Musk, apparently already dubbing himself reigning emperor of the red planet, said that Mars wouldn't just be an “escape hatch for rich people.”
“It's going to be uncomfortable and you probably won’t have good food, and all these things, you know,” he said. He noted that colonizing Mars would be “dangerous... uncomfortable... a long journey, you might not come back alive, but it's a glorious adventure and it'll be an amazing experience.”
He added: “If an arduous and dangerous journey where you might not come back alive, but it's a glorious adventure, sounds appealing, Mars is the place. That's the ad for Mars.”
Despite this, Musk didn't think he would have any trouble finding volunteers. “Honestly, a bunch of people probably will die in the beginning. It's tough sledging over there, you know. We don't make anyone go,” he added about a colonization project that doesn't really even exist. “It's volunteers only.”
Musk is the rare billionaire whose billions haven't made him more cautious. He couldn't have pitched it any better unless he was Heinlein writing the ad that kicks off the plot of Glory Road: "ARE YOU A COWARD? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man." There's not a red-blooded man alive who doesn't get a thrill thinking about being on that crew.
The effeminate, finger-wagging tone of the writer couldn't be more off-putting. We would have made nothing of ourselves or this world without smart, fit, motivated young men doing the bidding of visionaries and egomaniacs. The post-war liberal consensus drove man's rudimentary nature into hiding, and we act surprised when it surfaces and manifests in unapproved ways. Young men will search far and wide for the camaraderie and sense of accomplishment that forges strangers into brothers. This is a worthy application of that effort.
"Space exploration has always been plagued by naysayers who insist that every problem here on earth must be solved before we even think of leaving." –Dean Bradley
It's interesting how people who advocate pouring trillions of dollars into failed government programs to lift people out of poverty morph into penny-pinching cynics when it comes to space exploration.
Mr. Neanevu's use of "human race" here betrays a mistaken (or perhaps totalitarian) sense of collective destiny for all people. As if subgroups of people never broke the bonds to their land, their nation, their country, to strike out on their own! Such was God's call to Abraham, and he obeyed. This is a recurring theme in the travels and travails of man, as old as history.
I suspect a genuine myopia underlies Mr. Nwanevu's tweet, a myopia shared by many whose minds boggle at the costs and challenges of space exploration. In which case, it's helpful to review recent history.
How easy it is to forget that the Industrial Revolution began a sustained period of rapid technical achievement that continues today. A lucky boy who may have witnessed the Wright brothers' first powered flight in North Carolina would have watched Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon 67 years later. In the same span of time streaming TV shows and movies replaced the radio drama as the go-to home entertainment medium. Who could have known at the time the changes that were coming? Our finite minds cannot fathom how technology will advance.
One of the biggest costs of space exploration is getting astronauts and their gear into space. Thanks to reusable rockets, those costs are going way, way down. Bigger savings can be squeezed from 3D printers, which are rapidly becoming more sophisticated. In-situ resource utilization will be key to a sustainable colony on Mars. Instead of waiting 6 months for a prefabbed part to ship from Earth, you can download the blueprint via satellite and build it from the raw materials you pulled out of the ground in less than a day.
That's not science fiction. That's real tech we can deploy today. Tomorrow, who knows?
Let me know what you think in the comments. If you like sci-fi, check out my books Seeds of Calamity and Tendrils to the Moon. You can find extended previews for each here and here.
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