"Space may be fascinating, wonderful, and exciting, but most of all, it is incredibly dangerous. As far as human space travel goes, it’s probably best that it stays in the realm of science fiction, at least for the foreseeable future."
How about letting explorers, informed adults, and risk takers make their own decisions.
I would rather the geniuses of earth work on anti-aging or cancer research than wish fulfillment of a 50 year old man child.
Remember when Elon said the Moon was a "distraction" and they were going "straight to Mars" [1]? That was only a year ago. At the time my guess was that a) Starship is just badly designed for being a lunar landing vehicle and b) the project is way behind anyway so this was just a way of kicking the can down the street. So what changed?
It's NASA's overhaul of the Artemis and SLS programs (IMHO) [2]. NASA wants to improve these programs by launching them more often and that, in Elon's mind, turns them into more of a competitor and takes money away from SpaceX. It's as simple as that.
I stand by my criticism of Starship: I think history will show it to be the Cybertruck of SpaceX. It's a poorly designed platform and it's beiggest problem is going to be that it has to compete with Falcon 9. It's going to be fantastically expensive to develop. It's still many years away from its promise (eg in-orbit refuelling) and there simply isn't the demand to get payloads that large into LEO or geostationary orbit.
[1]: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1875023335891026324?lang=en
[2]: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-artemis-moon-program-overh...
For Tesla it was "electrify transport to end dependence on fossil fuels and save the planet", for SpaceX it was "save humanity by becoming a multi-planetary species".
With how much he talked about it, he did probably actually believe in Mars.
But now both of these ideals have come into conflict with his newfound political affiliations, so they have to be dropped.
How so? Do you mean Trump's refusal to accept Climate change?
It's fascinating that you and nick49488171 both characterize this article in ways that no reasonable person would ("pearl clutching", "fear mongering") and have nothing substantive to say about the points made at all.
“As far as human space travel goes, it’s probably best that it stays in the realm of science fiction, at least for the foreseeable future.”
And no arguments for that conclusion? C’mon: radiation, the effects of microgravity on human bodies, none of which we have good solutions for…yet. The author argues that we don’t have good solutions, and probably won’t within their lifetime. If you’ve got counter-arguments, let’s hear them, but calling the TFA’s sound arguments “pearl clutching” isn’t productive.
As for your hazards Microgravity can be counteracted with a centrifugal living environment.
Radiation can not be mitigated effectively yet other than throwing mass at the problem. But if someone wants to launch enough mass that's on them.
Only with their own money, like Musk and whoever else wants to make that choice should sell their piles of stock and fund the "2% chance of success".
Don’t need one, it’s an opinion piece, with plenty of facts to back it up. You’ve proposed solutions that don’t yet exist. When those solutions are viable, maybe it’s not such a bad idea. But at the moment it would appear that such a journey has low odds of ending well. If Musk wants to burn cash, and has willing participants, go for it. But with my tax dollars? Yeah, you’re going to have to do better than a lick, prayer, and a hearty “good luck!”
moribvndvs•7h ago
Wait you mean Elon has been full of shit all this time???
baxtr•7h ago
But delivered on rockets and StarLink.
I’d say it’s mixed!
nobleach•7h ago