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