SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years.

If those all land safely, then crewed missions are possible in four years. If we encounter challenges, then the crewed missions will be postponed another two years.

It is only possible to travel from Earth to Mars every two years, when the planets are aligned. This increases the difficulty of the task, but also serves to immunize Mars from many catastrophic events on Earth.

No matter what happens with landing success, SpaceX will increase the number of spaceships traveling to Mars exponentially with every transit opportunity. We want to enable anyone who wants to be a space traveler to go to Mars! That means you or your family or friends – anyone who dreams of great adventure.

Eventually, there will be thousands of Starships going to Mars and it will a glorious sight to see! Can you imagine? Wow.

The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that, for example nuclear war, a supervirus or population collapse that weakens civilization to the point where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars.

One of my biggest concerns right now is that the Starship program is being smothered by a mountain of government bureaucracy that grows every year. This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America, which is why, for example, California has spent ~$7 billion dollars and several years on high-speed rail, but only has a 1600 ft section of concrete to show for it!

While I have many concerns about a potential Kamala regime, my absolute showstopper is that the bureaucracy currently choking America to death is guaranteed to grow under a Democratic Party administration. This would destroy the Mars program and doom humanity.

It cannot happen. Your help would be much appreciated. This is a fork, maybe the fork, in the road of human destiny.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    3 days ago

    This stifling red tape is affecting all large projects in America, which is why, for example, California has spent ~$7 billion dollars and several years on high-speed rail, but only has a 1600 ft section of concrete to show for it!

    who-did-this

    • regul [any]
      ·
      3 days ago

      Musk's Hyperloop smoke and mirrors were only a small part of the problem with CAHSR.

      The main issue is the intentional withering of state capacity, American incuriosity about non-anglo best practices, and a valuation of "management" expertise over subject matter expertise.

  • FnordPrefect [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    3 days ago

    Bro is like, 2 weeks, from unironically doing the Tim Curry curry-space but for woke instead of capitalism.

    I really hope it does turn out that all the Starlink space junk is what ends up preventing humanity from leaving the planet, (at least until melon-musk kicks it)

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 days ago

      I really hope it does turn out that all the Starlink space junk is what ends up preventing humanity from leaving the planet

      It's low Earth orbit space junk, which means it will all burn up eventually but that also means even more wasteful launches to keep replacing the space junk until the fucking thing ends.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    3 days ago

    The fundamental existential question is whether humanity becomes sustainably multiplanetary before something happens on Earth to prevent that, for example nuclear war, a supervirus or population collapse that weakens civilization to the point where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars.

    No mention of climate change which is gonna kill us way before that. muh population collapse we need more white people!

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 days ago

      where it loses the ability to send supply ships to Mars

      Earth's ecosystems fucking collapse

      "This is bad news for Mars A Lago!" wojak-nooo

    • Collatz_problem [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 days ago

      We are getting population collapse anyway in 50-100 years, and this is insufficient time for establishing a self-sufficient colony on Mars.

  • Infamousblt [any]
    ·
    3 days ago

    I almost want to vote for Harris now if it will stop Musk from going to Mars. Why is he making this sound palatable

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]
      ·
      3 days ago

      I want to watch Musk go to Mars just so we can get a sequel to "A Libertarian Walks into a Bear."

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 days ago

      If jokermala wins, Blue MAGA shit will still make things worse, but at least my-hero will eat shit. At least I assume he'll eat shit unless Blue MAGA is that useless for doing anything good.