Added September 10, 2024
To Make Life Multiplanetary. Gateway to Mars, SpaceX
https://www.spacex.com/updates/#make-life-multiplanetary
Links to a recent 44 minute video, April 6, 2024
"The goal of SpaceX is to build the technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary. This is the first time in the 4-billion-year history of Earth that it’s possible to realize that goal and protect the light of consciousness."
"At Starbase on Thursday, April 4, SpaceX Chief Engineer Elon Musk provided an update on the company’s plans to send humanity to Mars, the best destination to begin making life multiplanetary."
"All of SpaceX’s current programs, including Falcon, Dragon, Starlink, and Starship are integral to developing the technologies necessary to make missions to Mars a reality. The update included near-term priorities for Starship that will unlock its ability to be fully and rapidly reusable, the core enabler for transforming humanity’s ability to send large amounts of payload to orbit and beyond."
My Comments
On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. The Apollo project ended with Apollo 17 launched in 1972.
There was a 50 year gap in the timeline for US missions to the Moon.
Now SpaceX would like to seed Mars with human life.
If anyone can provide a backup system on Mars for human life it could be SpaceX. Actually, visiting the Moon and Mars is on my bucket list.
Elon should consider: Von Neumann probes, panspermia, and the story of Noah. Will the SpaceX rockets to Mars bring lions, horses, cows, zebras?
Added July 13, 2024
SpaceX rocket accident leaves company's Starlink satellites in wrong orbit, PhysOrg, July 13, 2024
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-spacex-rocket-accident-company-starlink.html
"A SpaceX rocket has failed for the first time in nearly a decade, leaving the company's internet satellites in an orbit so low that they're doomed to fall through the atmosphere and burn up."
"The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Thursday night, carrying 20 Starlink satellites. Several minutes into the flight, the upper stage engine malfunctioned. SpaceX on Friday blamed a liquid oxygen leak."
"The Federal Aviation Administration said the problem must be fixed before Falcon rockets can fly again."
"It was not known if or how the accident might impact SpaceX's upcoming crew flights. A billionaire's spaceflight is scheduled for July 31 from Florida with plans for the first private spacewalk, followed in mid-August by an astronaut flight to the International Space Station for NASA."
Added March 28, 2024
Elon Musk’s Mars colony plan is ‘dangerous illusion’, says Astronomer Royal, The Telegraph, March 27, 2024
https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-mars-colony-plan-191220042.html
"Elon Musk is harbouring a “dangerous illusion” that a colony can be established on Mars, the Astronomer Royal has warned."
"Prof Lord Martin Rees, who is also the co-founder of the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, said that it would be easier to solve climate change on Earth than look to escape to another planet."
"Speaking on Lord Speaker’s Corner, the podcast for the House of Lords, Lord Rees said that travelling to other planets should be left to private pioneers and not be a goal for national governments."
He described Musk as a “extraordinary figure” with a “rather strange personality”, but said that he did not agree with his plan to build a city on Mars.
My Comments
Prof Lord Martin Rees' opinion about establishing a colony on Mars is probably spot on. Lord Rees opines, "It would be easier to solve climate change on Earth than look to escape to another planet."
SpaceX has not flown any uncrewed rockets to the Moon or Mars. The SETI Nuggets Editor wonders if Elon Musk has an estimate predicting when SpaceX will start building Mars colonies and flying passengers to Mars. Perhaps an upgrade of the SpaceX rockets is needed to a Nimbus2000 flying broomstick.
Kudos to the British Astronomer Royal.
Added November 18, 2023
SpaceX’s Starship rocket explodes in second test flight after reaching new milestones, CNN, November 18, 2023
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/18/world/elon-musk-spacex-starship-launch-scn/index.html
"SpaceX’s gargantuan deep-space rocket system, Starship, safely lifted off Saturday morning, but ended prematurely with an explosion and a loss of signal."
"The Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft successfully separated after liftoff, as the Starship lit up its engines and pushed away. That process ended up destroying the Super Heavy booster, which erupted into a ball of flames over the Gulf of Mexico. But the Starship spacecraft was able to briefly continue its journey. "
"The automated flight termination system on second stage appears to have triggered very late in the burn as we were headed down rage out over the Gulf of Mexico,” aerospace engineer John Insprucker said."
https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/
"SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket – collectively referred to as Starship – represent a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond."
Also see:
SpaceX’s Starship rocket reaches space but is intentionally destroyed mid-flight, CNBC, November 18, 2023
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/18/spacex-starship-second-rocket-launch.html
My Comments
How many Starship missions need to be successfully completed before a Starship mission can be crewed?
Looks like a crewed Starship mission is probably several years away.
Also, is the Starship booster supposed to be reusable? According to the SpaceX website Starship is fully reusable.
Elon Musk reveals whether he's seen evidence of alien life, Fox News, April 18, 2023
https://www.foxnews.com/media/elon-musk-reveals-whether-seen-evidence-alien-life
"Space X CEO Elon Musk knows a thing or two about space exploration but says he hasn’t seen any evidence of "conscious" alien life anywhere in the universe– at least just yet."
"A lot of people ask me, you know, where are the aliens? And I think if anyone would know about aliens on Earth it would probably be me," Musk said in a sit-down interview Tuesday with "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
"Yeah, I'm, you know, very familiar with space stuff. And I've seen no evidence of aliens."