I might be a little too out of it right now, but what exactly was the reporter trying to say with that? I mean isn't it kind of "No shit! Getting people to Mars will be harder than getting a car battery to cost less than $5K." (Aren't car batteries like insanely cheaper than $5K?)
And somehow this article popped up.. my brain is melting: Tesla's Elon Musk: cheap car battery tougher than Mars. And just in case your question was serious the battery in the original question is presumably the 60 kWh battery that powers Tesla cars. Musk recently mentioned about his goal to reduce the cost to $5000 (at least some time ago they were $10000 apiece).
Yeah I think she was just trying to be kind of cutesy or funny or something and Elon Musk was just like, "Mars?" and he actually said that he does expect to have a mass produced car that will be affordable to the broader consumer market... He also said that his Tesla team and the Panasonic team(their battery maker) have daily meetings pertaining to this issue.
Musk is one of the very few big businesspeople I would trust with a claim as seemingly insane as this one. And assuming that we do get to Mars in a dozen years, I'm wondering what would happen to the land there if settled. Would it be like Antarctica and not really belong to anyone? Will we see a new round of colonialism? Maybe this is megacorporations' first opportunity for a land grab?
Hopefully Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars will turn out to have been prophetic, and a core group of scientists will be able to dig into the regolith before big business can claim it without a fight. If Musk is right, then Robinson was only off by a few years on the date of our initial arrival.
Yes to both. The way I see it private corporations are the only entities with the resources available to make something like that happen. Not on their own, but with joint ventures and operations a couple big'uns can make it happen. Once they do, they'll have nations slobbering over the acre trying to get a piece of the pie now that it's been baked.
edit: to clarify on the joint ventures, notice that SpaceX does not at this time actually have the capital, but every investment bank and their cackling executives will not hesitate to pull out the stops once they have something close to a guarantee of a payoff.Will we see a new round of colonialism? Maybe this is megacorporations' first opportunity for a land grab?
In my head I have this image of a giant neon sign hanging off a satellite that says "Welcome to Mars, by Tesla Motors." With that said I believe that it will turn into something out of science fiction, where we are given the money and orders to colonize a certain way and along the way new political factions happen and we end up with a world of new nations. Like something out of the old PC game "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri." If anyone can try and get it done it's probably Musk, I think it's a lofty goal that neither NASA nor Musk will make before my time is up sometime in the next 40-60 years. I'm not really holding out hope for more than probes and rovers at this time of budget crunching.
As in all things space-x related, I turn to my space advisor AlderaanDuran to ask, "is this feasible?" Also, what about the claims in this thread that Space-X doesn't have the funding? Also, how are ya AlderaanDuran? Long time no space talk...
I am alive and well, and occasionally checking Hubski out. I don't don't really post much anymore or do the social site stuff for a variety of reasons, but do occasionally take a peak at Hubski. I got married in October of last year, found out my wife was pregnant the following month, and am expecting a baby girl pretty soon here in early August. Plus it's summer time Minnesota, which means wedding season photography and lots of yard/house work. How are you TNG? Been awhile. Yes, but it would take a lot of money and has practically zero ROI unless he can get a government to pay for the ride, and all of the R/D that lead to all of the technologies that would be needed. I say that's doubtful. That being said, I think there is a possibility Elon Musk is eccentric enough to possibly just foot the bill with hopes of breaking down some barriers and getting himself a very large mention in the history books along with a bunch of statues, monuments, and exhibits in museums. They are working on the Red Dragon which would be a version of the Dragon capsule capable of soft landing via retro rockets. The Soyuz already does this to an extent, as it lands on land and not in the sea like the previous US capsules. That's really the ONLY piece of technology that I've read about from them that has applications to a manned Mars landing. AND, they are talking about a NASA first flight of it in 2022 for a landing mission for a possible drill probe and also proving that a lander of this nature would work for humans. So I don't see them turning around and 4 years later putting people down after using this thing for the first time... even if that first time stays on schedule and right now it's just a rough proposition that recently came out. But then there's the whole journey there, the habitats, food, water, radiation protection, and the biggest question; Once you land on Mars... how do you get those men back into orbit for a docking with the cruise stage, and back to Earth? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_%28spacecraft%29 The best window for Mars puts people on Mars for well over a year, the smallest ideal window that has rare occurrences could have them there and back in a little under a year. Because you have to wait for the ideal line up to launch from Earth to Mars, then wait on Mars for everything to line up again, with us leaving Mars as is leads ahead of Earth in orbit. Each way we would essentially fly towards the orbit path and the target planet would come up on us, instead of us burning after it. I would love to believe Musk and say 2026 can happen, but I'm super skeptical about it all. There's so much tech needed. Falcon Heavy hasn't even flown yet, Red Dragon is still on the drawing board, there is a lot of other tech needed that really hasn't been addressed yet, and currently there is no customer to fund what would be the most expensive and risky manned space mission ever. While Musk is rich, I don't think he could even fund something like this with every penny he has. We'll see, but I say doubtful. My guess for people on Mars would be late 2030s, but I'd LOVE to be proven wrong. US will only pay for a Mars trip when Russia or China starts getting serious about it.how are ya AlderaanDuran?
"is this feasible?"
Here, have a badge for a well thought out answer and for all of the great stuff happening in your life. I tell you what, having a little girl is an absolute blast, I'm happy for you. Congratulations! -Speaking of costs.... :) I would agree that Musk seems like the type that would be willing to personally finance as much as he could in order to achieve something of this magnitude. That said, he has consistently been able to make pretty shrewd business decisions and perhaps some of the tech/patents that could come out of this endeavor would be valuable enough to justify the costs? I think there's a lot of "If anyone can, Musk can" sentiment out there for good reason.
I haven't seen AlderaanDuran around for ages, now that you mention it.
I know, I'm worried about him. He lives in a neighborhood prone to chemical fires. I'll PM him, in hopes of a response just to ensure he's alive and well.
It does seem unusual, given how frequently he used to crop up in my feed. On that topic, whatever happened to Saydrah?
I saw that she stopped by a few months ago to let us know she had moved to the LA area, I think. But let's see what she's up to... Hey Saydrah, how goes it?
Hey! BTW mk your notification emails are consistently getting spammed in Zimbra -- good fortune I checked my junk on a whim today. I'm in LA, working for the first time since 2009 at a purpose-driven company, and it feels great. I'm a person who can derive a greater purpose from almost anything (a lawyer friend told me once, "You must believe your client to be a good advocate," and I took that to heart along with Indra Nooyi's advice on assuming positive intentions) but it's great to be in a place where everyone is on that page. I've found it very easy to live in LA so far. The weather is of course so fantastic that people poke fun at it for being so great all the time. The people are friendly. (Really, they are. LA stereotypes have been exaggerated significantly.) There's always something to do. ALWAYS. Having a blast. But busy as hell growing a community of my own, so I've only been around others sparingly!
Hey! Back at ya. That was a nice surprise to hear from you Saydrah. It's evident from your comment that you are happy and doing well. Being a part of a "purpose driven company," that you can "believe in" seems to make all the difference. Good luck building that community. I have to ask (because I always do), how is your uncle doing with the bees?
SpaceX isn't nearly as bound be bureaucracy or budget concerns ads NASA. As for engineers, I've had the opportunity to speak with engineers in the private sector. They're pretty damn smart.
I find it useful to acknowledge that Elon Musk is first and foremost a businessman. We should take what he has with a grain of salt. He has a financial incentive to build hype around the possibility of interplanetary space travel, specifically using SpaceX spaceships. It would be foolish of him to acknowledge any kinks they have yet to work out or problems they have yet to tackle because there just isn't any incentive to do so. Also take note that we don't have much in the way of technical specs on how he plans to do it. All we have are some rendered mock ups, animations, and an optimistic outlook from someone with a monetary conflict of interest of how the public perceives the viability of future space exploration.