We should let the billionaires invent a generational space ship then we take it and build a better society elsewhere.
It sounds all nice and easy to use the money for this planet but we could end up needing the mars living quarters here on earth. I mean earth could end up like Venus. Some time ago I read an article that parts of India could end up being uninhabitable soon when the humidity and temperature outside reaches a critical point where humans cant sweat anymore and even the healthiest person could die quickly.
!!!
I dunno, but some of these have been pretty damned important:
- Infrared thermometers;
- Scratch resistant lenses;
- Cordless drills;
- Water filtration;
- Satellite Navigation;
- Smoke detectors;
- Safety grooving on roadways (microgravity experiments yielded this one);
- Memory Foam;
- Shoe insoles;
- Artificial Limbs;
- Insulin pumps;
- Firefighting suits;
- Dustbusters;
- Lasik;
- Building Earthquake Shock Absorbers;
- Photovoltaic cells (ie, we wouldn’t have solar power as an option);
- Modern car tires that wear out far less frequently than old ones did, reducing waste;
- Freeze Dried foods;
- Cat Scans;
- Modern Baby Formula;
- Modern home insulation (no more asbestos);
- Ice resistant aircraft;
- The computer mouse;
And the list goes on and on. Much of the modern world is predicated on things we learned shooting shit up into space. Who knows what we’ll learn shooting shit to mars.
I feel like you are 2 posts away from posting Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto, lol.
We could have done all this without the massive overhead of building giant rockets that fly into space. How much did it cost to fly robots to Mars and what did we get out of it?
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I want to say it pains me to write some of this because I have been a space fanboi forever and have watched basically every space documentary ever. But it is so so obvious these dueling mars mission projects are just two billionaires jerking themselves off. It’s all part of Elon’s big con to market himself as the world’s leading visionary.
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Spending billions of dollars to fly an RC helicopter on Mars: cool and very progressive.
Launching a bunch of communications satellites to deliver broadband internet to underserved areas: bougie excess worthy of the guillotine.
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Of course it is, and its important that people fight the instinct to smear all exploration as bad because of asshole billionaires. Its pretty ironic for people to try to express the urgency to fix the earth in language that is strikingly similar to conservative anti-science talking points. Theres a clear villain here, and it ain’t science.
Not to mention if spacex discovers something magical going to mars they will own all the patents right?
This misses a key point. If the goal was to provide internet to people there are much cheaper and less environmentally challenging ways to do it. It’s an excuse for Elon’s vanity project.
A very honest way to describe the Mars mission!
Yeah this was my point. In terms of bang for the buck there are a myriad of earth bound problems that would benefit more per dollar for humanity even if one day this Mars escapism delivered in unbelievable ways.
It is just jacking off money at this point.
Several people have said we can do both.
These guys are not doing both. These guys are not doing both. They are doing one.
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That’s what you think the two richest guys in the world are trying to achieve?
All they are doing is showing off and gambling which if it pays off they can use that money to invest in the next over wealthy flex.
Trying to attribute benevolence to what’s going on with space travel isn’t going to cut it.
It is literally just the newest level of the same game the insanely rich have played since the dawn of time.
Are there?
No I’ve been arguing for taking all their money away and giving it to the government.
Oh yeah, nobody here is arguing that Musk is a jopke. I was touting the benefits of publicly funded and controlled space exploration.
I think that is too simple. What these things have in common is one big problem where you needed to find new solutions. How much of the stuff would you have been really looking for if it wasnt space adventures? If you cant make money of it how many will be looking for new solutions? We can see that in medicine where you dont have drugs for certain deseases/illnesses because its just not profitable. If you threaten somebody elses business model we can be certain these people will lobby for not having research in that area done at all.
Would be interesting to see an overview over the scientific advances that came through wars, focussed research or by chance.
A lot of the pictures of earth that give us some glimpse how the planet is changing (e.g. deforestation, melting polar ice) is coming from space. How would you do it different?
Another angle on this is that even if the space program does something totally frivolous, there is a benefit to establishing and preserving Awe Of Science as a cornerstone of the culture. This is pure feels on my part, but boy oh boy an honest look around the world in 2021 sure as heck provides a lot of evidence that erosion in faith in science is a very bad thing.
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That’s another thing. We can use all the money for making live better but as long as religion and racism play a role these efforts will fall short.
no it doesn’t. space exploration has many more benefits for those on earth before a person ever steps foot on mars.