5074

Not for long, though. ;)

5075

I still donā€™t understand Mars as a primary colony. Shouldnā€™t we be focused on Earthā€™s oceans, since theyā€™re likely to eventually cover most of the planet ? And at least that way you donā€™t need to deal with the distance, lack of a magnetosphere, etcā€¦

Musk needs to focus on Waterworld, not the Red Planet.

5076

Mars makes somewhat more sense as an offsite backup. It depends on what youā€™re looking to achieve with a colony I suppose.

5077

Are we still doing phrasing?

5078

As long as you get a tickle out of Uranus, you may carry on posting such headlines.

5079

NASA is well over 50. They should be probing Uranus annually for prostate health.

5080

You never know what you might find deep within Uranus.
There are some interesting gasses coming from Uranus.
NASA wants to closely observe Uranus.

5081

We shouldnā€™t make jokes about Uranus. Itā€™s not a laughing matter! Though I wonder if we would find dark matter there.

5082

Or perhaps Klingons

5083

If I have my mythology right, he was castrated, not probed. Time will tell.

5085

Elon talks about a lot more than space in this lengthy and far-ranging interview. It is a free Ted talk, Iā€™m n ot sure how long it will remain that way.

5086
5087
5088

Catching up on this thread and I now have the urge to play either Evil Genius or Hardspace: Shipbreaker.

5089

Itā€™ll be fun when these people havenā€™t undergone extensive psychological exams and significant mental training, and flip out on the red planet when they realize thereā€™s nothing to look at and nothing to do but work on a dead rock.

5090

Wait. Heā€™s going to give money to people on another planet where money is useless? Am I reading this correctly?

5091

The plan is to have a self-sufficient city on Mars, which means there will be an economy, which means money wonā€™t be useless. Unfortunately, even if a self-sufficient city (which would require 100s of thousands of residentsā€¦) was achievable, there would be no way in which it could be economically viable in terms of paying back the cost of establishing it.

If you are going to spend trillions on high-tech infrastructure, there are plenty of places here on Earth where you could see returns (almost) right-away.

5092

Solve problems on earth? Psh. Thatā€™s crazy talk. Never gonna get internet randos to praise the smell of your farts that way.

5093

Solving problems implies someone else is also profiting. Unacceptable.

5094

Unless thereā€™s a rare resource to ship back to Earth thatā€™s abundantly available on Mars, there is no reason to colonize it outside of scientific endeavors due to the discovery of life. I mean, it makes more sense to colonize the middle of the Sahara desert than Mars at this point.