Billionaire Elon Musk outlines plans for humans to colonize Mars

Sounds like a good way to get irradiated.

Honestly I'd be down for a suicide mission to Mars. I'd get my name down in history no matter the outcome.

>>75141
i'd be down for it just to live out my dream of building a little society.

"You can't create a self-sustaining civilization if the ticket price is $10 billion per person," he said. "Our goal is to get it roughly equivalent to (the) cost of a median house in the United States, about $200,000."

Man, what a tough choice. Buy a house that could be an investment for my family's future, or spend the same amount of money on a suicide mission to Mars where my family will get to live knowing I died on a cold, dead rock 33 million miles away

How can I ever choose!?!?

>>75154
Same thing could be said about the colonists that left for America and Australia from England.

>>75156
>America and Australia
>Regions where people had already settled and been living in for thousands of years
>Same as a toxic wasteland of rust and carbon dioxide devoid of any life 33 million miles through the cold vaccuum of space

kek

Elon Musk can make rockets
how does this make him ready to lead and plan a mission ?

>>75154
>or spend the same amount of money on a suicide mission to Mars where my family will get to live knowing I died on a cold, dead rock 33 million miles away

Life is a suicide mission my man no matter what you do.
The difference is that if you were to go to Mars to set up a colony then you'd be one of the pioneers that will forever be remembered for your bravery and will to extend the human civilization towards the stars.

>>75163
Not if SpaceX's rockets keep blowing up without even reaching escape velocity.

>>75165
Oh that's what you meant with suicide mission.
Still, that is fixable. Its not like they're gonna send people to Mars the next Thursday but rather when the rockets are more reliable.

>>75129
>colonize Mars

Why though?

>>75166
I'm just questioning whether SpaceX will even get there. Good on them if they do, but I feel like it's ginna cost billions of dollars that could've gone to something more practical and beneficial within the next ~100 years.

Mars will take centuries to terraform, if it's even possible at all.

>>75168
Doubt terraforming is even possible on such a large scale at this time of our civilization.

My guess is that a Mars colony will be very "Hab module" centric for centuries if they do go through with their ideas for colonisation.

>>75168
>Terraform mars
It's not possible. Mars has no magnetic field, its molten core burned out millions of years ago. How do you hold an atmosphere in without a magnetic field?

>>75171
>>75169
See, this is exactly what I mean. Why even bother when we could use the same money and R&D to make progress here on Earth? Fuck knows we need all the help we can get on this express train to human extinction

>>75171
You can create an artificial magnetic field. Hell you could use artificial light and mirror arrays to increase the effect of the sun on mars.

It's not technical challenge so much as it is a massive engineering challenge.

>>75168
I still think colonizing the upper atmosphere of Venus is a better idea than colonizing Mars.

>Closer to the sun for more solar energy
>An actual atmosphere
>Moderate temperatures at the altitude with Earth like pressure
>Close to Earth gravity
>Floating cloud cities

>>75173
"See, this is exactly what I mean. Why not to just put all the eggs in one basket. Because this is most def the right choice to make."

There are too many who simply act selfish that they will end up killing eachother in the pursuit of power and self-interest here on Earth. If the nuclear buttons are pressed, all your "here on Earth" developments willl be expunged in a few moments. This is why it is dangerous to only be here on Earth.

But of course, there always will always be cynical smartasses, who will come along and start criticizing anything they can to try to sound smart and to feed their ego, and to try to destroy others hopes and ambitions to feel good about themselves. (And sometimes even make a career out of it, mind you!)
But we won't let anyone ruin our dreams. Especially those who do so for selfish, personal benefit.

>>75182
Also,
>muh, but nuclear buttons will never be pressed, because it won't benefit anyone

Well, they can be pressed. There's something called the Hobbesian trap in game theory, which can lead to a nuclear exchange. And given how many in the positions of power act selfish, cowardly and outright evil, one wouldn't be surprised if such a situation occured.

But of course, you can deny, then rationalize, and then suffer from cognitive dissonance, which is predictable. But those who understand the gravity of the situation (such as Elon) do things which are right to do.

>>75182
Nuclear warfare wouldn't result in an extinction level event. They would most likely result in a lot of casualties, both from the explosion and the destruction of infrastructure, but it wouldn't make the surface of the world uninhabitable.

I think a much more plausible extinction level event would be a large asteroid, solar flare, or star going supernova too close to our solar system.

>>75146
This. It takes only 20 un related people (10 males and 10 females) to repopulate the whole earth.

One of my fantasies is to be randomly selected for a 20 people colonization expiation in which we, the 20, must repopulate a whole planet. Of course assigned to partners and everyone is at least a 7.5.

>>75187
Expedition*

>>75154
Anon, there are plenty of crazies who would want to take that suicide trip to mars, but they can't fork out billions to make it happen. At $200,000, I'm sure you could convince 10,000 faggots to go waste away on the red planet.

>>75187
less than 150 of an animal species is considered functionally extinct. there have been many little island colonys with less than 20 founders and they are all fucked up genetically.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Tristan_da_Cunha

this silly little place is a good example. Its literately the text book definition of the founders effect.

>>75129
I don't know what it is with the obsession to colonize the surface of another planet.

Economically, it makes much more sense to establish orbital space colonies around celestial bodies with O'Neil type colonies.

You only have to contend with one gravity well (the home planet, Earth) instead of two (Earth and Mars), which lowers your delta V and consequently the cost of transportation between the two.

Resources are in far more abundance, greater purity, and more easily extracted in space (asteroids) than on a planetary body with serious gravity.

You can actually control gravity in an orbital space colony (rotate the colony to simulate gravity through the centripetal force) along with other environmental factors, so you can have an environment perfectly suited for human development.

You can also fit way more people on space colonies than you can on planetary colonies. Mars it smaller than Earth, so using Mars as a way to ease the pressure of overpopulation on Earth would be very temporary. Orbital Colonies, due to being hollow (while planets are solid), require far less resources to house the same amount of people as they would be living inside the hollow part. 100 billion people in space is very feasible.

Most importantly, what would even entice people to Mars, other than just for the adventure? There isn't anything rare to be extracted or specialized types of manufacturing that can be done exclusively on Mars.

>>75185
>Nuclear warfare wouldn't result in an extinction level event

Exactly what I was talking about m8. Denial, rationalizations, cognitive dissonacne.
Denying the fact that our civilization is at great risk surely feels better than looking that truth in the eyes, doesn't it?
But sometimes, it's better to accept a hard truth.

It's more likely than not that our civilization, here on Earth, will severely decline, through a series of wars and resource shortages. You can't have unlimited growth in a closed system. Space offers the possibility of expansions and further survival.
And this is the best case scenario. The worst case is an outright nuclear exchange, which will happen sooner or later.

Putting all the eggs in one basket isn't a good idea, m8. It never was. And this is what we were doing by deciding to stay here on Earth.

>>75196
There aren't enough nukes on the planet earth to make the surface uninhabitable. There weren't enough nukes even at the height of the Cold War when we had the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons. Also, just to be clear I wasn't arguing against any of the other stuff you were saying, just that nukes wouldn't cause human extinction.

I would colonize Mars just to get away from the normies

>>75129
> colonizing a planet with 1/3 the gravity of earth

We physically can't get a boner in space. Has anyone done the dong science behind how much gravity we do need to get ready for action?

Also how would they compensate for a fetus growing in such an environment?

>>75182
Nuclear annihilation isnt actually physically possible. Science proved that a long time ago. Nuclear winter is also a fantasy
Youd need a ridiculous, impossible arsenal.

>>75196
Stop watching so many movies. You are probably poor and uneducated. Use Google. These studies were done decades ago, otherwise youd still be taught duck and cover at High school tomorrow

>>75195
A fellow Gundam fan I see. Still, you are right. But eventually one day we will build colonies around other planets in order to terraform them. Gotta get closer to the resource rich asteroid belt. Thats the real appeal of Mars

>>75239
>>75240
People like you will be the first to die from the fallout.

>>75187
>and everyone is at least a 7.5
Well that takes you out of the equation.

>>75182
What if we spent SpaceX's millions and R&D on nuclear disarmament and use the money to promote the safety features and benefits of deploying nuclear plants as a source of clean energy (which it is)? What then, nuclear doomsayer? QED BTFO is what, negrumps

>>75264
Disarmament isn't a matter of money. Do you think the US can go "hey Russia, we'll pay for the destruction of all your nukes, so let us at it'."

>pretending terraforming is a viable option

I don't study atmospheric sciences (physics) but I don't see how we can even begin to consider terraforming planets. From what I've gathered from an atmospheric studies colleague of mine, we can barely make sense of our own atmosphere.

For example, just look at the climate change debate, most scientists agree that manmade greenhouse gases are causing climate change, but few agree on the mechanisms that cause the changes or even the nature of the changes.

But if there's something that we truly need to look at as proof, look at the two Biosphere experiments. They tried to artificially create environments for people to live in, and both times many complications arose and both were ended early. It's been awhile since I've read about them, but IIRC all the complications came from miscalculations and others form things they didn't account for. And this is a much easier experiment than terroforming, this is like creating a microclimate within a bubble, let alone trying to stick gases onto a planet.

Give us another 200 years of science and then maybe it will be a useful discussion

Who will win on Mars? The blacks or the JOHJ

>>75129
but how are they going to account for lag in the Mars V.S. Earth CS:GO competition? It's like 900,000 ping or some shit.

>>75187
Nah brah. It's closer to 30,000. (source: something Asimov wrote)

If you only have 20 people, the odds are really really high that there are pathogens out there to which none of them are immune. Then if their society EVER runs into such a disease, BAM: human race out.

>>75358
>something Asimov wrote
And an episode of TNG said that only 50 were required. Your move.

>>75372
Are you talking about the one with the clones and the other colony where Riker gets laid with the Irish-sounding lass?

Or the one where the star is going to destroy the secret colony where everyone is born with a job and Troi fucks the leader of the planet and the planet is about to be destroyed by stellar debris unless the Enterprise intervenes and evacuates them?

>>75374
The one with the Irish chick, definitely. I think it's Crusher who says it while proposing a program of intense polygamy.

>>75185
Seriously, those late 1900s nuclear/hydrogen bombs are like 50 megatons powerful and you say it wont make the planet habitable? Lol its been like 4 decades since that. Im pretty sure they have a way more powerful bombs than 50 megatons these years. Pretty sure it wouldnt just make the planet unhabitable but probably crack the planet on half (overexaggeration but to get my point)

>>75173
The moonshot gave us buttloads of new tech. Marsshot would be no different. It's pure R&D.

>>75358
Isn't Asimov the same guy who wrote that short story where a billiard ball rolling through a zero gravity field magically picked up enough kinetic energy to achieve escape velocity?

>>75372
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a10369/how-many-people-does-it-take-to-colonize-another-star-system-16654747/

>>75372
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320707002534

>>75409
Except the former was carried out by NASA, who was obligated to share their R&D tech with the world. SpaceX is a private business and has no obligation to mass-produce anything it develops outside of profit.

>>75154

well gosh buddy maybe the guy isnt appealing to people that are fucking married with kids?

>>75197
>>75240

>these people literally exist

so what shitty liberal college does your safe space reside in?

>>75449

this is a dumb post

>>75232

These are the kind of questions that we will decide to actually find out the answers to when we get to them.

>>75187
I thought it was 7 males & 16 females.... (source: The Matrix Reloaded)

>>75290
In probs like 5 centuries or more terraforming would be a thing, if humans would last that long

>>75449

Somehow, I don't think that NASA (a single government's space agency) was at all obligated to share jack shit with anyone besides the US Government. Especially at the time of the space race (the whole "Cold War" thing kinda got in the way of that).

>>75290
We are barely even a type I civilization (kardashev scale). I'm pretty sure it would take a crap ton lots of energy to even just terraform a small planet.

>>75171

With gravity, I imagine.

The magnetic field problem is more an irradiation one, and that's difficult to fix, although you could build colonies underground.

>>75264

You can't disarm, due to a phenomenon called Mutually Assured Destruction.

>>75181
This!

We should send all the corporate elite to a luxury cloud city on Venus. Then they can feel in charge and all we'll have to do is send them food.

>>75564
They can grow their own food, sunlight isn't a problem. All we'd need to send them is water, Venus is dry as fuck.

>>75449
We're talking about the guy who released Tesla's electric motor patents just to further his own futurism dreams. Guy made the world play ball.

>>75167
Because it's there.

>>75240
The only reason duck and cover isn't taught is because we no longer reassure ourselves by pretending to prepare for nuclear war, but instead by telling ourselves that nuclear war will never happen.

>>75402
Bombs haven't really progressed much since then. The Tsar Bomba was originally supposed to be 100 MT, not 50, so we have the technology to make one that's 100 MT, there's just no incentive to. A larger number of smaller nukes would make more sense anyway.

>>75181
Too bad the atmosphere of Venus is caustic as all fuck and there wouldn't be any gain to colonization. the whole point of colonizing mars is for the land.

>>75591
Plus it's atmosphere is 100 times our atmosphere's size.

>>75194
Turns out it would actually be 500 people and the males don't have to breed with more than one woman as long as everyone has at least 3 off spring

>>75564
I don't think people that only seem to care about themselves and their bank accounts would give up their money and their life for the pursuit of science and exploration. IIRC businessmen didn't come to north america for the first couple trips

Siberia and Antarctica are basically empty, full of resources, but it's all about the prestige, isn't it?

>>75129
Musk browses /pol/ regularly and is redpilled.
This Mars colony will prove as a final, unassailable bastion of a dispossessed white race. It makes perfect sense.
The Jews can't attack fucking Mars.
And when the technology improves enough with help via eugenics these White pioneers can return the earth and reconquer it for the white race creating a monoracial white world as it is the destiny of the white man. Musk is playing a power move and undertaking the ultimate kike stumping.

>>75181
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Atmosphere_and_climate

>Venus is often said to resemble traditional accounts of Hell

TOP KEK

>>75824
>Upper atmosphere

>>75129
What a waste of money. There is nothing there that isnt more abundant here. He should spend his money on controlling population growth in the third world and making deserts more inhabitable.

>>75705
I think I've heard of that before somewhere...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jth4yATniS4

>be an MD, PhD, specializing as a surgeon
>background in theoretical physics and biomedical science
>realize that the mars colony will require lots scientists and physicians

I wonder what kind of people they need for their missions. I'd volunteer to go to colonize mars in a heartbeat

>>75129
Any possibilities for internet access on Mars yet?

>>75181
the atmosphere consists of sulfuric acid clouds

nothing organic can exist there

>>75672
I was thinking the same, it would be better, and easier, to colonize Antarctica.

>>75160
Engineering all that shit is all there really is. How can you engineer a rocket without knowing its mission?

A better question is, why the fuck would anyone want to live on Mars?

>>75239
No, it's going to be just like fallout 4, nub. I personally will be in the BoS.

>>75409
Like? Name one thing we achieved from going to the moon that we couldn't have achieved if we just stopped right at the launchpad and said, 'wait, this is fucking stupid, guys.'

>>76190
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

>>76190
That it is possible, and that being a coward is not how to get things done.

>>75569
>venus is dry
>so is mars
>>75591
>land
land for what? unless there are shallow veins of metals land is useless
>>75181
>>75591


The only bodies in the solar system with value are Luna, Venus, Mars, Europa, and Titan. If you think long term Mars would make a great waypoint to outer bodies, while venus would just make a good colony.

I believe Jupiters moons are the real end goal so I support mars, but venus is clearly a better short term goal

>>75154
Too easy. Take a large loan out, say it's for a house. Use that loan to leave the planet with a group of men and women. Slowly kill off majority of the men until there are a few left. The fear of knowing they're all go in to die would have taken root in everyone's heart by now. Convince the remaining men that you're all going to die, and remind them that rape is legal on Mars. Spend your remaining days alive raping women non-stop.

There's no way this can go wrong for you. It's basically a $200,000 ticket to Sexville. Plus, you'll lose your virginity on Mars, which is legendary.

my family is sick of me they're going to send me to mars I just know it :(((((

>>75195
This. Plus terraforming is ethically unsound.

>>76237
Move out of their basement then you fucking degenerate.

>>75580
Best answer

>>76216
Mars' soil is mostly iron oxide, isn't it? This presents a challenge for growing crops (unless you want to bring all of the necessary soil from Earth) but it CAN be done. Look at the Dole plantation, for instance. Sugar cane for fucking days

>>76236
Yeah when you apply for a mortgage the bank just hands you a sack of money, that's it. I didn't even need to get to your virginity comment to know you're 13.

>>75195
Where are you getting the idea that orbital colonies can house larger populations than planetary colonies? Do you have any idea how tiny space ships are? How much effort would have to go into expanding the orbital colony? You would need to get the metal from somewhere, namely whatever planet you are orbiting. You have to dig the materials out of the ground, process it, expel the waste from said process, manufacture it into something usable, then lift it into space, and,- assuming you did all of this without fucking up - attach a module MAYBE the size of a trailer to your orbital station. Wouldn't it be so much simpler to just build on the ground?

Speaking of efficiency, let's talk gravity. You need gravity to survive. Why spend resources on artificial gravity when you can use the gravity of an entire planet? Sure, Mars may not have the gravity of Earth, but it is a helluva lot better than what any spacecraft can provide!

>>76329
It would be more efficient to mine metals from asteroids than to ship it from a gravity well.

>>76337
Asteroids are thousands and even millions of miles apart from one another. Are you planning to shift the space station everytime you need an add on or do you plan to have frieghters or caravans or whatever ship the materials back and forth?

>>76340
Remote controlled drone mining ships.

>>76342
What does that solve? The drones still need fuel and to carry all of the resources. Someone needs to manage and operate the drones, which given the distances being dealt with in space would be a disaster given how delicate work in space is. More importantly, it doesn't solve the issue of how resources need to be expended to get from place to place as opposed to being able to be built relatively on the spot.

>>76345
Hydrogen fuel collected from the ice water on asteroids. We have computers that can manage the calculations of orbital mechanics. Apart from maybe electronics most of the resources can be made in space.

>>76348
Once again, in comparison to just doing it on a planet!
Planets offer opportunity to expand, space doesn't. Planets offer more resources than asteroids. I am sure that asteroids will be mined and used for space stations, but they will only be a halfway point - a resting stop to get to the much more desirable planetary destinations

>>76318
But they do you stupid nigger. This is super easy. Watch, I'll do it as a gesture to prove you wrong. 10 years from now you'll hear about the complete failure of the Mars mission. I will be the reason why they never send people back. Mark my words.

>>75163

Thing is, Mars will probably be leapfrogged a la Mass Effect in the next hundred years or so.

"Once considered a prospect for terraforming and colonization, the discovery of faster than light travel turned Mars into a quiet backwater. "

Tech will jump way past a scenario of Mars being useful in any way (and it isn't to begin with, really) and all those people will have died for nothing.

Which is probably for the better really, kill off a herd of retards who have no foresight.

>>75880
I think that's venus

>>75129
Fuck it, I'd go. Don't even care if I make it, I just want to go to space.

>>76216
I agree that Jupiters moons are the real end goal but I don't think Venus is feasible.

We haven't figured out how to settle and use all of the oceans, deserts, and ice caps here. We'll need to go somewhere substantially Earthlike to seriously consider colonization.

I think finding a way to make our oceans habitable is going to be the first real step towards any sort of orbital colonies.

>>76402
OH man, im so impressed about your ever so smart idea. Let's hope that all the men sent up there are fags like you and all women are submissive. Yeah, lets hope that happens

>>75348
create a some sort of super stadium in space between earth and mars and just play LAN

>>75187
>anon goes to mars to get laid.
i dont get it, a trip to another planet that might result in your death for witch you need to train years to be in physical form just to endure getting there, you need some special talent/education so you can fit a certain role AND they want you to pay for it?
Am i missing something here?

>>75129
kek. he cant figure how to keep his car from crashing on autopilot and now he is going to lead us to mars. mysides.jpg

>>76425
Mars rednecks, left to the wilds with what technology they have after faster travel to better, greener pastures is discovered. I like the idea, just some shitty groups of once rich families living in degraded bio-domes jury rigged just to the point of not falling apart.

>>75171
Paraterraforming maybe.

>Mechanical Engineering Student
>Junior Year, will graduate in 2018
>Physically fit
>No ambition to live a typical lifestyle (kids, wife, home)

Is this for me? Do I sign up?

>>75187
No.

No.

No.

Thousands of couples are required for safe levels of genetic diversity.

>>76734
But without inbreeding, how do we create a race of martian super-mutants?

>>76734
fewer if you carry frozen sperm and or ovum

and a crew of mostly women, who don't mind having 10+ kids each

and closely monitored breeding

better get some nanny bots too

only redeeming factor Mars has over the Moon is a higher G

except you can get rescued from the Moon, you can't from mars

they should be building a colony on the moon to perfect and create new ways of doing so long term

>>76349
Gravity Wells are a bitch, It's easier and cheaper to not work in them

Massive,shielded space stations with rotating habitat rings are where it's at, those would be about the only safe place to have a child in space, Sorry you womenfolk are gonna have to literally stay in the kitchen and have babies

Space is not friendly to delicate biological processes

>>75187
>>76734
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1936-magic-number-for-space-pioneers-calculated/

you need 80 people apparently (with controls on who breeds with who)

WITHOUT INBREEDING

>>76739
See these are the things we really need to consider. Thanks anon for finally addressing this

>>76755
interesting idea. i wonder how much the cost of a moon prototype would be, and if the lessons learned would be worth the cost. or if it makes sense to just plan big, and shoot to mars.

either way, it's gonna be interesting when one of those rockets goes flinging off, out of control, into the dark void of space

So when do we get to start Fracking on Mars then? :)

>>75194
Inbred. Genepool so small you can trace it to the exact person. Leeches off the UK because it's completely useless.

>>75129
>Not sending the 0,0001% with the best genetic load
Does he hate mankind?

>>75196
Nukes have gotten smaller and lighter since they were developed
More efficient that way

>>75232
Source on your space boner or lack thereof

Well touch me wrong and call me Bob the Builder! Let's go get some Mars stuff!

>>76723
Exactly the same profile, see you there buddy!

>>75129
God, that would be the adventure of a lifetime and being a part of history. But I have too much of a Instinct for self preservation to go.

Can't wait to vacation at Mars when I'm 60+ I'll treat the red planet like old people today treat Florida.

Can you imagine us being the last generation to live at a time when all humans were on one planet? Future people will wonder about our simple time with our one planet population that celebrated the first baby step on Mars. Like how we look back on early European Pilgrims that saw the Atlantic Ocean as a extremely deadly 3 months long trip to America.

Virtual Reality, real Martians, pet robots like Cozmo that learn and adapt. About time the future technology we were promised started!!

>>75167
To pave the road for interplanetary travel and colonization, so we can colonize Europa so we can exploit Jupiter for its resources

>>75129
Wait but why has a good collection of articles on the topic
http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/09/spacexs-big-fking-rocket-the-full-story.html

>>76188
>Be NEET
>Be depressed
>Have chance to do something extraordinary with your life
really, why ont?