SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years.

SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years.

If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years.

It is only possible to travel from Earth to Mars every two years, when the planets are aligned. This increases the difficulty of the task, but also serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth.

No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity. We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of great adventure.

Eventually, there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will a glorious sight to see! Can you imagine? Wow.

The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that, for example nuclear war, a supervirus or population collapse that weakens civilization to the point where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars.

One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship program is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year. This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America, which is why, for example, California has spent ~$7 billion dollars and several years on high-speed rail, but only has a 1600 ft section of concrete to show for it!

While I have many concerns about a potential Kamala regime, my absolute showstopper is that the bureaucracy currently choking America to death is guaranteed to grow under a Democratic Party administration. This would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity.

It cannot happen. Your help would be much appreciated. This is a fork, maybe the fork, in the road of human destiny.

Twitter/X

Amazing.

Elon is just a guy, with good and bad, but I am very happy he’s spending his billions to get us to Mars.

Some days it seems like we’re doomed as a species with all our waring and infighting.

Glad we have people still striving to reach new frontiers.

This is cool are they talking about landing them on Mars or just inserting them in orbit? If they are landing them they need to find the right balance and perhaps have supplies for future manned missions just in case.

Fascinating news but they need to try and speed up the process and work on Lunar missions.

But when the posts talks about the advantages of Mars distance from Earth being advantageous.

Why would we need to be so far away, unless it was something like a huge asteroid impact where there is debris punching a hole in the atmosphere

I hope they send some titanium alloy and 3D printers.

www.space.com...

Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

Elon knows....

So, five rockets will be ready in two years. Will those be returnable rockets or will they just land and provide material for future ''manned'' landings. Water supplies, food, three d printers, prefab habitats to be constructed, that sort of thing. Come on Elon, if you are going to try it, do it right.

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

Elon knows....

Pfft…

a reply to: lilzazz

What do you think Elon knows? Maybe that government funding for a useless moon escapade has dried up but government funding for a Mars escapade could still be flowing in his direction??

a reply to: pianopraze
I wonder if Elon is announcing this in part to counter China's recent statements that they will be accelerating their Mars mission by 2 years-now claiming their first launch "around 2028 instead of the original 2030 timeline."
That misiion is supposed to collect rock/dust samples-
www.scmp.com...

It would be awesome to see a space x starship on the surface of Mars,but i can't help thinking it may take longer than Elon is saying-just a wild guess.
Hope he gets there before China though!

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

...

Because it doesn’t make any sense. The Moon isn’t “on the way” to anywhere. It’s a gravity well. You have to burn rocket propellant to get down to the surface and to get back off. It’s a detour. If you want to go back to the Moon and explore it then you should go and do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which doesn’t include stopping at Mars first. Likewise, if you want to go and explore Mars, that doesn’t include stopping at the Moon first.

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

Elon knows....

Subterranean dinosaur-riding Nazi's of course.

I hope pianopraze's youtube link is from Iron Sky. I can't see it currently.

Send an AI robutt, some tools and equipment so it can fix itself while exploring around.

originally posted by: Boomer1947

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

...

Because it doesn’t make any sense. The Moon isn’t “on the way” to anywhere. It’s a gravity well. You have to burn rocket propellant to get down to the surface and to get back off. It’s a detour. If you want to go back to the Moon and explore it then you should go and do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which doesn’t include stopping at Mars first. Likewise, if you want to go and explore Mars, that doesn’t include stopping at the Moon first.

I don't know, but it takes a chitload of fuel to escape Earth's atmosphere.

I thought at one time, it was discussed to eventually build habitats on the moon and mine moon resources as a proof of concept to use on Mars. At one time there were talks of having ships launched from lunar orbit.

Wasn't H3 supposedly found in abundance? Plans were to mine the moon for resources and potentially build and launch probes and landers.

spacenews.com...

In a presentation at a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee Nov. 17, Lakiesha Hawkins, assistant deputy associate administrator in NASA’s Moon to Mars Program Office, said the company will have to perform Starship launches from both its current pad in Texas and one it is constructing at the Kennedy Space Center in order send a lander to the moon for Artemis 3.

SpaceX’s concept of operations for the Starship lunar lander it is developing for the Human Landing System (HLS) program requires multiple launches of the Starship/Super Heavy system. One launch will place a propellant depot into orbit, followed by multiple other launches of tanker versions of Starship, transferring methane and liquid oxygen propellants into the depot. That will be followed by the lander version of Starship, which will rendezvous with the depot and fill its tanks before going to the moon.

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Boomer1947

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

...

Because it doesn’t make any sense. The Moon isn’t “on the way” to anywhere. It’s a gravity well. You have to burn rocket propellant to get down to the surface and to get back off. It’s a detour. If you want to go back to the Moon and explore it then you should go and do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which doesn’t include stopping at Mars first. Likewise, if you want to go and explore Mars, that doesn’t include stopping at the Moon first.

I don't know, but it takes a chitload of fuel to escape lunar orbit.

I thought at one time, it was discussed to eventually build habitats on the moon and mine moon resources as a proof of concept to use on Mars. At one time there were talks of having ships launched from lunar orbit.

Wasn't H3 supposedly found in abundance? Plans were to mine the moon for resources and potentially build and launch probes and landers from there.

I remember that discussion. Lunar regolith can be use in giant 3D printers to make habitats and various other needed parts without requiring additives as it's largely silica.

originally posted by: Moon68

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Boomer1947

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

...

Because it doesn’t make any sense. The Moon isn’t “on the way” to anywhere. It’s a gravity well. You have to burn rocket propellant to get down to the surface and to get back off. It’s a detour. If you want to go back to the Moon and explore it then you should go and do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which doesn’t include stopping at Mars first. Likewise, if you want to go and explore Mars, that doesn’t include stopping at the Moon first.

I don't know, but it takes a chitload of fuel to escape lunar orbit.

I thought at one time, it was discussed to eventually build habitats on the moon and mine moon resources as a proof of concept to use on Mars. At one time there were talks of having ships launched from lunar orbit.

Wasn't H3 supposedly found in abundance? Plans were to mine the moon for resources and potentially build and launch probes and landers from there.

I remember that discussion. Lunar regolith can be use in giant 3D printers to make habitats and various other needed parts without requiring additives as it's largely silica.

Yeah I made a mistake I said escaping lunar orbit but I meant Earth's atmosphere, at one time we were suppoed to be able to build while in earth's orbit and some had suggested build and launch from the moon's orbit which would have required the moon base for fueling etc.

Exactly the 3D printers make the outer shell of the habitats and then pressurized airtight living quarters are constructed inside.

All are concepts that could be tested on the Moon and used on Mars too.

I wanted to see a moon base where we mine resources happen, but it sounds as if NASA isn't interested.

originally posted by: Moon68

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

Elon knows....

Subterranean dinosaur-riding Nazi's of course.

I hope pianopraze's youtube link is from Iron Sky. I can't see it currently.

It’s a fart joke from baked bean company, here’s link: YouTube link

On topic:
Elon says Starlink internet service is funding the program (ibed link in OP, just check comments)

By the way, our commercial Starlink program is the primary source of funding for Starship (NASA is helping too).

So thank for buying Starlink and supporting humanity’s future in space.

If you look closely at your Starlink router, you will notice that it has an illustration of the Earth-Mars transfer orbit.

originally posted by: BingoMcGoof
So, five rockets will be ready in two years. Will those be returnable rockets or will they just land and provide material for future ''manned'' landings. Water supplies, food, three d printers, prefab habitats to be constructed, that sort of thing. Come on Elon, if you are going to try it, do it right.

One should land, launch rovers, take samples and return. One should land and start making juel. The rest left in orbit full of supplies.

Orbit is better for supplies because how do you know where they will be needed. Land the supplies when the crews are in orbit and they are certain of the landing site.. Also they could call supplies down from orbit as needed. Some supplies like food, water, and fuel would be needed in Mars orbit for return trips to Earth.

The thinking to land them all is not flexible enough for any changes in plans. All that fuel used up just to find out you put them down a thousand miles from a better area.

The pick of landing site will be for resources to continue the construction on Mars.

You always need at least three rocket ships to Mars. One with only fuel, one with the crew, one as backup and return for the crew. You can't stop at a convenience store for snacks, gas and check the oil and wiper fluid on the way to Mars.

a reply to: BeyondKnowledge3

Yep, we are on the same page here just you are a few paragraphs ahead of me. Thanks.

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Moon68

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: Boomer1947

originally posted by: lilzazz
Why isn't the Moon being used as a platform to explore the Solar system?

...

Because it doesn’t make any sense. The Moon isn’t “on the way” to anywhere. It’s a gravity well. You have to burn rocket propellant to get down to the surface and to get back off. It’s a detour. If you want to go back to the Moon and explore it then you should go and do that in the most cost-effective way possible, which doesn’t include stopping at Mars first. Likewise, if you want to go and explore Mars, that doesn’t include stopping at the Moon first.

I don't know, but it takes a chitload of fuel to escape lunar orbit.

I thought at one time, it was discussed to eventually build habitats on the moon and mine moon resources as a proof of concept to use on Mars. At one time there were talks of having ships launched from lunar orbit.

Wasn't H3 supposedly found in abundance? Plans were to mine the moon for resources and potentially build and launch probes and landers from there.

I remember that discussion. Lunar regolith can be use in giant 3D printers to make habitats and various other needed parts without requiring additives as it's largely silica.

Yeah I made a mistake I said escaping lunar orbit but I meant Earth's atmosphere, at one time we were suppoed to be able to build while in earth's orbit and some had suggested build and launch from the moon's orbit which would have required the moon base for fueling etc.

Exactly the 3D printers make the outer shell of the habitats and then pressurized airtight living quarters are constructed inside.

All are concepts that could be tested on the Moon and used on Mars too.

I wanted to see a moon base where we mine resources happen, but it sounds as if NASA isn't interested.

I think the original thread got nuked as I'm unable to find it.

I had posted an article regarding a company winning a contract for printers to be used if it happened.