Comment by jadbox
Unrelated, but the Elon dream of getting a human colony on Mars seems beyond imagination. Ignoring safety of such a long travel, the radiation issue of Mar's surface, and the massive infrastructure to have a self-sustainable biosphere (also somehow protected from radiation) to recycle enough oxygen, we still have to deal with the immense number of failures that could happen with no way to send help.
Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous.
> Like, building a fully self-sustainable underwater city or moon base would be far more in reach. It feels that SpaceX should start with prototyping these safer alternatively before overreaching to something 100x more challenging and dangerous.
I've been beating this drum for years. Elon is 100% focused on building the rocket that can get to Mars and neglecting absolutely everything else about the project. Where is the self contained biosphere pilot program on Earth that tests the Mars habitat? To be anywhere close to Elon's timetable it needs to be running today, and honestly it should have been running years ago. Given the extreme reliability requirements it needs long term testing to build any confidence at all in the numerous technologies involved. The closest model we have is the ISS, and it's mostly shown that we aren't ready for a Mars habitat. The ISS requires way too much maintenance and ground support.