• b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      3 days ago

      They have done zero work on actual habitation. It would make more sense to make life on earth sustainable. If you can’t do that you have zero chance of sustained life on a planet as hostile as Mars.

  • Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Mars is an uninhabitable hellscape that I sincerely hope Musk and his billionaire friends colonize so that they all become one with Martian soil

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I think the average person (and average Musk acolyte) doesn’t grasp how hard spaceflight is, much less sustainably living there.

    Colonizing the bottom of the ocean would be orders of magnitude easier. Or the South Pole. Or Kīlauea’s open lava pit.

    The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human/plant bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.

    …Look, I’m all for science mission there, but “escaping” to Mars is the wildest fantasy. A few years ago I’d say Musk was lying or exaggerating, but I think he’s actually drinking the Kool-Aid, and doesn’t even understand the basics of modern spaceflight.

    • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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      18 hours ago

      Colonizing the bottom of the ocean would be orders of magnitude easier. Or the South Pole. Or Kīlauea’s open lava pit.

      While it is true that you have different sets of problems to solve, nope, they are only cheaper to get to, not necessary easier to colonize, except maybe the South Pole where you just need to build something that only need to withstand the cold, which is easy enough and you could go outside without a space suite or something similar.

      The problem with colonizing Mars is the cost, which have as a consequence the cost of everything you send to that place.

      But in the end I think that we already have all the basic blocks for a base on Mars (or the Moon) and what it is stopping us is the cost of putting everything together and send it.
      We already know how to build isolated environments that can must stay sealed for month or years (subs and International Space Station), we already know how to recycle things like air and water, we already know how to produce vegetables in cramped spaces and with low or no exposure to the sun (think of every weed farm inside houses ;-) ) and minimal water needs, we already know how to develop and deploy complex industrial control systems and so on.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      And that last paragraph sort of nails it on the head

      Musk is a scammer, he always has been. He got lucky a few times which landed us to today. He has close to zero engineering knowledge and is a drug junkie to top of off.

      Look close at all his companies, look at what they all have done since he got in

      Tesla… How many new models were made since he got in? And no, he didn’t found it, he bought himself in and through some scheming got rid of the real CEO. How many models are his brain child? One. Yes, that one. That is Elon Musk. Tesla robotics? You mean the guys in spandex suits or the shitty pre 1990 robots that are controlled by some guys that were in highschool 3 years ago? There is nothing of substance there. The robo taxis from yeeaaars ago that will now be there next year? Uh huh… Tesla truck? We’re still waiting!

      SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit. Anything beyond that is where shit gets really hard and we’re still waiting. All I saw was billions of tax dollars wasted in blown up rocket after blown up rocket and SpaceX cheering nluke idiots over a blown up banana. Hell, they obliterated a launchpad because btgey were dumb enough to not understand flame diverters…

      Boring? We dig tunnels 1000 times cheaper but it must be just a dumb tunnel with no chance for escape or survival. We can add disco lights though, cool right!

      Solar roofs? The ones that didn’t work and right now there is this huge court case about it?

      The guy is beyond stupid, been saying this over a decade now, and somehow he keeps falling up

      • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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        18 hours ago

        esla… How many new models were made since he got in?

        None. But without Tesla you would not have neither all the other models from other car companies. Tesla just started it and demostrated that it is possible to produce an electric car with a decent look (and better that some ICE cars in my opinion) at a time when most of the electric cars done by other company were just some ugly proof of concept (excluding a very few cases) to show at this or that event.
        And I read somewhere that what Musk wanted from Tesla was to set the stage, as far as I remember he said that it was ok if Tesla bankrupt after setting the stage.

        SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit. Anything beyond that is where shit gets really hard and we’re still waiting. All I saw was billions of tax dollars wasted in blown up rocket after blown up rocket and SpaceX cheering nluke idiots over a blown up banana.

        Considering that everyone else was not able to do even that, I would not call SpaceX a failure. And it is not that NASA did not have its fair number or launch failures, tbh.
        You talk about beyond low earth orbit like something way harder, but it not really true. SpaceX put a Tesla in a orbit beyond Mars with a Falcon heavy some years ago, and they still have (and use) the Falcon Heavy.

        Hell, they obliterated a launchpad because btgey were dumb enough to not understand flame diverters…

        True but they were trying to launch a rocket that nobody else even tried to build. I would say it is fair that they make some mistakes.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        You are being too critical.

        SpaceX is demonstrably successful, hence the NASA director has gone out of their way to say “we work with SpaceX, not Elon Musk.” I’ve had good in-person impressions with Tesla solar. Even the Boring company seems efficient, and Tesla has some virtues mixed with the hype, especially in reference to the conservative ICE auto industry.

        It’s cultish to say Musk is responsible for all this, but he was their owner.

        …People are complex. They deteriorate. I think we can accept that Musk helped start some successful/interesting companies while saying some extremely idiotic, and dangerous, things.

        • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          My conspiracy is that Musk thinks he’ll get to Mars more likely if he aligns with the Republicans, and he acts so super stupid on purpose to get along with them.

          … and it has landed him a top position in government so far

          the comments about slashing social security are definitely unhinged IMHO (so i’m definitely not supporting that) but i’m european and we have more appreciation for social safety nets i would say. america is more individualist, so maybe that’s just “america being america”.

          • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            Many (American) folks of mine, even more conservative ones, tend to tune out familiar news sources because they’re so bad. Others are really glued to Facebook or whatever their feed of choice is.

            TBH I think America (on average) just lives in a stronger information dystopia than Europe. People here don’t connect social security cuts to them, or even know about Trump’s/Musk’s statements on it.

            Morale of the story… please ban Facebook, X, really most engagement-driven social media as fast as you can. Or risk turning into… us.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human/plant bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.

      That sounds like an argument for a Mars colony, not against it.

      Not that I think continuousness uploading or AI have anything to do with a Mars colony… Even terraforming is totally unnecessary.

      Honestly, I don’t think Mars is a great candidate for a space colony, though probably not for the same reasons you’re thinking. But I think it is in fact vital that we start colonizing space soon, and I think the technologies developed in pursuit of that goal will absolutely aid us here on earth.

      • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Eh, none of that is something one casually develops for going to Mars. Is tech that fundamentally transforms the nature of society on Earth and being human, and again, is way more impactful than going to Mars.

        Again, the argument I’m trying to make is that, by the time one can settle Mars without supplies from Earth, you mind as well get your robotic swarm to make space habitats or something.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Again, the argument I’m trying to make is that, by the time one can settle Mars without supplies from Earth

          Well, that’s not exactly the goal. No nation is really self-sufficient in modern society. Everyone engages in trade. So the question is really, when will a space colony become profitable or maintainable? And that’s trickier to answer, because it isn’t “not for hundreds of years”, but it also isn’t now, it’s somewhere in between.

          Cheaper access to space would change the equation immensely. Being cheaper to resupply would mean the colony wouldn’t have to be as profitable to be sustainable. In-situ resource utilisation (using water found off of earth for drinking, oxygen and fuel) will also make an enormous difference as it would reduce the amount of supplies needed from earth. (This is incidentally one of the main goals of NASA’s Artemis program, to figure out how to utilize water resources on the moon)

          It was the same situation when Europeans settled the Americas, at first it was just a money suck. Entire colonies were lost, lots of people died, they weren’t really prepared. But then they started to figure out what crops worked there, how to survive harsh winters, etc. Once they figured out how to make the most of this new land, they thrived. Unfortunately, the way they treated the locals was pretty horrific. Fortunately, we’re pretty certain there aren’t any locals on the moon or Mars.

          Truth be told, I think a Mars colony won’t happen for quite some time, but I believe a moon colony will certainly happen before 2100. And if we’re lucky, maybe since orbital colonies. That’s where the future really lies, orbital colonies.

          • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I think the (ideal) future looks more like an accelerated Orion’s Arm, where humanity-changing technologies take over.

            Again that’s what I’m getting at. We will never be colonizing Mars as squishy humans… We‘ll be augmented, modified, interfaced with mechanized AI, uploaded, maybe even just mechanical intelligences, something like that. We’ll be using nuclear propulsion, at least. There will be no need to worry about drinking water, breathing oxygen, radiation, psychological/physical impacts of space travel/low gravity, or even traditional resupplies, because that will all be irrelevant.

            The New World is (IMO) a bad analogy because baseline humans could live out an existence, mostly, from the local environment, and the incentives were clear from the start. The “profit” motive for Mars is purely scientific at this point.

  • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Mars colonies are mainly a terrible idea because companies like SpaceX ruin our living space on earth to get ahead. Just look around their launch sites that have transformed once vibrant ecosystems into a post apocalyptic hellscape. It‘s simply unsustainable to ruin a livable planet in order to colonize a dead rock. The whole Mars mission is a scam from that perspective alone. I think even entertaining the idea of a Mars colony and debating about it‘s independence from Earth is missing the point.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      what i don’t get is why people are focusing on the amount of ecosystem that SpaceX displaces while completely ignoring that literally anything else also replaces ecosystem. City? used to be forest? Parking lot? used to be prairie. Suburbs? you guessed it

      everything was an ecosystem before modern humans got there. i don’t get the particular outrage over SpaceX.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 days ago

    Typical bullshit article that has no idea what it’s talking about (the drawings are nice though):

    • Outer Space Treaty does not forbid the formation of a nation on Mars. It does not even forbid staking individual land-claims by settlers. What it does forbid is staking land claims by earth-nations.

    Copying from Wikipedia:

    Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body.

    Mars settlement passes all of these checks.

    Furthermore, people want to go to Mars, not the Moon. Bringing up the moon is only confusing.

  • Maeve@kbin.earth
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    3 days ago

    Recently I watched a video of a content creator in SA with a can of Rhodes beans on her counter on the bg and wondered if it was connected to Cecil… This article reminded me of this and an old sci fi novel about a company recruiting for Martian colonists, who ended up becoming slaves. I can’t remember the title or author, but we already see Leon making earth slaves, his family business is earth slaves, so only the poorest informed would go for this, or those who think they are Leon’s equals? I’m probably missing something, I ate well and it’s nap time.

    • Joe Dyrt@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Maybe “The Space Merchants”? They sell land on Venus because life really sucks on Earth. But will it be better elsewhere?

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        2 days ago

        Maybe, I can’t remember. I don’t seem to recall it having advert execs but I don’t remember the rest of the story either. It was a long time ago. I remember the lesson, though.

  • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    What is the suggestion, then? Assuming a colony does ever get established, it’s impractical and naive to expect those who now live there to never demand land rights. The author makes good points but fails to discuss any potential solutions other than ‘stay earthbound’.

          • Letsdothisok@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            I know this won’t make sense to you, but even him, maybe even more so. We condemn his behavior, pray against the evil in him and ask God to heal and change him and make him clean, not cursed and cast into hell.

            • j0ester@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              You’re an idiot. Go back to X and Facebook to keep sucking billionaires assholes. They so care about you! Their company treats you like FaMiLy.