Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hirundo 1805 days ago
This project appears to be on the critical path to making humanity a multi planetary species. That should be balanced against whatever impact the environmental review finds. Not that it should give SpaceX a blank check. But to the extent that the environment is fragile and needs protection, it's even more important to not have all of our eggs in it.
1 comments
microtherion 1805 days ago
> This project appears to be on the critical path to making humanity a multi planetary species.

Inasmuch as "multi planetary" means multiple _self supporting_ planetary settlements (and otherwise, what's the point?), that seems to be an entirely unrealistic goal for the foreseeable future, so, by definition, there cannot really be a "critical path" to such a goal.

link
nickik 1805 days ago
No other system currently built will get human to Mars even non-self supporting.
link
microtherion 1805 days ago
That may be so, but that's a different claim. If he had a plausible path to build a backstop against catastrophes threatening to wipe out humanity, a case could be made that this should outweigh everyday regulations & petty bureaucratic paperwork.

What he has is a plausible path to shipping canned apes for a brief sojourn to a far away locale fairly hostile to long term habitation. If that's what he wants, fine, but there's no reason the regular legal process needs to be waived for that.

link
hirundo 1805 days ago
> a plausible path to shipping canned apes for a brief sojourn

The important part of that end is a much more economical tech for putting mass into orbit. I'd argue that is currently the single most effective thing that we can do toward becoming multiplanetary. Yes it still leaves a very long road ahead, but it's a bridge across an otherwise impassible chasm. A related Heinlein/Pournelle exchange:

  Unfortunately, in Blowups Happen a capability for orbiting large payloads had been developed. "Aha," I said. "I see your problem. If you can get a ship into orbit, you're halfway to the moon."
  "No," Bob said. "If you can get your ship into orbit, you're halfway to anywhere."
  He was very nearly right.
https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/35015/where-did-he...
link
R0b0t1 1805 days ago
Nothing is self supporting on long enough timescales.
link