PipfordSep 11, 2024

"Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars"

It's great to see someone FINALLY mention the magnetosphere issue, in the very first sentence no less, but this article rips into the idea so much more thoroughly than that, and with admirable gusto.

#skeptic #musk #mars

https://defector.com/neither-elon-musk-nor-anybody-else-will-ever-colonize-mars

Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars | Defector

Mars does not have a magnetosphere. Any discussion of humans ever settling the red planet can stop right there, but of course it never does. Do you have a low-cost plan for, uh, creating a gigantic active dynamo at Mars’s dead core? No? Well. It’s fine. I’m sure you have some other workable, sustainable plan…

Show threadBruno NicolettiSep 11, 2024
@anandamide The book “A City on Mars” by @ZachWeinersmith and his wife Kelly, takes apart the whole idea of space colonisation. https://www.acityonmars.com
A CITY ON MARS

Earth is not well. The promise of starting life anew somewhere far, far away—no climate change, no war, no Twitter—beckons, and settling the stars finally seems within our grasp. Or is it? Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements, but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea.

Show threadBerndSep 12, 2024
@bjn @anandamide @ZachWeinersmith I think I still have its counterpart, Robert Zubrin's "The Case for Mars", lying around. I haven't read it. I probably never will. It would infuriate me too much.
Show threadZach Weinersmith
@hopfgeist @bjn @anandamide Zubrin disagrees with us a lot, but I would say he's the best opposition voice in book-length. His science is totally solid, it's just a matter of how you feel about his planning and analysis of history and values, etc.
Sep 14, 2024 at 6:26pmWeb
Show threadBerndSep 14, 2024
@ZachWeinersmith @bjn @anandamide oh, that's a great endorsement, maybe I should read it after all. Thanks for your reply.
Show threadZach WeinersmithSep 14, 2024
@hopfgeist @bjn @anandamide I think it'd be informative. He genuinely dislikes us (the words "dishonest" and "enemy" have been used) but it's essentially the classic work in the field. Musk is a fan of it. If you want to know where the community is at, it's pretty central. We just think it skips over a lot of potential showstoppers and relies on theories of history that are inaccurate.
Show threadBerndSep 14, 2024
@ZachWeinersmith @bjn @anandamide the X-Plane flight simulator had a "Mars" mode, simulating Mars gravity and atmospheric conditions. While we were developing planes to fly in that "thin air" (which we now know definitively to be totally possible), some 10 years ago, the book was mentioned a couple of times.
Show threadJayNov 12, 2024
@ZachWeinersmith @hopfgeist @bjn @anandamide
Thanks Zach, I was on the fence too. Now I can read both books :)