Good grief. Zubrin always has to ruin it. SpaceX is the only organization capable of doing the job, but let me strawman Musk’s arguments for colonization into “deserting the Earth” for a reason “so morally repulsive that its embrace would doom any program so foolish as to adopt it. Coated with ideological skunk essence, its protagonists would appear more like the selfish characters in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” dancing in a castle while everyone outside dies in an epidemic…”
And/or it’s possible the US could become even more totalitarian- or just continue the current habit of doing the very stupid things for a much longer prolonged period of time.
This is vl;sr (very long, still reading) but Dr. Zubrin fails to make a strong case for why NASA should lead a colonization attempt for Mars. It’s only track record is Apollo and that was only good for 6 surface missions (not counting Apollo 13’s aborted attempt). That’s a far, far cry from establishing a lunar base. That NASA is just now, 52 years later, contemplating attempting to establish a lunar base in a totally brain dead manner speaks volumes as to why the government should step aside, supply maybe advice and lab support but in general stay the hell out of the way of SpaceX and whoever else wants to come along for the ride. The “failure of imagination” among the Boomer scientific generation is staggering.
Even leaving aside the libelous mischaracterization of Elon’s motives in pursuing his Mars settlement efforts, Zubrin simply offers the Nth in a long series of attempted justifications for making dinky and claustrophobic vehicles with equally mingy crew complements the centerpieces of his “exploration” architectures.
Contra Mr. Spain’s special pleading, Zubrin’s long-standing obvious discomfort with space exploration efforts of any significant scale – and utter lack of enthusiasm for actual settlement – is not generational but personal. I’m a Boomer myself and am firmly of the belief that there is no such thing as too much when it comes to actually settling the solar system – as opposed to just sending out a handful of manual pickaxe-based missions that hark back to the solo-prospector-with-trusty-mule era of “exploration” in the Old West. Zubrin is barely superior, in this sense, to the worthies at JPL and the Planetary Society who would be happiest if even human “explorers” – never mind grubby “meat-bag” settlers – ever set foot on Mars or any other piece of extra-terrestrial real estate.
The rapid Westward expansion of the United States didn’t occur because of some federal initiative directed by non-participants in DC. It happened when sizable groups of people in trains of Conestoga wagons – not single ones – banded together and pushed into the wilderness. Mars will be a tougher place to pioneer than was the Trans-Mississippi. But, then, the Old West pioneers didn’t have Optimus robots to help out.
Elon, in short, will “git ‘er done.” The last few decades of NASA efforts pretty clearly indicate that NASA won’t. There is no point in indulging fantasies of restoring NASA to useful competence. SpaceX already has the required enthusiasm and competence – and will soon have a larger payroll than NASA in any case. The non-useful/capable parts of NASA should simply be shut down – most especially its DC HQ.
Good grief. Zubrin always has to ruin it. SpaceX is the only organization capable of doing the job, but let me strawman Musk’s arguments for colonization into “deserting the Earth” for a reason “so morally repulsive that its embrace would doom any program so foolish as to adopt it. Coated with ideological skunk essence, its protagonists would appear more like the selfish characters in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” dancing in a castle while everyone outside dies in an epidemic…”
What the hell?
Bob has a way with words…
I must agree. I read Dr Zubrin’s work with great interest, but this is just unnecessary and IMHO doesn’t at all capture Elon’s point about Mars.
He’s not abandoning Earth, just establishing a second outpost. Bad stuff happens! Big rocks often hit Earth.
And/or it’s possible the US could become even more totalitarian- or just continue the current habit of doing the very stupid things for a much longer prolonged period of time.
This is vl;sr (very long, still reading) but Dr. Zubrin fails to make a strong case for why NASA should lead a colonization attempt for Mars. It’s only track record is Apollo and that was only good for 6 surface missions (not counting Apollo 13’s aborted attempt). That’s a far, far cry from establishing a lunar base. That NASA is just now, 52 years later, contemplating attempting to establish a lunar base in a totally brain dead manner speaks volumes as to why the government should step aside, supply maybe advice and lab support but in general stay the hell out of the way of SpaceX and whoever else wants to come along for the ride. The “failure of imagination” among the Boomer scientific generation is staggering.
Even leaving aside the libelous mischaracterization of Elon’s motives in pursuing his Mars settlement efforts, Zubrin simply offers the Nth in a long series of attempted justifications for making dinky and claustrophobic vehicles with equally mingy crew complements the centerpieces of his “exploration” architectures.
Contra Mr. Spain’s special pleading, Zubrin’s long-standing obvious discomfort with space exploration efforts of any significant scale – and utter lack of enthusiasm for actual settlement – is not generational but personal. I’m a Boomer myself and am firmly of the belief that there is no such thing as too much when it comes to actually settling the solar system – as opposed to just sending out a handful of manual pickaxe-based missions that hark back to the solo-prospector-with-trusty-mule era of “exploration” in the Old West. Zubrin is barely superior, in this sense, to the worthies at JPL and the Planetary Society who would be happiest if even human “explorers” – never mind grubby “meat-bag” settlers – ever set foot on Mars or any other piece of extra-terrestrial real estate.
The rapid Westward expansion of the United States didn’t occur because of some federal initiative directed by non-participants in DC. It happened when sizable groups of people in trains of Conestoga wagons – not single ones – banded together and pushed into the wilderness. Mars will be a tougher place to pioneer than was the Trans-Mississippi. But, then, the Old West pioneers didn’t have Optimus robots to help out.
Elon, in short, will “git ‘er done.” The last few decades of NASA efforts pretty clearly indicate that NASA won’t. There is no point in indulging fantasies of restoring NASA to useful competence. SpaceX already has the required enthusiasm and competence – and will soon have a larger payroll than NASA in any case. The non-useful/capable parts of NASA should simply be shut down – most especially its DC HQ.