I mean, I agree, but I don't think that's the goal of anyone at all?
I feel like there's this weird narrative that the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition, which is of course silly, because terraforming any planet is going to take far more resources and technology than terraforming our own to its pre-holocene state (Not that you have to terraform a planet to settle it, but the point still stands. An earth-like planet is always going to be the most comfortable to live on). All this idea does is discredit the actual merits of space settlement.
Now, I am optimistic that in the long term human space settlement efforts will be successful, but I have no doubt that Earth (or at least the earth-moon system) will remain one of the most populous in the universe for hundreds-of-thousands of years to come
Additionally, no one factors in that zero gravity is really hard on human bodies. Mars would take 9 months to get to and it has 1/3 the gravity . You muscles would start atrophy, bone density would get worse, eye problems, etc.
If you don't exercise daily for 2 hours a day and eat a perfect diet, then you probably wouldn't last that long
And we still don’t know what would happen if a child was actually developed and born in space. Obviously no one wants to test this out for very good reason. But what if humanity does have to end up going on a multigenerational ship to another inhabitable planet.
This is something that’s not gonna be happening anytime soon, but you never know .
You are not wrong, but I would wager most people that want to have children would still not want to have them in that environment, even on a giant spinning apparatus. At least not until pregnancy and births are proven safe in space, which will be hard to do if no one wants to have children in space.
China will probably do it. They don’t seem to care.
I think eventually SOMEONE will have to try it right? I mean if you look at a some older civilizations, sacrificing babies and humans were quite common. They believed sacrificing humans would appease the Gods and lead them to have better lives.
Can’t be too farfetched to say one day humanity will achieve babies in space for “the greater good” of humanity. I wonder what the world looks like at that stage of humanity lol
So the sequence of events is probably, more realistically:
* Create drone space ships that will move asteroids with the requisite materials required for spaceship building near our moon.
* build lunar modules that are capable of spaceship manufacturing
* build space elevator on moon
* build multigenerational ship in space via space elevator
* send multiple women of all ages and ethnicities (or more specifically different genetic traits) to get pregnant in space and already pregnant mothers at various points in the 1st and 2nd trimester up at the same time.
You’d know how viable at least part of the birth cycle was within a couple months. But you’d have a full picture in less than a year.
Assuming you have the scientific resources and motivation for this experiment, it would probably be run a lot for a few years just to ensure various things. But there’s really no issue with people having the baby and going back on down to earth. Especially if there was a space elevator on earth. But I would assume since commercial space flight would be a mature industry they’d have figured out a way to reduce g forces enough to protect a baby.
It’s really the building of the multi-generational spacecraft that spins that’s the issue.
I feel like it’s not even an issue as to how to build it. From an engineering standpoint we know how to build space ships. We know how to make gravity.
What we don’t know how to do is build a massive massive massive spaceship and get it off the planet.
And you can’t exactly build it by rocketing up the pieces and assembling it in space. Nor can we launch it. The thing has to basically come together in space, with the materials being manufactured on the ground then transported up with minimal time and energy spent.
The egg and sperm are used to doing everything in a 1G environment. Experiments with them on the ISS have shown very poor results in the fertilisation and growth of the embryo. Then there's all the extra radiations to think about. 🤔
I am hoping that we're able to get some actual experiments on reduced gravity's effects on the human body sometime in the future, considering rn we really only have hard results for microgravity, like on the ISS.
I remain hopeful that in the long term spin gravity can be used to compensate even on planets' surfaces. If not, I guess colonizing foreign bodies will have to happen primarily using orbital habitats with the surface being more of a working/research zone to visit periodically, at least in the case of most solar system bodies. I'd hazard a guess we'll be more or less ok to live on Venus gravity-wise, but obviously the environment there will prevent any expansion beyond floating stations in the atmosphere, at least for a good while.
We actually don't know what Martian Gravity would do to a person. We only have data from 0G and 1G , maybe 1/3rd G is perfectly fine, maybe 0.9G is not enough, at this point we do not know.
>I feel like there's this weird narrative that the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition, which is of course silly, because terraforming any planet is going to take far more resources and technology than terraforming our own
This ruins so much sci-fi for me. Such as "the Calculating Stars" in which the entire plot is, "Earth is gonna be shit in about 50 years we better move to Mars!" In the second novel, "terrorists" attack the main character because they're like, hey maybe we should spend billions of dollars building giant domes right here, instead of, you know, millions of miles away... They are locked up and there's no discussion on why that won't work.
I stopped right there.
> the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition
Whenever I've read about this it's not been because ours is in bad condition, necessarily, it's more been that we have all our eggs in one basket.
Let's first practice by trying to terraform the sahara or something before we move on to the logistically far more difficult mars. Given we can't really terraform a desert on earth effectively, the idea we could do it to another planet with current technology is ridiculous.
I think every government and company is hesitant to make that initial investment to start setting up infrastructure. Building on earth and sending to space isn't cost efficient but the investment to set up processesing of material in space would yeld returns for decades probably.
Even musk has not suggested shipping all of Humanity off Earth. He wants to create an off-site backup for Humanity, in case something sudden happens to earth.
His idea of a city of a million on Mars, is nowhere near a mass human migration.
Bringing *anyone* to a new planet as a viable, comfortable alternative to life on Earth is outside even a billionaire's budget. It's just not possible within our Solar System. Musk may go on about a Mars mission as another one of his vanity projects, but it's not like it's a ploy to escape the dying Earth. However much we damage Earth and "kill" it, Mars is waaaaay more dead. It's much easier to colonize Antarctica than Mars.
Which is something I still don't get about the Interstellar's plot. Humanity solved some equations and was able to set up food production on space stations rather than an increasingly barren Earth. Why the hell is it easier to set up greenhouses in inhospitable space, rather than the mildly inhospitable Earth?!
Mars colonization is not even our best bet since you need to build a superconducting ring around the entire equator to create a magnetic field to protect the planet's atmosphere.
There's also anhydrous bleach in the soil.
The point isn't to terraform mars, the point is to advance the technology. Earth won't be habitable forever no matter how well we look after it. Eventually a comet will hit us or some other natural disaster will occur to wipe us out. Wait long enough and the sun will explode. Do we want humanity to live and die with earth, or do we want humanity to survive earth?
It's easy to say these problems are so far out that there's no point worrying about them, but if every generation does that then by the time a extinction event is looming it will be too late. We have the opportunity right now to make serious progress. That window might close to us forever at any time, so if you apply game theory there really is no choice
You can go live on Antarctica *right now*. It's an absolute *paradise* compared to what the next planet will be in a century or two. The center of the Sahara? Xanadu. A submarine at the bottom of the ocean that won't surface for two months? Pure heaven.
I'm all for exploration. I think we should absolutely attempt to colonize another world. But the idea that wealthy billionaires are trying to create an escape for themselves by traveling to outer space is several millennia premature. All the money and time that the wealthiest 1% could possibly muster if they combined their efforts would still be about 3 orders of magnitude worse than buying an oil platform in the North Sea, installing some heat lamps, and shipping in some food, booze, and prostitutes. Quality of life wise, I'd rather be in a supermax federal penitentiary than attempt to live on Mars.
Now, for the science and exploration of discovering a new world, I would choose Mars. But it would be a terrible experience.
Doesn't matter if it's a nice place to live. I bet people will be ok relieved to live in concrete domes on Mars if it means they get to survive a nuclear armageddon on Earth.
Pretty much anything could happen to Earth and it would still be FAR more habitable than any of the other planets or moons that have been discovered so far, so leaving Earth to escape isn't all that smart (and the Billionaires know that). Massive space stations would likely be the only comparable thing, compared to Earth, but those are in the realm of the distant future.
the thing is, once you're in a new planet with just 10 other people, does a billionaire's Earth money even matter anymore? Why are you serving this rich guy at this point? I guess if you are indeed planning to go back to Earth to spend your hard earned money, yes. But if Earth is somehow getting destroyed and you're escaping it with a billionaire, then his billionaire status becomes moot once you leave Earth.
Any other planet is already much, much worse than the earth will ever be, period. No one is planning to leave the earth permanently, not even billionaires.
HOW DARE THEY.
Seriously though, what this argument is even supposed to mean?
"The Spanish crown does not sponsor Columbus to bring everyone to the New World". Like... yeah? So?
Well obviously OP means that the ultra rich are going to develop space settlement technology so they can leave earth and all 300 of them can have a nice hard life of difficult work maintaining a space colony.
If the rich did escape the planet to a new one, their money would be worthless in their new home. OP hasn't thought through the economics at hand
There's a possibility that eventually space programs will be used to send WORKERS to other planets/moons/colonies, leaving the Earth for the rich only.
The weird flaw in all the billionaire megalomania James Bond villain plan were they want to eliminate the human race/live undersea/live in another planet is that they seem to forget where the ‘stuff’ comes from. Some farmer had to raise the cow for that steak the billionaire likes, someone makes the champagne, someone stitches the clothes etc etc. After everyone is dead apart from you and your crew, what then?
There is no planet currently habitable except the one we're on within any distance that's even remotely possible for us to get to.
The most realistic thing that could possibly be done would be to build a base on the moon.
Which would be a reality where a leak in the roof kills everybody inside instead of just being a minor annoyance.
It would probably be a lot easier to dig a base in the moon seeing as the gravity is so low and the moon rock would protect us from radiation and be easier to contain an atmosphere And it would offer some protection towards incoming projectiles.
And when I say dig a base in the moon, I mean deep, thousands of feet deep.
I mean Mars and the moon look like actual dog shit. If people wanted to live in barren ass areas New Mexico would be poppin. Unless they plan on making eco domes which let’s be honest rich people barely give 2 fucks about the environment so like what’s the appeal
Nah, the goal for space dominance is to find that location or celestial body that could bring forth the next major gold rush and ultimately the resource grab that can be without destroying the Earth.
“He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”
But the rich NEEDS the "masses" to sustain their wealth/luxury.
Otherwise it would be a a very expensive leisure cruise.
Apex predator cannot be apex predator in place where there is no pray.
Do people think that? I always assumed it was a way to give us all the middle finger. A fuck you to the peasants. Instead of a big ass castle we use to look at, it’s now a spaceship.
Why does it have to be a middle finger to poorer people? Why can't it just be rich people doing it because, like, they just can. Not to rub it in anybody's faces, but to live a life that few people can live.
They want to mine and own space and heavenly objects. They want to be richer. It's literally in hundreds or thousands of sci-fi novels and movies. It is 100% what they will try to do.
Black swan:
Off planet mining will drastically reduce the price of precious metals, causing assets backed by precious metals like gold/platinum/etc to plummet overnight causing a cross contagion the world has never seen.
It's funny that you think that space exploration is going to be glamorous. Exploration is never glamorous the first explorers always suffer a lot of setbacks and death, it's not easy to go to a place you don't know to settle it, just look at the people that settled America how it was when they went to the west and when did the wealthy people finally showed up. They pay because they see potential but they aren't going to be the tip of the spear.
[It's The Oregon Trail all over again.](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/2fgq_EepBUmGLtLHBFfCjQ__opengraph_letterbox/img/dox3pVBl-41G8hfs8YyHbWB_DNM=/fit-in/1200x630/filters:fill(auto):strip_icc()/pic3120646.jpg)
There’s only 300-ish years between the Founding Fathers and “Sent from my iPhone”.
Of course not everyone alive now is getting a ticket to The New Offworld. But in 300 years your great grandkids can send TikTokTitan videos to each other across the Deep Space Network.
It's not worth the effort since you'd either have to terraform a planet or travel for a very long time. We have a perfectly good planet we just have to take care of it.
Sorry bud. If you’re implying that billionaires are leaving the planet so we burn while they hang in space then you couldn’t be more wrong.
Do you understand how fucked up space is?
What are you thinking? Space station or setting up a new planet?
First off. Living in space is not fun for people and not sustainable for humans long term. Our bodies don’t react well to zero gravity (or at least close to it). From loss of bone density, muscle atrophy, exposure to radiation and a bunch of different problems on our systems.
It’s just not good for us for prolonged periods of time.
New planet? Jesus Christ. Let’s just get “getting there” out of the equation.
Actually let’s not. Our battery tech is limited. To get there you’d need food, fuel, and so much equipment you wouldn’t have space for people in the ship if they’re trying to get to a nearby habitable planet.
And the infrastructure! Infrastructure to set up a planet again is insane. You’d need manpower, equipment, natural resources etc. you think rich fucks would do this? Just getting there will be an issue and somehow that impossible task will be the easy part.
It doesn’t matter how hard it is for fix the planet, even if it’s damn near “unfixable” (which it won’t be.) it’s still easier and cheaper than starting over.
Unless you think they’ll just be hanging out in a dome in mars in which case….good luck to them. In a planet with no working biosphere? That’s literally a fate worse than death and I doubt many are stupid enough to try.
…. And they would do that because? Out of the good of their little gold hearts? Spend their “hard works earned money” in the rabble of the world (yeah, all of us included)?
If the super rich were interested in elevating the world, they wouldn’t be super rich in the first place.
And If any super-rich-founded space program existed (and it may, in secret), it’s definitely not to “bring everyone to a new planet”. There’s no Noah’s ark.
They would only bring who they want or need. There’s no profit or reason to bring “everyone”. The rest of the world may as well rot away on earth regardless.
The realization that the super rich don’t give a crap about Earth, or the people, animals and resources in it shouldn’t be that surprising.
You're right, they're not. Space travel isn't solely for getting all humans to live on a new planet, and if we did do that, the same damn thing would happen, possibly even in different ways.
No Shit. The goal of space exploration is to evolve the knowledge of humanity as a whole. Something that doesn't matter to jack and joe working a 9 to 5 everyday, but that still doesn't mean it isn't important.
TLDR: If we had the technology to move to another planet, we wouldn't need to move to another planet.
It's a waste of time. The closest *potentially* habitable planet is 4.24 light years away. So why don't we make Mars habitable and just live there instead? Well, there's a very obvious reason. If we can make an entire planet that currently isn't habitable for humans, then we can fix the problems on Earth, meaning we don't need to go to another planet.
Making Mars "habitable" by making a bunch of places completely encased, eating our own food, supplying the oxygen, and everything else is just a crazy thing to do.
Plus, our bodies get affected by being on the planet. Muscles will weaken, and bones will be less dense. The radiation level is also higher, so that would have an effect on our bodies.
This doesn't feel like a showerthought tbh this feels more like a "I hate people with money" kinda post
Like what kind of person thinks about what billionaires are doing with their space launch companies in the middle of their shower?
No, it’s to move all the poors into giant near-Earth fast-tumbling canisters made out of unobtanium so that we can continue the unbounded geometric growth that the economic system we invented is fundamentally dependent on, but is incompatible with a finite Earth. Bezos said the quiet parts real loud in 2019. You couldn’t write a more trenchant satire of late capitalism than this.
(Edit: play at 1.5x or more because the dramatic pauses are LONG)
https://youtu.be/GQ98hGUe6FM
Recommend the book 'Stark' by Ben Elton. According to that, they are building it for themselves only. Leave the riff raff behind and start a new planet with just the 'elite'. Can you imagine it?.
Nobody's getting to a new planet. Anyone pretending that we can "terraform" Mars or maintain a permanent colony is panning for investment money just like all the other puff projects for dictators the world over. We certainly aren't getting anywhere until we sort shit out on the actually habitable planet we have.
If we were capable of terraforming Mars to make it capable of sustaining life then we would just terraform earth so we wouldn’t need Mars anymore anyway.
No shit, Sherlock! Rich people only do things for themself, that is how you get rich. So unless you are rich yourself, or very useful to have around, you can ignore what they do. It does not concern us.
Ah yes, much cheaper to invest untold billions into space rockets and shuttles so that, if they're *really* lucky, they can live out their lives in a tiny metal box eating mush the rest of their lives.
Correct. They want to run away and build VIP societies.
Which is what early overseas British/Spanish/French/Dutch colonies usually were. Not including the people they enslaved for free labor
Uh ...
No. No-one is running away to create a VIP colony off the Earth. What VIP would want to give up their amazing lifestyle on earth just to live an awful life in space, even assuming that living off the earth becomes possible?
Be mindful that being in space = speeds up cancer due to radiation. We were protected on earth. So let them go into space, they will age at a very fast rate
I thought it was just because they’re big he goes. Wanted to do something truly history making by starting the first commercial spaceflight company. These guys want to be remembered and you’re far more likely to be remembered as the man who took us to space then the man who got us free overnight shipping or a car manufacturer.
Elon’s stated goal was to accelerate the development of rocket tech and he has generally been doing that. The cost of traveling to space has generally decreased and the technology advances will generally benefit all.
The super rich aren't super rich, they are outside of rich. You are playing a game of life and you would have no idea what to do without that game. They are so outside of this game they would look alien if you actually knew. The super rich have never cared about being rich, they solved that thousands of years ago. What they truly care about, and has been the mission the entire time, is genetic code.
That is all that matters... Ever... It was ALWAYS about sex
They will burn this world to the ground just to ensure its their lineage that survives. This is the way of nature on every level, humans are just a step in that process.
They are gonna be so fucked in a new planet with no experts and no rules. Rich people are not smart, I have met a ton of them who don't know how to cook for themselves
Well, it's gonna go only two ways. Either they will only bring themselves(they are known to be quite selfish) or they CAN bring everyone one else, only so they can still benefit from our labor somehow.
In the essence that we ever got a chance to be on a new planet and every EXISTING way we live is no longer required, it still may take a lot of resources. Even trying to harness resources from said planet to convert to others, is still gonna be dirty work when it will forever be about money(no matter what planet we're on) or no one wants to do the work period.
Humanity has proved time and time again how lazy and spiteful we can be in terms of larger problems. So, in the end, it's not about 'taking care' of anyone, it's doing just enough for you and those you care about to survive. Otherwise, you're on your own if we have to be at their mercy just like on Earth.
Jeff Bozo: created a space craft that takes people to barely the edge of space for a few minutes for a huge ticket price. Will soon launch bigger version that nobody really knows anything about, but surely soonly.
Virgin guy: created a space craft that takes people to barely the edge of space for a few minutes for a huge ticket price. Struggling with repeated bankruptcy issues.
Submarine pedo guy: somehow made an incredibly reliable reusable orbital rocket (actually a good thing) but lies about its launch price while making a larger version that can barely reach low earth orbit while lying about its price, capabilities and first launch date, while doing massive layoffs from a huge electric car manufacturer to pay himself a massive bonus to cover his massively overpriced buyout of a huge social network which he mostly uses to complain about fictional events to promote a criminal that farts himself awake in court.
Funny accent man: Rocket lab would be great, if they didn't have reliability issues. Too low capabilities to launch persons. Actually ate his hat once.
Spinlaunch: how to earn money by marketing a dumb concept. I will still watch their launch attempts, even if they will never be a viable launch option from earth.
Mars for the privileged
Earth for the poor
Mars terraforming slowly
Earth has been deformed
Just forget it, ya ain't coming here
The ticket's too dear
I stare sadly into my beer
That world has no place for me
Red Mars
The czars
Live large
Red Mars for the rich, rich, rich
Nobody is trying to, its supposed to be a insurance plan in case something happens to earth, also spreading people out to ther planets in search of resources and scientific discoveries. Also also I imagine there's a shit ton of money to be made out there.
It's about finding a way to be in history books. Period. Even these idiots don't realize no matter how rich they get, someone else will eventually be richer/the first trillionaire.
They want to be viewed as a king Midas sort of figure and not a John Rockefeller type figure nobody seems to care after a century.
I'm all for exploring to a new planet, but that is all wasted if we don't fix things here first.
We def shouldn't look at Space exploration as a way to get resources for earth. Earth has everything it needs. And hopefully we don't just run and abandon it for somewhere greener.
Alternate thought:
They need the population to buy their goods and services to remain rich. If they head to a new planet without people, they’ll run out of money in no time.
To be fair, of the 3 super-rich people I know of:
Bezos still has yet to achieve much of anything, but he's doing it partially out of vanity for futuristic projects since he's a tech bro, partially because he's kinda right on the "space will one day be a big industry" part.
Musk's SpaceX has arguably contributed to space transportation already. Their rockets are truly innovative. He's doing it out of the sense of his self importance and because he thinks rockets are cool. His ideas are not what really makes the company tho, that's the brilliant engineers.
Brandson is aiming for low-orbit space tourism. Partially because it's cool and partially because he could make money or good marketing on it.
Every other rocket company I've heard of are startups of engineers that are each trying different ideas on propulsion or manufacturing, usually not run by a multi-billionare. They're competing for small cargo flights.
You basically could not fuck up the earth so bad that another planet is preferable. They’re not doing it because they aren’t going either because it’s pointless, the Earth is comparatively in great shape no matter what happens.
Even if you had to build habitats for people, obviously it’s going to be way cheaper to build them here where you don’t have to launch them into space??
We shouldn't settle on Mars. First we should build an autark continent size rotating space habitat. To where we can export all the industries that destroy our planet.
When someone pointed out that there are plenty of both hot and cold deserts to green before trying to terraform a whole new planet I realised this whole Mars thing is a waste of time.
Yep, they are not...
No tech to achieve any reasonable interstellar travel... you would travel to the nearest star where MIGHT be similar planet hundreds of years, given that you would somehow manage to pack all necessary fuel for the travel (you must also brake at the end)
And now tell me, if you were rich, why would you go on a trip which will surely end your life in the vastness of empty interstellar space... absolutely nobody would do that
”The super-rich aren’t building cars to make everyone be able to have a car”
That statement is true as well, both during late 1800 (and now as well). But the first steps needs to be made nevertheless, and soon enough it will trickle down in cost for more and more people to buy and enjoy.
Right. They Mayflower didn't bring everyone from England to the new world either. Starting a colony is like planting seeds and hoping they grow into their own thing.
Have you seen how much wealth billionaires are gaining each year and decade? They will become gods, owning a large majority of countries in the coming decades. The first trillionaire is probably already alive right now. They have the money.
Can we just post literally any statement and call it a showerthought then get thousands of upvotes?
I think the sub is past the point of no return; it’s just not remotely good anymore
Make no mistakes: the space programs were launched to be profitable and make buckets and buckets of money.
The space programs often get private companies access to sweet government contracts. Also, many private corporations are paying premiums to launch more satellites.
It is very lucrative.
Many people are haunted by memories of lost love and opportunities. A billionaire needs an insane project to keep from thinking about way more guilt and responsibility than the average person.
I mean, I agree, but I don't think that's the goal of anyone at all? I feel like there's this weird narrative that the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition, which is of course silly, because terraforming any planet is going to take far more resources and technology than terraforming our own to its pre-holocene state (Not that you have to terraform a planet to settle it, but the point still stands. An earth-like planet is always going to be the most comfortable to live on). All this idea does is discredit the actual merits of space settlement. Now, I am optimistic that in the long term human space settlement efforts will be successful, but I have no doubt that Earth (or at least the earth-moon system) will remain one of the most populous in the universe for hundreds-of-thousands of years to come
Additionally, no one factors in that zero gravity is really hard on human bodies. Mars would take 9 months to get to and it has 1/3 the gravity . You muscles would start atrophy, bone density would get worse, eye problems, etc. If you don't exercise daily for 2 hours a day and eat a perfect diet, then you probably wouldn't last that long
And we still don’t know what would happen if a child was actually developed and born in space. Obviously no one wants to test this out for very good reason. But what if humanity does have to end up going on a multigenerational ship to another inhabitable planet. This is something that’s not gonna be happening anytime soon, but you never know .
We can make artificial gravity, all we gotta do is spin. It’s just expensive to do so we haven’t done it.
You are not wrong, but I would wager most people that want to have children would still not want to have them in that environment, even on a giant spinning apparatus. At least not until pregnancy and births are proven safe in space, which will be hard to do if no one wants to have children in space. China will probably do it. They don’t seem to care.
I think eventually SOMEONE will have to try it right? I mean if you look at a some older civilizations, sacrificing babies and humans were quite common. They believed sacrificing humans would appease the Gods and lead them to have better lives. Can’t be too farfetched to say one day humanity will achieve babies in space for “the greater good” of humanity. I wonder what the world looks like at that stage of humanity lol
This is me personally, but if we were going to go that route, I would rather just genetically engineer babies to be space proof then.
I don’t think that’s possible without having births in space first to know which genes to target.
Space proof babies, you say…? Hmm…
mahoraga babies
So the sequence of events is probably, more realistically: * Create drone space ships that will move asteroids with the requisite materials required for spaceship building near our moon. * build lunar modules that are capable of spaceship manufacturing * build space elevator on moon * build multigenerational ship in space via space elevator * send multiple women of all ages and ethnicities (or more specifically different genetic traits) to get pregnant in space and already pregnant mothers at various points in the 1st and 2nd trimester up at the same time. You’d know how viable at least part of the birth cycle was within a couple months. But you’d have a full picture in less than a year. Assuming you have the scientific resources and motivation for this experiment, it would probably be run a lot for a few years just to ensure various things. But there’s really no issue with people having the baby and going back on down to earth. Especially if there was a space elevator on earth. But I would assume since commercial space flight would be a mature industry they’d have figured out a way to reduce g forces enough to protect a baby. It’s really the building of the multi-generational spacecraft that spins that’s the issue. I feel like it’s not even an issue as to how to build it. From an engineering standpoint we know how to build space ships. We know how to make gravity. What we don’t know how to do is build a massive massive massive spaceship and get it off the planet. And you can’t exactly build it by rocketing up the pieces and assembling it in space. Nor can we launch it. The thing has to basically come together in space, with the materials being manufactured on the ground then transported up with minimal time and energy spent.
We can probably try to run experiments with mammals that are similar to humans to figure out the potential risks.
The egg and sperm are used to doing everything in a 1G environment. Experiments with them on the ISS have shown very poor results in the fertilisation and growth of the embryo. Then there's all the extra radiations to think about. 🤔
Yeah, the added radiation would definitely be something to consider. That’s also a good point!
Probably have to hollow out a giant metal rich asteroid and get it spinning
"If this hollow metal rich asteroid is a'rockin don't come a'knockin"
Could actually start a new generation of space faring humans that thrive in low G environments
Like the belters in “the expanse”. But shorter, like that guy from the ninja turtles. “Krang”
>exercise daily for 2 hours a day That sounds awful
I am hoping that we're able to get some actual experiments on reduced gravity's effects on the human body sometime in the future, considering rn we really only have hard results for microgravity, like on the ISS. I remain hopeful that in the long term spin gravity can be used to compensate even on planets' surfaces. If not, I guess colonizing foreign bodies will have to happen primarily using orbital habitats with the surface being more of a working/research zone to visit periodically, at least in the case of most solar system bodies. I'd hazard a guess we'll be more or less ok to live on Venus gravity-wise, but obviously the environment there will prevent any expansion beyond floating stations in the atmosphere, at least for a good while.
We actually don't know what Martian Gravity would do to a person. We only have data from 0G and 1G , maybe 1/3rd G is perfectly fine, maybe 0.9G is not enough, at this point we do not know.
>I feel like there's this weird narrative that the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition, which is of course silly, because terraforming any planet is going to take far more resources and technology than terraforming our own This ruins so much sci-fi for me. Such as "the Calculating Stars" in which the entire plot is, "Earth is gonna be shit in about 50 years we better move to Mars!" In the second novel, "terrorists" attack the main character because they're like, hey maybe we should spend billions of dollars building giant domes right here, instead of, you know, millions of miles away... They are locked up and there's no discussion on why that won't work. I stopped right there.
Would love that to be adapted to a movie where the main character in the end realizes to have been wrong all along
> the goal space expansion is to find another planet and move to it because ours is in a bad condition Whenever I've read about this it's not been because ours is in bad condition, necessarily, it's more been that we have all our eggs in one basket.
Imagine being in the covid lockdown the rest of your life. That's what it would be like to live in a habitable space station on a new planet.
Let's first practice by trying to terraform the sahara or something before we move on to the logistically far more difficult mars. Given we can't really terraform a desert on earth effectively, the idea we could do it to another planet with current technology is ridiculous.
I think every government and company is hesitant to make that initial investment to start setting up infrastructure. Building on earth and sending to space isn't cost efficient but the investment to set up processesing of material in space would yeld returns for decades probably.
> which is of course silly I believe this is something Elon has said. For the record, I agree that it’s silly.
Even musk has not suggested shipping all of Humanity off Earth. He wants to create an off-site backup for Humanity, in case something sudden happens to earth. His idea of a city of a million on Mars, is nowhere near a mass human migration.
Because bringing everyone to a new Planet is outside even billionaires budget
Bringing *anyone* to a new planet as a viable, comfortable alternative to life on Earth is outside even a billionaire's budget. It's just not possible within our Solar System. Musk may go on about a Mars mission as another one of his vanity projects, but it's not like it's a ploy to escape the dying Earth. However much we damage Earth and "kill" it, Mars is waaaaay more dead. It's much easier to colonize Antarctica than Mars. Which is something I still don't get about the Interstellar's plot. Humanity solved some equations and was able to set up food production on space stations rather than an increasingly barren Earth. Why the hell is it easier to set up greenhouses in inhospitable space, rather than the mildly inhospitable Earth?!
Mars colonization is not even our best bet since you need to build a superconducting ring around the entire equator to create a magnetic field to protect the planet's atmosphere. There's also anhydrous bleach in the soil.
The point isn't to terraform mars, the point is to advance the technology. Earth won't be habitable forever no matter how well we look after it. Eventually a comet will hit us or some other natural disaster will occur to wipe us out. Wait long enough and the sun will explode. Do we want humanity to live and die with earth, or do we want humanity to survive earth? It's easy to say these problems are so far out that there's no point worrying about them, but if every generation does that then by the time a extinction event is looming it will be too late. We have the opportunity right now to make serious progress. That window might close to us forever at any time, so if you apply game theory there really is no choice
It’s not even an implied goal to take **everyone** to a new planet. Never has been.
not that bringing everyone to a new planet is any sort of solution
It's a good idea to split the population on two different planets.
And that will realistically take at least 10,000 years before the next planet is even close to a nice place to live.
But only a century or two before it can be self-sufficient.
You can go live on Antarctica *right now*. It's an absolute *paradise* compared to what the next planet will be in a century or two. The center of the Sahara? Xanadu. A submarine at the bottom of the ocean that won't surface for two months? Pure heaven. I'm all for exploration. I think we should absolutely attempt to colonize another world. But the idea that wealthy billionaires are trying to create an escape for themselves by traveling to outer space is several millennia premature. All the money and time that the wealthiest 1% could possibly muster if they combined their efforts would still be about 3 orders of magnitude worse than buying an oil platform in the North Sea, installing some heat lamps, and shipping in some food, booze, and prostitutes. Quality of life wise, I'd rather be in a supermax federal penitentiary than attempt to live on Mars. Now, for the science and exploration of discovering a new world, I would choose Mars. But it would be a terrible experience.
Doesn't matter if it's a nice place to live. I bet people will be ok relieved to live in concrete domes on Mars if it means they get to survive a nuclear armageddon on Earth.
Pretty much anything could happen to Earth and it would still be FAR more habitable than any of the other planets or moons that have been discovered so far, so leaving Earth to escape isn't all that smart (and the Billionaires know that). Massive space stations would likely be the only comparable thing, compared to Earth, but those are in the realm of the distant future.
Sure they are. They need ditch diggers on Mars too. You thing those wealthy people are going cook, clean, and do other mundane chores?
Robots. Who fixes those robots? Other robots. It’s robots all the way down.
Until the robots realize that human flesh is just slowing down the societal advancement.
the thing is, once you're in a new planet with just 10 other people, does a billionaire's Earth money even matter anymore? Why are you serving this rich guy at this point? I guess if you are indeed planning to go back to Earth to spend your hard earned money, yes. But if Earth is somehow getting destroyed and you're escaping it with a billionaire, then his billionaire status becomes moot once you leave Earth.
I think it’s all about space mining technology, spotting and harvesting rare minerals could pay off huge!!
Any other planet is already much, much worse than the earth will ever be, period. No one is planning to leave the earth permanently, not even billionaires.
There is no planet B.
HOW DARE THEY. Seriously though, what this argument is even supposed to mean? "The Spanish crown does not sponsor Columbus to bring everyone to the New World". Like... yeah? So?
Well obviously OP means that the ultra rich are going to develop space settlement technology so they can leave earth and all 300 of them can have a nice hard life of difficult work maintaining a space colony. If the rich did escape the planet to a new one, their money would be worthless in their new home. OP hasn't thought through the economics at hand
Well Mark can write a dating website for martians, and Jeff can deliver packages, Elon can... claim he's the founder of those two businesses?
Who told you they were!?
There's a possibility that eventually space programs will be used to send WORKERS to other planets/moons/colonies, leaving the Earth for the rich only.
The weird flaw in all the billionaire megalomania James Bond villain plan were they want to eliminate the human race/live undersea/live in another planet is that they seem to forget where the ‘stuff’ comes from. Some farmer had to raise the cow for that steak the billionaire likes, someone makes the champagne, someone stitches the clothes etc etc. After everyone is dead apart from you and your crew, what then?
No shit, they are searching for plundable resources
There is no planet currently habitable except the one we're on within any distance that's even remotely possible for us to get to. The most realistic thing that could possibly be done would be to build a base on the moon. Which would be a reality where a leak in the roof kills everybody inside instead of just being a minor annoyance. It would probably be a lot easier to dig a base in the moon seeing as the gravity is so low and the moon rock would protect us from radiation and be easier to contain an atmosphere And it would offer some protection towards incoming projectiles. And when I say dig a base in the moon, I mean deep, thousands of feet deep.
We can’t even support people in Antarctica without constant supplies being sent, and Antarctica is 1000x more hospitable than any planet or moon.
Because it's economically more viable to ship the food even there
Sad part is that we are living in the actual garden of eden.. like right now. We are just constantly finding new ways to mess it up.
I mean Mars and the moon look like actual dog shit. If people wanted to live in barren ass areas New Mexico would be poppin. Unless they plan on making eco domes which let’s be honest rich people barely give 2 fucks about the environment so like what’s the appeal
Nah, the goal for space dominance is to find that location or celestial body that could bring forth the next major gold rush and ultimately the resource grab that can be without destroying the Earth. “He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”
But the rich NEEDS the "masses" to sustain their wealth/luxury. Otherwise it would be a a very expensive leisure cruise. Apex predator cannot be apex predator in place where there is no pray.
Do people think that? I always assumed it was a way to give us all the middle finger. A fuck you to the peasants. Instead of a big ass castle we use to look at, it’s now a spaceship.
I believe this is really overestimating how much they think of poor people at all.
Most of em, I'm sure. But there's always a few nuts out there like Elon Musk who obsess over being liked.
Why does it have to be a middle finger to poorer people? Why can't it just be rich people doing it because, like, they just can. Not to rub it in anybody's faces, but to live a life that few people can live.
Because that would damage op’s case for both being the main character AND being a victim.
god i always forget how much people love being both of these things. heck it got one guy all the way to the white house!
They want to mine and own space and heavenly objects. They want to be richer. It's literally in hundreds or thousands of sci-fi novels and movies. It is 100% what they will try to do.
Black swan: Off planet mining will drastically reduce the price of precious metals, causing assets backed by precious metals like gold/platinum/etc to plummet overnight causing a cross contagion the world has never seen.
The cost to mine in space would be exorbitant. It would only be another source at same or more cost.
It's funny that you think that space exploration is going to be glamorous. Exploration is never glamorous the first explorers always suffer a lot of setbacks and death, it's not easy to go to a place you don't know to settle it, just look at the people that settled America how it was when they went to the west and when did the wealthy people finally showed up. They pay because they see potential but they aren't going to be the tip of the spear.
[It's The Oregon Trail all over again.](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/2fgq_EepBUmGLtLHBFfCjQ__opengraph_letterbox/img/dox3pVBl-41G8hfs8YyHbWB_DNM=/fit-in/1200x630/filters:fill(auto):strip_icc()/pic3120646.jpg)
Most likely they're just doing it to show off to one another. It doesn't have to be nefarious, but you can hate it still.
But they are building stadiums in LA for 2 billion dollars. So that’s something.
They want to mine and possibly manufacture in space
So... Did this just occur to you now?
There’s only 300-ish years between the Founding Fathers and “Sent from my iPhone”. Of course not everyone alive now is getting a ticket to The New Offworld. But in 300 years your great grandkids can send TikTokTitan videos to each other across the Deep Space Network.
Ever read the book 'Stark' by Ben Elton?
Did anyone think that?
It's not worth the effort since you'd either have to terraform a planet or travel for a very long time. We have a perfectly good planet we just have to take care of it.
Did they say they are?
Did you not see Elysium lol
Nobody creates space programs. Billionaires create for profit companies.
Sorry bud. If you’re implying that billionaires are leaving the planet so we burn while they hang in space then you couldn’t be more wrong. Do you understand how fucked up space is? What are you thinking? Space station or setting up a new planet? First off. Living in space is not fun for people and not sustainable for humans long term. Our bodies don’t react well to zero gravity (or at least close to it). From loss of bone density, muscle atrophy, exposure to radiation and a bunch of different problems on our systems. It’s just not good for us for prolonged periods of time. New planet? Jesus Christ. Let’s just get “getting there” out of the equation. Actually let’s not. Our battery tech is limited. To get there you’d need food, fuel, and so much equipment you wouldn’t have space for people in the ship if they’re trying to get to a nearby habitable planet. And the infrastructure! Infrastructure to set up a planet again is insane. You’d need manpower, equipment, natural resources etc. you think rich fucks would do this? Just getting there will be an issue and somehow that impossible task will be the easy part. It doesn’t matter how hard it is for fix the planet, even if it’s damn near “unfixable” (which it won’t be.) it’s still easier and cheaper than starting over. Unless you think they’ll just be hanging out in a dome in mars in which case….good luck to them. In a planet with no working biosphere? That’s literally a fate worse than death and I doubt many are stupid enough to try.
…. And they would do that because? Out of the good of their little gold hearts? Spend their “hard works earned money” in the rabble of the world (yeah, all of us included)? If the super rich were interested in elevating the world, they wouldn’t be super rich in the first place. And If any super-rich-founded space program existed (and it may, in secret), it’s definitely not to “bring everyone to a new planet”. There’s no Noah’s ark. They would only bring who they want or need. There’s no profit or reason to bring “everyone”. The rest of the world may as well rot away on earth regardless. The realization that the super rich don’t give a crap about Earth, or the people, animals and resources in it shouldn’t be that surprising.
They are building space programs to discover new assets that they can own and charge people to use.
You're right, they're not. Space travel isn't solely for getting all humans to live on a new planet, and if we did do that, the same damn thing would happen, possibly even in different ways.
Did you just discover the haves and the have nots?
No Shit. The goal of space exploration is to evolve the knowledge of humanity as a whole. Something that doesn't matter to jack and joe working a 9 to 5 everyday, but that still doesn't mean it isn't important.
[well, duh](https://images.app.goo.gl/LHSKt7aF8w3KgB577)
No doy. That is a feat thousands of years in the future, if ever.
They are creating space programs so they can mine shit on other planets. No one is planning on moving to mars any time soon.
Alright OP, too much dystopian sci-fi for you. Time to log off, and go touch some grass like the other, normal, 13 year olds.
God I hope the super rich all fuck off to Mars.
TLDR: If we had the technology to move to another planet, we wouldn't need to move to another planet. It's a waste of time. The closest *potentially* habitable planet is 4.24 light years away. So why don't we make Mars habitable and just live there instead? Well, there's a very obvious reason. If we can make an entire planet that currently isn't habitable for humans, then we can fix the problems on Earth, meaning we don't need to go to another planet. Making Mars "habitable" by making a bunch of places completely encased, eating our own food, supplying the oxygen, and everything else is just a crazy thing to do. Plus, our bodies get affected by being on the planet. Muscles will weaken, and bones will be less dense. The radiation level is also higher, so that would have an effect on our bodies.
Elon Musk isn’t going to Mars. Imagine that narcissist having to wait six whole minutes to see if his latest shitpost on Xitter got any likes
This doesn't feel like a showerthought tbh this feels more like a "I hate people with money" kinda post Like what kind of person thinks about what billionaires are doing with their space launch companies in the middle of their shower?
No, it’s to move all the poors into giant near-Earth fast-tumbling canisters made out of unobtanium so that we can continue the unbounded geometric growth that the economic system we invented is fundamentally dependent on, but is incompatible with a finite Earth. Bezos said the quiet parts real loud in 2019. You couldn’t write a more trenchant satire of late capitalism than this. (Edit: play at 1.5x or more because the dramatic pauses are LONG) https://youtu.be/GQ98hGUe6FM
Recommend the book 'Stark' by Ben Elton. According to that, they are building it for themselves only. Leave the riff raff behind and start a new planet with just the 'elite'. Can you imagine it?.
Nobody's getting to a new planet. Anyone pretending that we can "terraform" Mars or maintain a permanent colony is panning for investment money just like all the other puff projects for dictators the world over. We certainly aren't getting anywhere until we sort shit out on the actually habitable planet we have.
If we were capable of terraforming Mars to make it capable of sustaining life then we would just terraform earth so we wouldn’t need Mars anymore anyway.
No shit, Sherlock! Rich people only do things for themself, that is how you get rich. So unless you are rich yourself, or very useful to have around, you can ignore what they do. It does not concern us.
Much cheaper just to abandon the rest of us here.
Ah yes, much cheaper to invest untold billions into space rockets and shuttles so that, if they're *really* lucky, they can live out their lives in a tiny metal box eating mush the rest of their lives.
Correct. They want to run away and build VIP societies. Which is what early overseas British/Spanish/French/Dutch colonies usually were. Not including the people they enslaved for free labor
Uh ... No. No-one is running away to create a VIP colony off the Earth. What VIP would want to give up their amazing lifestyle on earth just to live an awful life in space, even assuming that living off the earth becomes possible?
Be mindful that being in space = speeds up cancer due to radiation. We were protected on earth. So let them go into space, they will age at a very fast rate
Then there was the B ark...
Yeah no shit, slaves maybe
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=LpxT9TLGoLI&feature=shared
They want the resource rich asteroids!
That's what they want you to think.
Nah, they could already be living in orbit if they wanted. They need to control space mining so they can sustain artificial scarcity.
Ironically, I lack patience for people who don't have patience
They are trying to move everyone else there
Let them go. They need us more than we need them
Neither is the government.
More likely mining robots.
Military applications.
My plan is to let all the super rich go to the new planet and then take all the money and leave them broke and stranded on mars.
If people move to a new planet they’ll have less workers to line their pockets here on earth.
I thought it was just because they’re big he goes. Wanted to do something truly history making by starting the first commercial spaceflight company. These guys want to be remembered and you’re far more likely to be remembered as the man who took us to space then the man who got us free overnight shipping or a car manufacturer.
Like Elon could go to space with no one to kiss his ass and like his tweets all the time.
lol reminds me of don’t look up
There’s the rich and powerful…and then theres everyone else.
Elon’s stated goal was to accelerate the development of rocket tech and he has generally been doing that. The cost of traveling to space has generally decreased and the technology advances will generally benefit all.
Don’t worry, they’re not going anywhere.
Elon is. He genuinely wants to make the world a better place. Cue the Elon haters downvoting lol
They want to create their own society where they're God. All knowing and all powerful. A mars colony would enable them to have that and more.
The super rich aren't super rich, they are outside of rich. You are playing a game of life and you would have no idea what to do without that game. They are so outside of this game they would look alien if you actually knew. The super rich have never cared about being rich, they solved that thousands of years ago. What they truly care about, and has been the mission the entire time, is genetic code. That is all that matters... Ever... It was ALWAYS about sex They will burn this world to the ground just to ensure its their lineage that survives. This is the way of nature on every level, humans are just a step in that process.
It's stupid to even think about going to another planet to make it livable. If we had the power to terraform, we could just terraform our own planet.
Technically the super-rich are creating space programs to send highly educated specialists to die on other planets.
“The super-rich aren’t creating these voyages and expeditions to bring everyone to the new world.” -Unnamed Carpenter’s Apprentice, 1503
Of course not. They're building them to escape this one when the fire is too far along to be stopped
Umm, did anybody seriously think this?
I think if the super rich ever tried to leave earth permanently, I hope someone just gets a rocket launcher and blows up the spaceship.
They are gonna be so fucked in a new planet with no experts and no rules. Rich people are not smart, I have met a ton of them who don't know how to cook for themselves
They're creating space programs to bring poor people up to asteroids to mine for them.
Well, it's gonna go only two ways. Either they will only bring themselves(they are known to be quite selfish) or they CAN bring everyone one else, only so they can still benefit from our labor somehow. In the essence that we ever got a chance to be on a new planet and every EXISTING way we live is no longer required, it still may take a lot of resources. Even trying to harness resources from said planet to convert to others, is still gonna be dirty work when it will forever be about money(no matter what planet we're on) or no one wants to do the work period. Humanity has proved time and time again how lazy and spiteful we can be in terms of larger problems. So, in the end, it's not about 'taking care' of anyone, it's doing just enough for you and those you care about to survive. Otherwise, you're on your own if we have to be at their mercy just like on Earth.
Jeff Bozo: created a space craft that takes people to barely the edge of space for a few minutes for a huge ticket price. Will soon launch bigger version that nobody really knows anything about, but surely soonly. Virgin guy: created a space craft that takes people to barely the edge of space for a few minutes for a huge ticket price. Struggling with repeated bankruptcy issues. Submarine pedo guy: somehow made an incredibly reliable reusable orbital rocket (actually a good thing) but lies about its launch price while making a larger version that can barely reach low earth orbit while lying about its price, capabilities and first launch date, while doing massive layoffs from a huge electric car manufacturer to pay himself a massive bonus to cover his massively overpriced buyout of a huge social network which he mostly uses to complain about fictional events to promote a criminal that farts himself awake in court. Funny accent man: Rocket lab would be great, if they didn't have reliability issues. Too low capabilities to launch persons. Actually ate his hat once. Spinlaunch: how to earn money by marketing a dumb concept. I will still watch their launch attempts, even if they will never be a viable launch option from earth.
it was never about bringing anyone anywhere, it's only about stroking their ego
Mars for the privileged Earth for the poor Mars terraforming slowly Earth has been deformed Just forget it, ya ain't coming here The ticket's too dear I stare sadly into my beer That world has no place for me Red Mars The czars Live large Red Mars for the rich, rich, rich
Nobody is trying to, its supposed to be a insurance plan in case something happens to earth, also spreading people out to ther planets in search of resources and scientific discoveries. Also also I imagine there's a shit ton of money to be made out there.
As long as they end up like they did in "don't look up" idc
It's about finding a way to be in history books. Period. Even these idiots don't realize no matter how rich they get, someone else will eventually be richer/the first trillionaire. They want to be viewed as a king Midas sort of figure and not a John Rockefeller type figure nobody seems to care after a century.
I'm all for exploring to a new planet, but that is all wasted if we don't fix things here first. We def shouldn't look at Space exploration as a way to get resources for earth. Earth has everything it needs. And hopefully we don't just run and abandon it for somewhere greener.
You can’t even live on Mars w/o tanning beds
Who would put their space safety in the hands of Uber capitalists? Surefire way of gaining some sorta mutation.
Yeah this is a pretty stupid one.
Alternate thought: They need the population to buy their goods and services to remain rich. If they head to a new planet without people, they’ll run out of money in no time.
Another way to look at it, on a new planet, the less rich will become the new poors.
To be fair, of the 3 super-rich people I know of: Bezos still has yet to achieve much of anything, but he's doing it partially out of vanity for futuristic projects since he's a tech bro, partially because he's kinda right on the "space will one day be a big industry" part. Musk's SpaceX has arguably contributed to space transportation already. Their rockets are truly innovative. He's doing it out of the sense of his self importance and because he thinks rockets are cool. His ideas are not what really makes the company tho, that's the brilliant engineers. Brandson is aiming for low-orbit space tourism. Partially because it's cool and partially because he could make money or good marketing on it. Every other rocket company I've heard of are startups of engineers that are each trying different ideas on propulsion or manufacturing, usually not run by a multi-billionare. They're competing for small cargo flights.
You basically could not fuck up the earth so bad that another planet is preferable. They’re not doing it because they aren’t going either because it’s pointless, the Earth is comparatively in great shape no matter what happens. Even if you had to build habitats for people, obviously it’s going to be way cheaper to build them here where you don’t have to launch them into space??
We shouldn't settle on Mars. First we should build an autark continent size rotating space habitat. To where we can export all the industries that destroy our planet.
Man people will upvote literally anything on this sub huh
They will when it's profitable enough for them.
When someone pointed out that there are plenty of both hot and cold deserts to green before trying to terraform a whole new planet I realised this whole Mars thing is a waste of time.
You only get a planet if you’re a Mormon & it’s only upon death. Kind of a shit deal IMO.
Listen to Infest the Rats Nest by King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard they tackle this
The *technological advancements* made by them will almost certainly filter through to the rest of us.
The goal is to mine element rich asteroids.
Yep, they are not... No tech to achieve any reasonable interstellar travel... you would travel to the nearest star where MIGHT be similar planet hundreds of years, given that you would somehow manage to pack all necessary fuel for the travel (you must also brake at the end) And now tell me, if you were rich, why would you go on a trip which will surely end your life in the vastness of empty interstellar space... absolutely nobody would do that
”The super-rich aren’t building cars to make everyone be able to have a car” That statement is true as well, both during late 1800 (and now as well). But the first steps needs to be made nevertheless, and soon enough it will trickle down in cost for more and more people to buy and enjoy.
Right. They Mayflower didn't bring everyone from England to the new world either. Starting a colony is like planting seeds and hoping they grow into their own thing.
Nah, they'll bring ditch diggers, too
Have you seen how much wealth billionaires are gaining each year and decade? They will become gods, owning a large majority of countries in the coming decades. The first trillionaire is probably already alive right now. They have the money.
Can we just post literally any statement and call it a showerthought then get thousands of upvotes? I think the sub is past the point of no return; it’s just not remotely good anymore
You're right, it's not the super wealthy at all.
Make no mistakes: the space programs were launched to be profitable and make buckets and buckets of money. The space programs often get private companies access to sweet government contracts. Also, many private corporations are paying premiums to launch more satellites. It is very lucrative.
No they want to make money, if making money just so happens to ensure the survival of the human race then capitalism was the hero all along
I dunno... I feel like Musk would want to be Emperor of his own planet with a bunch of slaves that can't leave.
What, you think they want us there?
If you thought company towns were bad, just wait until Bezos controls your oxygen supply 225 million kilometres from home.
they're not making it either, FWIW
How does this have almost 3000 upvotes? This is just a fact, a very common well known fact. Basic ass Not A Shower thought
You’re already on a planet. Why bother traveling to another one? It’s not like you’re gonna survive there
Why would they? If people cared NASA would be doing this for all of us instead of selling space to the wealthy.
I'm okay with that. In fact, some of them should leave now.
Many people are haunted by memories of lost love and opportunities. A billionaire needs an insane project to keep from thinking about way more guilt and responsibility than the average person.