Jeff bezos and elon musk are ramping up their space race

[JacksinPA]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/jeff-bezos-and-elon-musk-are-ramping-up-their-space-race

Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk’s palpable love for flame throwers may be rivaled by just one thing: his passion for outer space. Through his private aerospace company, SpaceX, Musk has said he hopes to gradually increase the caliber of craft able to land on Mars, with the eventual goal of sending human explorers, and colonizing the planet. At South by Southwest this weekend, Musk issued an update on SpaceX’s Mars progress, telling the crowd that the first Mars-bound SpaceX ship is currently in production, and he hopes it will be able to complete brief “up and down” flights during the first half of next year. “People have told me that my timelines historically have been optimistic,” he said. “And so I'm trying to recalibrate to some degree here.”

For all Musk’s talk of space travel, he finds a formidable rival in another Silicon Valley billionaire: Jeff Bezos. While Musk has the functioning infrastructure in place and is working to create a viable business with SpaceX, which he said on Sunday is “alive by the skin of its teeth,” Bezos has nearly unlimited assets to devote to his aerospace company, Blue Origin. Previously, the Amazon C.E.O. said he would fund his space exploration enterprise through the sale of Amazon stock, and on Saturday night, while accepting the Buzz Aldrin Space Exploration Award at the Explorers Club Annual Dinner, he confirmed his commitment to the project. “The price of admission to space is very high,” he said. “I’m in the process of converting my Amazon lottery winnings into a much lower price of admission so we can go explore the solar system.”

 

[Mach]

I think it's a giant farce personally.

AI and medicine, these the the keys to better human life. This space nonsense is just for bragging rights/fame....price of admission is high! Yay! Get all the richies out there to be the 1000 mile high club! Bleh.

Explore the solar system!? What is he thinking we're going to find 100 years from now, after billions invested, that we cannot find here. Longer life, disease, poverty, AI to solve problems that humans cannot for a variety of reasons...

Glad he's at least innovating. So many rich fat cats in the U.S. just milk the machine for bigger Yacht's, then they leave it to their spoiled kids, who spend it on more luxury goods and blow.

 

[JacksinPA]

I think it's a giant farce personally.

AI and medicine, these the the keys to better human life. This space nonsense is just for bragging rights/fame....price of admission is high! Yay! Get all the richies out there to be the 1000 mile high club! Bleh.

Explore the solar system!? What is he thinking we're going to find 100 years from now, after billions invested, that we cannot find here. Longer life, disease, poverty, AI to solve problems that humans cannot for a variety of reasons...

Glad he's at least innovating. So many rich fat cats in the U.S. just milk the machine for bigger Yacht's, then they leave it to their spoiled kids, who spend it on more luxury goods and blow.

I think exploration & colonization outside of Earth are inevitable consequences of our destiny as a race due to overpopulation & increasing demand for critical resources such as potable water & energy on this planet. It seems obvious to me that we will reach a saturation point within the foreseeable future & I'm glad these men are getting prepared to make money in the process.

 

[Mach]

I think exploration & colonization outside of Earth are inevitable consequences of our destiny as a race due to overpopulation & increasing demand for critical resources such as potable water & energy on this planet. It seems obvious to me that we will reach a saturation point within the foreseeable future & I'm glad these men are getting prepared to make money in the process.

I'd rather vote to have 2 kid maximum law, rather than hurl my body into the cold, lifeless vacuum of space. I think early space exploration was vital and necessary. But nowadays it's silly IMO.
I'd rather develop human-equivalent AI (Singularity), and let it help us navigate the future, personally. Virtual technology + AI, that's the promised land IMO.

But as I said, at least these guys are investing in innovation and changing our world in big, meaningful ways. Most wealthy people do very little to make the world a better place, and putting it to active use in R&D/growth, is commendable. Neither of these guys have to ever work a day in their life again, yet they stay on the cutting edge. More power to them.

 

[JacksinPA]

I'd rather vote to have 2 kid maximum law, rather than hurl my body into the cold, lifeless vacuum of space. I think early space exploration was vital and necessary. But nowadays it's silly IMO.
I'd rather develop human-equivalent AI (Singularity), and let it help us navigate the future, personally. Virtual technology + AI, that's the promised land IMO.

But as I said, at least these guys are investing in innovation and changing our world in big, meaningful ways. Most wealthy people do very little to make the world a better place, and putting it to active use in R&D/growth, is commendable. Neither of these guys have to ever work a day in their life again, yet they stay on the cutting edge. More power to them.

I believe that we will inevitably have to turn outward.

 

[Reformedfindlay]

I think it's a giant farce personally.

AI and medicine, these the the keys to better human life. This space nonsense is just for bragging rights/fame....price of admission is high! Yay! Get all the richies out there to be the 1000 mile high club! Bleh.

Explore the solar system!? What is he thinking we're going to find 100 years from now, after billions invested, that we cannot find here. Longer life, disease, poverty, AI to solve problems that humans cannot for a variety of reasons...

Glad he's at least innovating. So many rich fat cats in the U.S. just milk the machine for bigger Yacht's, then they leave it to their spoiled kids, who spend it on more luxury goods and blow.

Mars is actually worth investigating if it can be terraformed for colonization.

The Earth is hopelessly overpopulated as it is, and it seems we're not willing to calm down in being rabbits.

 

[JacksinPA]

Mars is actually worth investigating if it can be terraformed for colonization.

The Earth is hopelessly overpopulated as it is, and it seems we're not willing to calm down in being rabbits.

There are a few major problems involved with terraforming Mars. One big one is that the planet's core is no longer magnetic, so the planet would have no magnetosphere to funnel cosmic rays toward the magnetic poles as they do here on Earth. See Mars? magnetic field - DTU Space Solar & nuclear could extract oxygen & water from the rocks to get the terraforming going, though. The radiation exposure might require colonists to wear protective clothing & live in shielded dwellings. The cosmic rays would likely create a high mutation rates in essential crops such as corn & soybeans.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Mars. There is methane, which could be captured for use as fuel. But there is also carbon monoxide & little oxygen, so until the terraforming got well under way colonists would have to wear breathing gear while outdoors.