourth stage – a “sky ladder” that could reduce the cost and time spent travelling to Mars – is also being developed, but it is unclear how much progress has been made yet.

news.yahoo.com...


My parents generation who saw the moon landings live on TV thought we would all be going on moonbase holidays by now-and we really should be if the reasons for the first space race would have been genuinely built on the desire to expand and explore-rather than being so co-opted by the politics and cold war of the day.
Will the teenagers of today get to retire on the moon,or go to work on a Martian base?
Maybe but one thing is for sure-
Whomever dominates space will also have massive influence over the shape of our future down here on Terra Firma.

And to me at least it looks like the main competitors will be US/SpaceX/NASA/ESA/UK/Israel/India vs China/Russia/Iran.
I think(sadly)we will see this competiton become more tense rather than a peaceful coexistence in space-because all the players know whoever can make the most money from space resources/habitats will be more able to dominate the Earth.

So get a move on Elon-I know you are mega rich,but you ain't "China mega rich" and they are planning big things with their limitless funds.

Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Realistically, everything on mars can kill you so even the slightest mistake will be deadly.

Colonist will look forward to things like...

High radiation levels
Low gravity
Nearly nonexistent atmospheric pressure
No food
No water
Early miserable deaths

I love space exploration as much as the next guy, can't hardly wait for the Webb telescope to get in orbit, but honestly the human race has not conquered the technical problems required to colonize another planet.

But hey. The USA has critical race theory. USA USA USA…

a reply to: Bluntone22

Could be some undiscovered nasty micro organisms which our immune system wouldn't recognise?

a reply to: Bluntone22

High radiation levels
Low gravity
Nearly nonexistent atmospheric pressure
No food
No water
Early miserable deaths

No cinnamon crunch is enough for me not to go.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse

Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

Dark times... especially for the American space race.

NASA has gone WOKE, and we all know what that means.

To beat China "Globalist"... Elon will need to pull a rabbit out of his hat. NASA is distracting SpaceX from Mars with their Artemis program. Meanwhile, China is racing to Mars.

SpaceX was the last hope, till government/politics got involved.

NASA Artemis:
During the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar .

originally posted by: Grenade
a reply to: Bluntone22

Could be some undiscovered nasty micro organisms which our immune system wouldn't recognise?

It's not likely that any martian lifeform would be compatible with any earth lifeform unless we share some common origin.

But who knows?
We won't know until someone finds out

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse


Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

Not sure where you got that idea.

The budget that NASA is currently working under is Fiscal Year 2021. It was passed under Trump and the previous Congress. Trump had asked for about a 12% increase in NASA’s budget for FY21 but Congress cut that to a 3% increase.

Biden has requested a 6.6% increase for NASA for FY22; Congress obviously hasn’t acted on it yet.

Congress ultimately controls the budget, not the President.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Realistically, everything on mars can kill you so even the slightest mistake will be deadly.

Colonist will look forward to things like...

High radiation levels
Low gravity
Nearly nonexistent atmospheric pressure
No food
No water
Early miserable deaths

I love space exploration as much as the next guy, can't hardly wait for the Webb telescope to get in orbit, but honestly the human race has not conquered the technical problems required to colonize another planet.

All that is true for now,but if we continue the speed of tech development we may get there sooner rather than later I hope.
But for sure remote ops/robots will be a huge part-imagine the first company/country to be able to mine asteroids for metals.
That would change the global economy,and take us out of the "closed system" we currently inhabit-giving us vastly more resources without trashing our Earth to extract them.
I also imagine a huge robotic operated farm of some kind on the moon maybe underground using lights/solar power to generate huge amounts of food-not only for the moonbase dwellers,but also for us back on earth.

It seems to me one of the biggest ways we accelerating our demise is the over consumption of resources here on Earth.
If we can bring in resources from outside earth,we instantly get a huge percentage jump in our species survival chances for the future.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Realistically, everything on mars can kill you so even the slightest mistake will be deadly.

Colonist will look forward to things like...

High radiation levels
Low gravity
Nearly nonexistent atmospheric pressure
No food
No water
Early miserable deaths

I love space exploration as much as the next guy, can't hardly wait for the Webb telescope to get in orbit, but honestly the human race has not conquered the technical problems required to colonize another planet.

We will shield ourselves against radiation
Low gravity is just helpful
atmospheric pressure we can overcome
Food we will make
Water we will find
Babies will be born.
We will fail
but in time we will succeed

a reply to: Spacespider

Low gravity is not helpful.
It does all kinds of nasty things to a human body long term and I can't imagine what it will do to a developing fetus.

As for the rest...
NASA $23 million to develop a toilet so I wouldn't be making any plans to immigrate to mars any time soon.

You might get lucky and find water but I would definitely plan on taking you own instead.

originally posted by: 1947boomer

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse


Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

Not sure where you got that idea.

The budget that NASA is currently working under is Fiscal Year 2021. It was passed under Trump and the previous Congress. Trump had asked for about a 12% increase in NASA’s budget for FY21 but Congress cut that to a 3% increase.

Biden has requested a 6.6% increase for NASA for FY22; Congress obviously hasn’t acted on it yet.

Congress ultimately controls the budget, not the President.

To be fair I think I may have got the info wrong there-I was watching a congress hearing for NASAs budget the other day,and one of the NASA guys was complaining that Biden had cut funds for the (artemis?)lander and he was saying it was possibly a dig at the last president.
I think also NASA want more than the 6.6% of Bidens request.

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse

originally posted by: 1947boomer

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse


Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

Not sure where you got that idea.

The budget that NASA is currently working under is Fiscal Year 2021. It was passed under Trump and the previous Congress. Trump had asked for about a 12% increase in NASA’s budget for FY21 but Congress cut that to a 3% increase.

Biden has requested a 6.6% increase for NASA for FY22; Congress obviously hasn’t acted on it yet.

Congress ultimately controls the budget, not the President.

To be fair I think I may have got the info wrong there-I was watching a congress hearing for NASAs budget the other day,and one of the NASA guys was complaining that Biden had cut funds for the (artemis?)lander and he was saying it was possibly a dig at the last president.
I think also NASA want more than the 6.6% of Bidens request.

The government has too much control over how nasa spends its budget which leads to many cost overruns and wasted time and money because of a change of direction.
Biden requested a $1.5 billion increase in the nasa budget and a $300 million increase in the Artemis budget.
Unfortunately trump requested $3 billion for the lunar landing system and was only approved for $850 million.
Even if all of Biden’s extra requested money went to the lander program it would still be lower than trumps request.

Politicians need to get the hell out of nasa.

originally posted by: imitator

originally posted by: Silcone Synapse

Oh and also if the US could maybe elect a more pro NASA president instead of one who cuts NASA funding just because Trump increased it, like a whiny petulant child-well that would be great.Thanks.

Dark times... especially for the American space race.

NASA has gone WOKE, and we all know what that means.

To beat China "Globalist"... Elon will need to pull a rabbit out of his hat. NASA is distracting SpaceX from Mars with their Artemis program. Meanwhile, China is racing to Mars.

SpaceX was the last hope, till government/politics got involved.

NASA Artemis:
During the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar .

Sending in the expendables? Karen and Tyrone?

a reply to: Bluntone22

Sure, but the "how" is just a matter of time.. perhaps not our generation or the next.. but we will get there and beyond I am sure.


We have to

All civilizations become either spacefaring or extinct.
CARL SAGAN

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: Spacespider

Low gravity is not helpful.
It does all kinds of nasty things to a human body long term and I can't imagine what it will do to a developing fetus.

"Zero-G" or "microgravity" is nasty and has harmful effects on humans over the long term.

But, do we really know the effects of Mars gravity on humans? I don't think we know that yet. We know it's not "microgravity".

a reply to: Arbitrageur
I have read some people think that if humans got to the stage where we lived and had kids on Mars,those kids would not be able to return to Earth because the gravity would be too much for their bones/organs.

I bet other strange things would happen as well-maybe Mars kids would grow bigger than earth kids as they are under less gravity?

We may end up with a race of giant humans-but ones who are not able to return to the planet of their ancestors.

Probably should send a group of chimps first,see how things go.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Well since we haven’t had anyone in low gravity long term it’s only theory.
Mars is approximately 1/3 earths gravity so it wouldn’t be a big stretch to think it will have negative long term effects.

I’ve always felt a long term moon base would be a much better study on off world living than Mars.
Very similar situation to Mars but close enough to possibly rescue people should something go wrong.
The moon would also allow the long term effects outside of earths magnetic field so be studied.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

China is not a private "company".

Total fair game, Space.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

Elon sucks!

Why hasn’t everyone figured this out??

He is a tard. Sorry to offend anyone but he is about that intelligent. And I will never cut him slack because he is rich!

You want to be known as an “industry leader” then lead!!