Elon Musk

[The Grand Nudger]

 he once said he plans to die there 

His lips to gods ears.

[A. Secular Human]

Elon Musk Claims One Million Humans Will Live On Mars In 20 Years, Offers His Sperm To Seed The Mars Colony

Mr. Musk told SpaceX employees in April that he now expects one million people to be living there in about 20 years. No one has ever set foot on the planet. NASA doesn’t expect to land humans on Mars until the 2040s.

And if people get there, they will be greeted by a barren terrain, icy temperatures, dust storms, and air that is impossible to breathe. Yet Mr. Musk is so wedded to the idea of creating a civilization on Mars — he once said he plans to die there — that it has propelled nearly every business endeavor he has undertaken on Earth.

Employees said that Musk has ordered a team to make a spacesuit fit for Mars’ inhospitable environment and a medical team to research whether humans can procreate on Mars. Musk has volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony, two people familiar with his comments said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-...onize-mars

I don't know why humans *wouldn't* be able to procreate there.

Provide a habitat, some privacy and a modicum of medical care, and have at it.

[Angrboda]

Musk has volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony, two people familiar with his comments said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-...onize-mars

That must be an acquired taste.

[The Grand Nudger]

Probably need to add some gravity - low g has interesting effects on reproduction. It's possible..and with a little care it could work...but the kids would be weak and deformed by earthly standards all the same.

Envelope math time. How much human livestock would a martian robber baron need at .38 efficiency?

[AFTT47]

Elon Musk Claims One Million Humans Will Live On Mars In 20 Years, Offers His Sperm To Seed The Mars Colony

Mr. Musk told SpaceX employees in April that he now expects one million people to be living there in about 20 years. No one has ever set foot on the planet. NASA doesn’t expect to land humans on Mars until the 2040s.

And if people get there, they will be greeted by a barren terrain, icy temperatures, dust storms, and air that is impossible to breathe. Yet Mr. Musk is so wedded to the idea of creating a civilization on Mars — he once said he plans to die there — that it has propelled nearly every business endeavor he has undertaken on Earth.

Employees said that Musk has ordered a team to make a spacesuit fit for Mars’ inhospitable environment and a medical team to research whether humans can procreate on Mars. Musk has volunteered his sperm to help seed a colony, two people familiar with his comments said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/elon-musk-...onize-mars

I don't know why humans *wouldn't* be able to procreate there.

Provide a habitat, some privacy and a modicum of medical care, and have at it.

I give you, one-third Earth gravity.

We don't know how much gravity humans need to live long term without major health issues. We do know that micro-gravity is extremely bad. But development of a fetus and child is another matter entirely. We have no idea if development is even viable in that gravity. My intuitive guess is it is not. Even if it is, normal skeletal growth is sure to be well off from what it would be in normal gravity.

I believe it is completely unethical to attempt human reproduction in reduced gravity without some major research. You would need to construct a rotating space habitat with Mars gravity and see if how primates such as chimps fare for a start. I suspect it would take decades of research. Of course, that wouldn't fit in Musk's time table.

[Pat Mustard]

I don't know why humans *wouldn't* be able to procreate there.

Provide a habitat, some privacy and a modicum of medical care, and have at it.

I give you, one-third Earth gravity.

We don't know how much gravity humans need to live long term without major health issues. We do know that micro-gravity is extremely bad. But development of a fetus and child is another matter entirely. We have no idea if development is even viable in that gravity. My intuitive guess is it is not. Even if it is, normal skeletal growth is sure to be well off from what it would be in normal gravity.

I believe it is completely unethical to attempt human reproduction in reduced gravity without some major research. You would need to construct a rotating space habitat with Mars gravity and see if how primates such as chimps fare for a start. I suspect it would take decades of research. Of course, that wouldn't fit in Musk's time table.

The recent discussion about Musk's delusions on Mars reminds me of a novel I read years ago about a moon colony which had been cut off from earth supplies and was slowly starving. The people of the story had thought it was because of a rebellion that occurred on the moon in their past, but it was because of an apocalypse event on earth put civilisation way back. In it the protagonist (a young woman) was sent back to earth to find out the problem and a good chunk of the book was describing her problems adjusting to proper gravity.

I wish I could remember the book's name or author because it was very interesting.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Boru

[AFTT47]

I may have read that book on Kindle but I don't have it anymore. It's a very common scifi trope. The recent TV series The Expanse does a pretty good treatment of it.

I just try to imagine if I were born in low gravity and had major physical issues that would prevent me from ever living on Earth or a space habitat with anything close to Earth gravity. I think I would be supremely pissed at my parents. Imagine seeing pictures and video of mountains, forests and beaches on Earth - and knowing they were forever off-limits to you because your parents made the irresponsible decision to reproduce in low gravity without knowing what the consequences would be? Or worse, they did know and went ahead anyway?

Anyway, I suspect the real-world consequences might be a lot worse than is typically imagined in scifi. I'm afraid there might be malformations which would render one an invalid even in the gravity they were born in - if they could survive at all. Our bodies were just not designed to develop in such low gravity and there is no telling the consequences.

[Thumpalumpacus]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company’s internet satellites in an orbit so low that they’re doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday night, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. Several minutes into the flight, the upper stage engine malfunctioned. SpaceX on Friday blamed a liquid oxygen leak.

The company said flight controllers managed to make contact with half of the satellites and attempted to boost them to a higher orbit using onboard ion thrusters. But with the low end of their orbit only 84 miles (135 kilometers) above Earth — less than half what was intended — “our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” the company said via X.

SpaceX said the satellites will reenter the atmosphere and burn up. There was no mention of when they might come down. More than 6,000 orbiting Starlinks currently provide internet service to customers in some of the most remote corners of the world.

https://apnews.com/article/spacex-falcon...328e92fd59

[A. Secular Human]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company’s internet satellites in an orbit so low that they’re doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday night, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. Several minutes into the flight, the upper stage engine malfunctioned. SpaceX on Friday blamed a liquid oxygen leak.

The company said flight controllers managed to make contact with half of the satellites and attempted to boost them to a higher orbit using onboard ion thrusters. But with the low end of their orbit only 84 miles (135 kilometers) above Earth — less than half what was intended — “our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites,” the company said via X.

SpaceX said the satellites will reenter the atmosphere and burn up. There was no mention of when they might come down. More than 6,000 orbiting Starlinks currently provide internet service to customers in some of the most remote corners of the world.

https://apnews.com/article/spacex-falcon...328e92fd59

Sounds like the premise for the Gravity movie.