Flight To Mars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s2jWXoIGPI

Marcus House, May 9, 2020

SpaceX Starship SN4 Prepares for flight, Crew Dragon Demo 2 & Crew-1 updates, Chinese Long March 5B

Starship completed its static fires with the SN4 Starship and we are looking onwards now to the potential 150 metre flight test. The SN5 and SN6 Starship continues construction as well so loads going on again in BocaChica Texas. More news, talks, and footage related to the first crewed flight for SpaceX coming up in a few weeks with the Crew Dragon Demo 2 mission including a great talk from Gwynne Shotwell. This week also saw the first successful flight of the Chinese Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket. Then a few other great little snippets of news as well.

Perhaps you should consider the downside of this endeavor. While I have a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics and worked in the space industry in my youth, I'm now convinced that the UN should prohibit humans from going to other planets before they learn how not to trash their own. I am especially against letting private companies motivated by greed and led by folks like Elon Musk run the show. Real life is not like Star Trek.

Old Granddad

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s2jWXoIGPI

Marcus House, May 9, 2020

SpaceX Starship SN4 Prepares for flight, Crew Dragon Demo 2 & Crew-1 updates, Chinese Long March 5B
...

---

https://yt3.ggpht.com/a/AATXAJyd-XxC...fffff-no-rj-mo

June 3, 2020

Touchdown! SpaceX lands rocket after launching Starlink 7 mission

SpaceX's Falcon 9 first stage landed on the 'Just Read the Instructions' drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean on June 3, 2020 shortly after launching the Starlink 7 mission. SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites and lands rocket in dazzling nighttime liftoff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3FWo6XHWXY

Someone told me that humans should not be allowed off this planet! I would love to hear the reasons why.
And thank you ahead of time.
;-)

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

Someone told me that humans should not be allowed off this planet! I would love to hear the reasons why.
And thank you ahead of time.
;-)

---

look what we did to this one.

this is a captions-contest equivalent, right?

Thank you, Peter!

The Waccovite, "Old Grandpa" (Aaron), messaged me privately and said essentially the same thing you did. There is a wide consensus among folks, perhaps the majority, that we should resolve our issues down here on Earth before we destroy the environment in yet another planet.

Thing is, though, there is no habitable atmosphere on Mars, at least not yet. It will take humans roughly 100 years before we successfully terraform Mars and generate enough oxygen so that colonists can take off their helmets and breathe Martian air freely and safely.

So, we don't have the time to waste with pinning ourselves down with the requirement that there must be heaven on Earth before we go to Mars and make homo sapiens sapiens a multi-planet species. This undue burden is not justifiable or in our best interests, not by a long shot. The "fix-our-problems-here-first" argument is simply not a good reason. One has nothing to do with the other. It is simply a knee-jerk reaction against the idea of space exploration and Mars colonization.

There are plenty of outstanding reasons in favor of colonizing not only Mars but as many planets as possible. There will eventually and inevitably be people inhabiting every possible planet in our Solar System after terraforming.

Furthermore, if we "nuke it out" down here on Earth, and completely destroy the planet and all humans living on it, then our species will continue to survive and travel beyond our Solar System into deep space and colonize another solar system. We humans can only achieve this if there are at least some of us already living on other planets, on the day we totally destroy our Earth through Climate Change or nuclear war. And we can recolonize Earth after a few decades or centuries or millennia.

Mostly scientists and other highly qualified personnel will colonize Mars, so the anti-science non-sense will stay on Earth and die here if we finish cooking the Earth and all of its inhabitants out of existence.

As we terraform Mars and other planets, we will also gradually introduce all of the other species from Earth, both plant and animal. You could say that Elon Musk is the modern day Noah and Mars is his Ark.

There are no solidly arguable reasons against colonizing Mars asap. There are only lots of great reasons to speed ahead as quickly as possible. It is not a question of whether or not there is going to be a planet killing event, it is a question of when it will happen. If we have not perfected human civilization by then, it will be the end of our species. We will not have been intelligent enough to see through the ridiculous "arguments" against Mars colonization. The anti Mars colonization (or its postponement) point of view brings us closer to extinction.

Furthermore, the space program is a highly technical field that forces humans to develop instruments, spacecrafts, living quarters in another planet, robotics, botany, farming, and much more. These hyper developed technologies, that we would otherwise never develop because there would be no reason to do so, will reach beyond the space program to also benefit everyone on Earth and improve our societies greatly. The extreme hostility of space and other planets motivates us to create new knowledge in almost all fields of human academia. The STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) will all get super gargantuan boosts in the amount of newly acquired knowledge that will in turn benefit everyone in society and helping to "perfect our civilization," which is the position of your Anti-Mars mob.
;-)

So, if you want to perfect things here on Earth, the very best way to go about doing that is precisely with a very ambitious and well-funded Mars colonization program.

Bazinga!
LOL

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by podfish:

look what we did to this one.

this is a captions-contest equivalent, right?

---

In my personal life I've found that cleaning up my own shit is the best way to make a better universe. There is the fact that space flight is the most polluting form of travel yet invented on our own planet. Looking to the stars is the most distracted form of navel gazing.

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

Someone told me that humans should not be allowed off this planet! I would love to hear the reasons why.
And thank you ahead of time.
;-)

---

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

Thank you, Peter!...

---

alright, I'll be the contrarian. Fun to have a discussion that's not inevitably tied to current events.

Colonizing Mars, or the moon, or anywhere else for that matter isn't really an issue of expanding our specie's habitat, increasing our odds of survival. It'll never be a question of "SF's too crowded. Las Vegas? no... Anchorage?? no... Omaha?? no... Guam even?? no... Mars!! hell yes!" The idea that it'll ever be cheaper with more prospects, in the way that moving west of the Mississippi was cheaper a couple of hundred years ago, isn't realistic. Manpower was valuable back then. It's not, now. No-one needs extra bodies at Facebook, much less on Mars. You do need a certain number, but the threshold before the extra person is an extra mouth to feed rather than a badly-needed source of labor is way low.

I'm sure it'll happen. There's money to be made, and money to be spent by people willing to fun research, but the return won't be the same as could be expected by spending those resources here. A different motivation to move - that you've trashed your previous home, which is common in human history - requires that the new home is cheaper and easier to live on than the place they're coming from. Mars won't be it, even if terraformed. And there's no reason to put in the effort to terraform it, economically. Many think it'd be pretty cool, but probably that 'many' won't be enough to fund it, or overcome opposition to such environmental overhaul.

Before then, the robot overlords will be here to weigh in anyway, and they sure as hell don't need terraforming either.

What is missing from this conversation is acknowledging that it is the destiny of humankind to move out into the universe. If we do not, when our Sun goes supernova, humankind will cease to exist.

What is it that we want to take with us on that journey? The knowledge that we did our best on this Planet or the escape of an elite few from the mess we made of our gift of life? Do we clean up our shit or take it with us? My point is that it would be better for us now and in the future if we would improve things here on Earth before we leave it. Should we spend our money on exploring space or improving our poor system of education, or can we do both? Should we allow greed to rule or get money out of politics so we can spend our time restoring the hope that America once held for the rest of the world?

Well, I can dream, but in the cold light of reality hope doesn't come easily.

Old Granddad

Joe Scott, July 17, 2017

The Top 5 Places We Could Colonize In Our Solar System | Answers With Joe

For the human race to continue in the far future, we're going to have to live beyond planet Earth. Here are the 5 best options in our own solar system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIf6VJH4dZk

Martian Colonist (Youtube channel), June 14, 2020

The successful Commercial Crew launch by SpaceX and NASA has forever changed spaceflight. Now, for the first time, there is a clear path to sending humans to Mars. Aspiring Martian Colonist Dr. Ryan MacDonald charts the course towards the first human missions to the Red Planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmcr2FaoWoU

ENGINEERING TODAY, Jun 10, 2020

SpaceX Starship is Now Top Priority: Elon Musk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue8VAOWZttQ

Please consider the top SpaceX priority (apart from anything that could reduce Dragon return risk) to be Starship,’ Musk wrote on 6th June, Saturday in the email. In this video Engineering Today will discuss why Elon Musk Tells SpaceX to Focus On Mars-Bound Starship Spacecraft ‘Dramatically and Immediately’

StarTalk, Nov 28, 2019

Terraforming Mars with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Should we terraform Mars? How would we do it? Why would we do it? Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice are here to break down the logistics of putting humans on the Red Planet. You’ll learn why, if we want to warm Mars out of permafrost, it would be a BYOGHG event. You’ll also learn about Elon Musk’s plan to warm up Mars. Chuck ponders the benefits of being a two-planet species. All that, plus, Neil explains why the day we have the power to terraform Mars is the same day we have the power to terraform Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XdkKMhAdnA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ_2ABImQeU
Domain of Science, May 25, 2020

Why the SpaceX NASA Mission is a Landmark For Astronaut Spaceflight

Not only is this the first time a commercial company is sending people into space, it is also the first crewed mission to the International Space Station to be launched from American soil in 9 years since the Space Shuttle was decommissioned. On the 27th of May SpaceX will make spaceflight history by being the first commercial company to transport humans to the ISS on a Falcon9 rocket in the SpaceX Dragon Crew spacecraft. This is the beginning of commercial spaceflight and potentially the beginning of space tourism.

Once again. Why is it we have all the money to finance ventures such as this, but not enough to properly educate our children? Yes, technologically speaking, the effort is brilliant, but at the same time, we can't intelligently manage a pandemic here on our home planet. Supernova is 4 1/2 billion years out, so we have more than enough time to fix this planet and prepare to leave it. If we are stupid enough to incinerate this planet with a nuclear holocaust it would be best for the universe if that also was the end of humankind.

Will we ever have the brains and guts to stand up against greed and megalomaniacs and help ourselves to become better human beings here on Earth even if we don't make money doing it?

Grouchy Old Grandad

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ_2ABImQeU
Domain of Science, May 25, 2020

Why the SpaceX NASA Mission is a Landmark For Astronaut Spaceflight

Not only is this the first time a commercial company is sending people into space, it is also the first crewed mission to the International Space Station to be launched from American soil in 9 years since the Space Shuttle was decommissioned. On the 27th of May SpaceX will make spaceflight history by being the first commercial company to transport humans to the ISS on a Falcon9 rocket in the SpaceX Dragon Crew spacecraft. This is the beginning of commercial spaceflight and potentially the beginning of space tourism.

---

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by OldGranddad:

Once again. Why is it we have all the money to finance ventures such as this, but not enough to properly educate our children?

---

of course you know why. People don't as a group want to do that.

If all money went into a pot, and it was spent for the benefit of all, then your question wouldn't matter. Of course, then we wouldn't need money, either. But, that kind of commie thinking has been roundly rejected. So, instead it's a question of where do we draw the line. Sure, space research vs. feeding/educating kids sounds questionable. But, how 'bout paying for roads? for entertainment? for tastier food? for feeding your own family first? for your diabetes medication? once you start choosing A vs. B, it's kind of a random exercise because there's not going to be an answer

1. I'm not a commie and don't think like one as that system is totally unacceptable to me.
2. What has been roundly rejected in our society is thinking, period.
3. Yes, everything is important, but some things are more important than others. Deciding which is most important is not a random exercise if you use your brain, providing you have one.
4. If there is no answer, there is no hope for humanity and the universe would be better off without us.

Grouchier Old Granddad

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by podfish:

of course you know why. People don't as a group want to do that....

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8XvQNt26KI
Kurzgesagt, Aug 16, 2020

Unlimited Resources From Space – Asteroid Mining

Getting rare materials from the ground into your phone is ugly. The mining industry is responsible for air and water pollution and the destruction of entire landscapes. But what if we could replace the mining industry on Earth with a clean process that can’t harm anyone? Well, we can. All we need to do is look up.

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Valley Oak:

·

---

I think the dinosaurs' attempt at space mining ended badly for them. No trace of their civilization remains.

No trace? I can hear their footsteps, every day closer . . . Trump, Trump, Trump . . .

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by podfish:

·

---

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMwpC70di2w

5 second video of Trump's America.

A beautiful song as a concession to those who argue against colonizing Mars. Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4
Ace Records Ltd

"Whitey On the Moon" (Official Audio).
By Gil Scott-Heron
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Whitey on the Moon

Gil Scott-Heron

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)

I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)

The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Whitey's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey's on the moon)

I wonder why he's uppi' me?
('cause Whitey's on the moon?)
I was already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wasn't enough

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Whitey's on the moon)

Was all that money I made las' year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hm! Whitey's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)

Songwriters: Gil Scott-Heron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hK540tMmvw
SpaceX, 11.16.2020

SpaceX Mission: Rendezvous & Docking

SpaceX and NASA are targeting Sunday, November 15 for Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s first operational crew mission (Crew-1) to the International Space Station (ISS) from historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The instantaneous launch window opens at 7:27 p.m. EST on November 15, 00:27 UTC on November 16. Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. The launch webcast will go live about 4 hours before liftoff. Tune in here to watch live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTAxjJ6KY7M
Isaac Arthur, Nov 19, 2020

Asteroid Mining & Orbital Settlements

Asteroids represent a threat to Earth, but in the future they may be a boon, serving as sources of vast wealth and resources, and as orbital settlements and keystones of interplanetary trade.

Get a free month of Curiosity Stream: https://curiositystream.com/isaacarthur