Elon Musk

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It’s not inherently undoable. The dangers of getting to Mars, living on Mars, and getting back from Mars can be overcome with improvements in technology.

Going to Mars is not impossible. Silly, stupid, and pointless, sure. But not impossible.

Boru

Ah, the voice of reason. Thank you.

I'm amazed and disappointed at the amount of postings by my fellow atheists who are obviously completely ignorant of the subject on which they are posting. I would have expected better.

There is no shame in ignorance of a particular subject. Human limitations insure such ignorance. A cardiologist or even a neurosurgeon may be be completely ignorant of physics or engineering. By the same token, you probably wouldn't want a master woodworker to perform your heart surgery. But there IS shame in posting about those subjects as if you know what the fuck you are talking about.

On the subject of radiation, there are two concerns. Radiation from the sun in the form of the solar wind is one. Mars is further away from that source and thus benefits from the inverse square law (twice the distance, one quarter the damage) but its lack of a magnetic field and a substantial atmosphere means you are still fucked without protection. Same for an unshielded spacecraft. The second problem is damage from cosmic rays. These are highly energetic particles from extra-solar sources. Earth's magnetic field provides protection against them and its dense atmosphere provides some additional protection. Away from both, you are fucked without an alternative means of shielding. The bottom line is that radiation IS a problem. There are solutions to this problem but they are expensive. It definitely limits the practicality of manned spaceflight far from Earth. Not insurmountable but lunar settlement first makes a lot more sense in my book.

I don't know what is in Elon Musk's head but I have two hypothesis:

1. He is paranoid about destruction from nuclear war or Skynet (Terminator, if you're not familiar) and finds comfort in the distance of Mars from Earth,

or

2. He has delusions of godhood and desires to create an offshoot of human civilization far enough from the influence of Earth authorities where he can rule  without hindrance.

Regardless of his motivation, it IS possible for him to accomplish his goals. Only a fool can objectively look at his accomplishments and think he is stupid. Like him or not, the man is a genius. He may be a mad genius in the vein of the classic Bond villain (think Hugo Drax from Moonraker) but the man is brilliant, capable and driven. He's definitely dangerous but he is not remotely stupid or a fool.

On the other hand, everyone talks about the dangers of exposure to radiation, but never mentions the benefits.



Boru