(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Planet Elon [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-01 By David Glenn Cox When I was twelve, the movie “2001, A Space Odyssey” first hit the movie theaters. America was space crazy at the time. And as a twelve-year-old, I was space crazy too. We were going to the moon! Yet even at twelve, I understood this was Science Fiction. History never works out as forecast. No atomic lawnmowers or flying cars. Popular Science was all wrong about those. Through out the space program I was always a huge supporter. I thought the canceling of Apollo 18 & 19 was a big mistake. A total of seven days on the moon for what it cost today just to get into low Earth orbit. The space craft were already built and ready to go. They are still studying those moon rocks, you know. Pan Am doesn’t offer a lunar shuttle yet even five decades after the movie’s release. My point is I’m a huge proponent of space exploration both manned and unmanned. But the other day I watched a video of SpaceX’s plans for the colonization of Mars. And throughout the video, I had these images of Dr. Elon selling Snake oil from the back of a Gypsy wagon. Grandiose is an understatement predicting Starship’s arriving on Mars down to the hour of the day. 5:00 o’clock is that AM or PM? Is that Martian Daylight Saving’s time or Galactic Universal time? Robots are going to build shelters with 3D printers. Then build landing pads for other Starships because there will be hundreds and hundreds of them. SpaceX plans to ramp up production building two Starships per week or 104 per year. The robots will be busy building solar plants and garages for their safe storage during Martian dust storms. Other robots will carry battery packs to recharge the other working robots. Some robots will tow in for repair the broken robots. The broken robots will be repaired by repair robots. And all of this will be done two years before the first human boot heel hits the Martian soil. Then the robots will set up a plant to manufacture rocket fuel from the atmosphere and from Martian water believed to be somewhere under the surface. Inflatable structures will be constructed under the robot-built 3D printed shelters. Mars has no radiation belt around it and so humans must be protected from the radiation. The climate is much colder, and the air is much too thin to breathe. So, for a human to go outdoors will a require a space suit, no differently than on the moon. But we’re going to live there! And it’s going to be wonderful. We’re going to mine for minerals and build schools and factories. Elon’s Boring Company is going to set up shop and bore tunnels for transportation and shelter. Sound’s appealing, doesn’t it? Space tourists can come for a two-year visit for the everyday low, low price of just $50,000,000 each! “Boss, can I have two years off?” Soon other nations will come to build embassies, so as not to miss out. Amazon will have a regular package delivery service. Sorry, no Amazon Prime discounts allowed. Seven months and $10,000 per once for delivery, so choose wisely. Space farms growing food and plants indoors. Eventually even Martian restaurants. Couples will marry and procreate Martian children. Now, the gravity on Mars is roughly half of the Earth. Nobody knows how that will effect a Martian pregnancy. And there is only one sure way to find out. Who wants to go first? But the one question still left unanswered is why? Other than William Shatner’s speech about “Boldly going where no one has gone before.” How are they going to make this venture pay for itself? If it’s fifty million to bring one person, what can they possible mine that’s profitable with a quarter of a million dollars a pound in transportation fees? The plan is riddled with “ifs and buts.” Pipelines bringing Martian water from the poles to the rocket fuel factories. Farms using human waste as fertilizer. They even plan to bring fish from Earth, and I’d like to see that. I’m curious as to how fish will survive a seven-month trip swimming upside down in zero G. Who knows, maybe the fish will like swimming without gravity. Governments and communities popping up with people living in caves and plastic bubbles while the robots happily do all the physical work. Until finally, the colony is self-supporting with thousands of inhabitants. And it’s all going to be done with SpaceX rockets and Tesla batteries and Elon’s friendly boring company with communications provided by Elon’s Star link satellites. I don’t know who is trying to kid whom here. Fleets of Starships arriving when the launch window is right every two years. It’s either the con job of the century or it’s the delusional ravings of a megalomaniac. A megalomaniac intent of building his New Berlin on planet Elon. Arthur C. Clarke wrote “2001, A Space Odyssey” as pure Science Fiction. These jokers are pretending to be serious about this. Let’s start with the Starship in question with zero successful test flights under its belt. The same Starship that recently tumbled helplessly end over end out of control and had to be destroyed. The same rocket that nearly destroyed its own launching pad due to poor calculations. See the problem? We all expect and understand teething problems in high technology. These teething problems came from the miscalculations of their own engineers. The same engineers who have this colonization of Mars routine all figured out. If they had prefaced the video with “We hope someday” it could all be forgiven. But no, they have the schedule planned down to the hour. All aboard! Have your tickets ready! Don’t miss this chance to attend a literal Space Camp. Hiding from the sun and living underground like a mole or a Londoner during the Blitz. See the Martian wasteland! Go Martian mountain climbing in your own space suit. How will they make this venture pay? Don’t know. Why do they want to do this in the first place? Ask William Shatner. It all makes Evel Knievel’s sky cycle trip across the Snake River Canyon look dull. But the goal is to eventually plant grasses and terraform Mars into a new Earth with McDonald’s and Tesla dealerships on every corner. But the same radiation which will kill the humans will also kill the grasses. Until that problem is solved, they are just pissing in the Martian wind. We haven’t even been back to moon yet. There isn’t even a lunar lander available. But never mind, let Elon worry about that. Is there some compelling reason to colonize Mars besides ego? That’s one small step for man and one giant leap for one man’s ego. “Before all masters, necessity is the one most listened to, and who teaches the best.” ― Jules Verne [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/1/2172731/-Planet-Elon Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/