SpaceX Interplanetary Transport!

[HP-ILnerd]

Certainly not lacking for ambition:

[PA0PBZ]

I think they forgot to refuel the booster 

[firewalker]

When?

Alexander.

[Dago]

When?

Alexander.

Optimally in six years I think was the schedule

But I have to say I was rather impressed that they already had done a bunch of stuff and not just letting out hot air. They had designed and test fired the engines it is supposed to use (42 of them!) and they had made a prototype of the absolutely massive carbon fiber liquid oxygen tank (which is supposedly one of the more difficult parts).

[Jeroen3]

That's like fuel for how long? 10 seconds?

[EEVblog]

I know Space-X's abilities extend far beyond fancy graphics, but I couldn't help but feel watching that (and a lot of Elon's talk) most people wouldn't know that and think it's all just pie in the sky.

[EEVblog]

That's freaking insane.
This is what I'm talking about, they need to show this stuff and ram it home to everyone that they have real stuff and in many cases have successfully tested it or part of it.
It's like at Space-X hype goes in one end and magic pops out the other end.

[rollatorwieltje]

Haven't watched it yet, but apparently the Q&A session was absolutely horrible. Maybe it was intentional, raise more funds so we can leave this planet as soon as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1YxNYiyALg&feature=youtu.be&t=5164

[EEVblog]

Haven't watched it yet, but apparently the Q&A session was absolutely horrible. Maybe it was intentional, raise more funds so we can leave this planet as soon as possible.

For a serious highly anticipated world wide event like this you really nee to vet the questions before hand.
But then again I went to a recent event with Gene Cernan (last moon walker) and the questions were vetted by the scientist host and they were mostly a waste of time.

[sleemanj]

Everytime I hear Musk speak, I feel like I'm looking at a modern day Howard Hughes.

It's an impressive goal, and I have no doubt that Elon will absolutely try and make it happen.  But I found the presentation lacking on a couple of critical points.

Firstly, 100+ people, for months, in that crew capsule, looked... pretty uncomfortable to me.  He speaks of "making it fun", lectures, cinema, restaurant... which really doesn't make a lot of sense to me, because...

Secondly, who is going to go, again he speaks of "making it affordable", but come on now, even if it's affordable, having people stick their hand up holding 500k cash and saying "shut up and take my money" isn't going to cut it, the people you need to send are not necessarily the people who want to go. 

Long long before Mars would be suitable for "Joe the Pizza guy" to move to Mars and setup shop, it's going to need a LOT of highly skilled people, thousands upon thousands, some of these people would certainly be amongst those who want to go, but would there really be enough of them, knowing that, there's no coming back in any short term.

I just kinda feel like the plan for going to mars is much like his presentation's plan for funding it (Steal Underpants ... Profit  [for those who don't get it, this is a Southpark reference]), namely "1.Build Mars Ships; 2.; 3.Multi Planet Civilisation".

Still, I'd love to see that thing launch.  Super cool.

[rs20]

I think it's interesting that people assume you'd have to be insane to take that trip. I'm not saying for a second that I would, but the original ships from England to Australia and New Zealand were similarly crowded, similarly one-way-only, led to greater isolation from a communications point of view (an antipodean letter in the 1700s takes a lot longer than an interplanetary email), etc, etc. A trip to Mars is nevertheless obviously a whole new level, but I don't think it's so many orders of magnitude of crazy beyond those initial explorers.

Accordingly, I think it's only fair to accord people who claim they would go on this journey with some respect and admiration, just as I do so with my ancestors who were on those ships. Just because I wouldn't, doesn't mean they're necessarily nuts to consider it.

[HP-ILnerd]

Secondly, who is going to go, again he speaks of "making it affordable", but come on now, even if it's affordable, having people stick their hand up holding 500k cash and saying "shut up and take my money" isn't going to cut it, the people you need to send are not necessarily the people who want to go. 

This is an interesting point.  I don't think there is anybody (much less a lot of people) with all the appropriate skills necessary to be a colonist.  As Musk points out, there'd be a labor shortage on Mars (or wherever) for a very long time.    There'd have to be a "colonist school" of some sort, because even astronauts do not casually have all the skill needed to do something like this.  Even in their case, their training tends to be very mission-specific.  For colonists, there'd have to be a fair amount of cross-disciplinary training.  Those early colonists would have to be a pretty special bunch.

[HP-ILnerd]

On the point of that tank, do they seriously have an autoclave that big!?  That's...mind boggling.

[sleemanj]

I think it's interesting that people assume you'd have to be insane to take that trip. I'm not saying for a second that I would, but the original ships from England to Australia and New Zealand were similarly crowded, similarly one-way-only, led to greater isolation from a communications point of view (an antipodean letter in the 1700s takes a lot longer than an interplanetary email), etc, etc. A trip to Mars is nevertheless obviously a whole new level, but I don't think it's so many orders of magnitude of crazy beyond those initial explorers.

Those initial colonists, explorers, were coming to lands already inhabited for at least a thousand years in nz's case, and much much much longer in yours, lands with rich plentiful food and resource, relatively hospitible environments and not requiring any particularly novel technology, where they would have opportunities that they did not have in thier homeland (land ownership, from which they could derive thier fortune, or at least a better life than they had).  Not to mention, a breathable atmosphere.

People going to Mars don't have any of that.  I just don't see a realistic draw, or even feasible reason in which colonists would want to be colonists at this stage, we all think "awesome, living on mars", but that's a very romantic notion.

You landed your ship with "100 colonists" on Mars, now what, when they get there, what are they going to do, how are they going to survive, and for what reason would people want to merely survive.  Perhaps SpaceX just wants to focus on the transport, totally fine, no problem, but I think transport to/from Mars is below trivial in comparison to what comes next.

IMHO if you want to colonise mars, first you must give it a useful atmosphere, and viable ecosystem, the timescale for this step is measured in millenia.  Then come the people.

[rdl]

I still don't understand why, after making all the effort to get into orbit, the best idea of what to do next is go back down to the ground.

[firewalker]

To put the fuel tank to orbit.

Alexander.

[vodka]

I think it's interesting that people assume you'd have to be insane to take that trip. I'm not saying for a second that I would, but the original ships from England to Australia and New Zealand were similarly crowded, similarly one-way-only, led to greater isolation from a communications point of view (an antipodean letter in the 1700s takes a lot longer than an interplanetary email), etc, etc. A trip to Mars is nevertheless obviously a whole new level, but I don't think it's so many orders of magnitude of crazy beyond those initial explorers.

Those initial colonists, explorers, were coming to lands already inhabited for at least a thousand years in nz's case, and much much much longer in yours, lands with rich plentiful food and resource, relatively hospitible environments and not requiring any particularly novel technology, where they would have opportunities that they did not have in thier homeland (land ownership, from which they could derive thier fortune, or at least a better life than they had).  Not to mention, a breathable atmosphere.

People going to Mars don't have any of that.  I just don't see a realistic draw, or even feasible reason in which colonists would want to be colonists at this stage, we all think "awesome, living on mars", but that's a very romantic notion.

You landed your ship with "100 colonists" on Mars, now what, when they get there, what are they going to do, how are they going to survive, and for what reason would people want to merely survive.  Perhaps SpaceX just wants to focus on the transport, totally fine, no problem, but I think transport to/from Mars is below trivial in comparison to what comes next.

IMHO if you want to colonise mars, first you must give it a useful atmosphere, and viable ecosystem, the timescale for this step is measured in millenia.  Then come the people.

Simply,  I beleave that is an ilogical suicide, and how you said: there are nothing. I follow to think that they will do a  kind the hunger games (Only the more strongest survies) on Mars.

https://youtu.be/ojFxlULdEQo?t=1h33m9s
Besides, Why have  they to complicate the life with Mars when they can to try  to colonize the moon? The moon is more nearest than Mars 

Have they  fear from some thing or somebody on the moon? .

[rdl]

Even better, just stay in orbit. Get something big going there. It would be much a more practical plan. Snag a small asteroid for raw materials, or go to the Moon for them. Once industry and a reasonable population are established, then worry about the Moon or Mars. I'm all for exploration - by people, but a colony on another planet isn't going to happen any time soon and may be totally unnecessary anyway.

[free_electron]

Raptor test , September 25 . Three days ago ...

[Kjelt]

Very ambitious indeed. Teslas crashing , rockets blowing up, maybe they should work on pending issues and quality instead of launching another hype, just my two cents.

[timb]

Honestly, I'd give it all up in a second to be one of the first people on Mars. I'd do it for free, too. Yes, even knowing that the chances of me coming back would be slim. I'm sure there are at least 100 others like me out there in the world.

[setq]

Very ambitious indeed. Teslas crashing , rockets blowing up, maybe they should work on pending issues and quality instead of launching another hype, just my two cents.

Cars crash. Rockets blow up. Occupational hazards of being drivers and space dudes. Stay at home, lock yourself in.

[rs20]

Very ambitious indeed. Teslas crashing , rockets blowing up, maybe they should work on pending issues and quality instead of launching another hype, just my two cents.

Right, so whenever a problem is found, all research and development should stop and all 5,000 SpaceX employees should stop what they're doing, and investigate the problem? Do remind me to never work for a company that you manage.

[Kjelt]

All I am trying to say is that IMO Musk looks like a serial entrepreneur, brilliant at starting up new ideas and companies and get it going (eg get funding and investors), but not so good at making them mature and profitable. Tesla is still not making money, SpaceX is breaking even and first year small profit.
You can't keep that up esp. when products are now starting to show signs of failure which makes many investors nervous.
Where is the money and ROI for going to Mars, yes you can dream but someone has got to pay for it.
Investors and stockprices are (unfortunately) what makes a business these days succesfull or failing, just my two cents.

[3db]

All I am trying to say is that IMO Musk looks like a serial entrepreneur, brilliant at starting up new ideas and companies and get it going (eg get funding and investors), but not so good at making them mature and profitable. Tesla is still not making money, SpaceX is breaking even and first year small profit.
You can't keep that up esp. when products are now starting to show signs of failure which makes many investors nervous.
Where is the money and ROI for going to Mars, yes you can dream but someone has got to pay for it.
Investors and stockprices are (unfortunately) what makes a business these days succesfull or failing, just my two cents.

Tesla cars didn't crash dickhead drivers did that.
I believe most of the issues causing production delays related to supply chain matters.
There's a huge waiting list of people who want to buy these cars.
The majority of car manufacturers have said they are going to build electric vehicles.
They are also investing money and resources NOW.
Each iteration of the car gets better and cheaper.

On the SpaceX front NASA had a number issues with exploding rockets in the early days.
They also had a few major issues with the shuttle program.
Human progress and technological advancement involves RISK !!
IMHO "modern" society seems to be far to risk averse.
They spend far to much time on Arsebook and Twatter waiting to be offended.   

3db