I simply don't care how realistic some pundit thinks Musk's plans are ... Musk seems to find a way to accomplish his goals and also makes it clear those goals are intended to better society in some way. Naysayers have an easy job since they can pooh-pooh an idea and if they're wrong, they're simply forgotten. I bet the authors record for predicting success is far less impressive than Musk's record of actually accomplishing hard things.<p>And when it comes down to it, I for one am happy to see someone (Musk in this case but everyone else is welcome to step up) promoting visionary goals with this kind of passion. Watching the Apollo missions as a youngster led me towards a career in engineering but I have to admit most of todays focus on "disruptive applications" leaves me jaded. Will the next revolutionary to-do list really cause the transcendence of mankind? Musk estimates it will cost $10bn but if the VCs had any long-term vision there would be twenty times that promised towards this goal.<p>Note: if politician's in the U.S. had any vision they'd earmark half the defense budget towards science and medicine goals - We choose to go to mars in this decade and do the other things - not because they are easy but because they are hard.
Hold on a sec. This article basically says that we need to wait until a plan makes sense. Well a trip to Mars will never make sense financially and it's easy to find fault in all plans. Planning a trip to the Mojave desert makes better sense. It's cheaper, no one will die and we know there's life there.<p>A trip to Mars is a stretch goal that we need to start as a species. We know that our lifetime as a species is limited on earth so the sooner we start figuring out how to get off the planet the better. Yes, we might fail but then we'll have to try again and again.<p>Musk has made himself the spokesman for that task. No one else seems to want the job. Yes, he's a dreamer and might be overselling the task but that's what we need. We need to start. I can tell you that if we never try it will never happen.<p>My hope is that he becomes so rich that he owns all of Mar's resources. Yes, he'll own them for a bit but it means mankind has made a large step forward. Go Musk!
> A SpaceX rocket goes boom, and you're not quite sure why? Time to announce the plan to colonize Mars.<p>This is just plain wrong, the Mars announcement was planned for a long time.<p>Also, Mars colonization was the reason he founded SpaceX.<p>However, the article raises a good point, colony on Mars is unlikely, because Earth is a much better place to live. Same reason why there's no big city in Antarctica or under the ocean - it's just a very shitty place to live. And Mars is much, much worse, plus it's hard to get there or back.<p>So, although I <i>really</i> enjoy the idea of a self-sufficient city on Mars, it just seems extremely unlikely.
And yet, roughly 40,000 people make the trip to Everest Base Camp each year -- another desolate and inhospitable place with no tangible economy. An economist might say this is done for 'tourism', but I prefer Mallory's famous insight that people go 'because it's there'.<p>Ever since we came down from the trees, humans have been setting out on reckless and suicidal journeys for which there is no hope of return. Humanity spread over nearly the entire planet and found its way to countless isolated pacific islands before recorded history even began.<p>When the price and the science finally line up, there will be no shortage of wealthy old kooks happy to pony up the funds, accept the risk, and set off for the solar system's most exotic retirement.
Really colonization/terraforming would be nice, but if that never happens -- think of all the technologies like CAT Scans that will be developed while we 'try' to terraform Mars. As global warming gets worst we might even discover a cure for issues with our own planet by looking for solutions into making Mars more livable.<p>Scientific discovery whether it fails or succeeds will never hurt us or set us back, it's failure to keep momentum going that will. Space tech hasn't really evolved like other industries in the past 40 years because interest has dried up. It's now starting to see a revival, and I for one am excited, and would like to take a space trip on the ITS around the solar system which may be a possibility.<p>If I can't go to mars, I'd still love a chance to go see the rings of Saturn from a space hotel. That would be worth every dollar, and crashed rocket.
This is the kind of miserable critic who asks "yes but what's the practical use of it ?" when confronted with an exciting new scientific discovery. A fun-squashing, party-pooping, 1-dimensional, monochromatic-minded <i>coin</i>.<p>Humans are born for adventure. It's who we are. We explore and we discover and we don't need to have practical reasons. Often it's only in retrospect that the utility of an adventure becomes evident, you simply can't know everything in advance and it would be no fun if you could. This is exactly the sort of (informed and calculated) leap of faith our species needs right now, poised as it is on the verge of possible armageddon.
No one, including Musk, says that colonizing Mars is a "good" idea economically or practically. This guy's arguments are fundamentally missing the point.<p>But here's one advantage Mars <i>does</i> have- it's far from other humans. And humans, not asteroid strikes or supervolcanoes, are the most worrying potential source of the catastrophic events we want to protect our civilization from.
Article fails to define "worthwhile", thus rendering its many value judgments moot.<p>Article refutes "existential risk to human life" with "billions of years of supporting life", which is a non-sequitur. "Thousands of years of supporting human life" isn't quite so convincing...