Author Topic: Could (and should) SpaceX sell the rights to be first to set foot on Mars?  (Read 24211 times)

Offline laszlo

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Anyone else find this thread a bit premature?

Offline JohnFornaro

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Anyone else find this thread a bit premature?

Well, it has been more than nine months since the thread began...
Sometimes I just flat out don't get it.

Offline su27k

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Anyone else find this thread a bit premature?

Well there're VG ticket holders who have been waiting for 16 years, so no, I don't think this discussion is premature...

Offline Dalhousie

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There's only one correct answer to the question.  The first person to step foot on Mars needs to be....
Elon Musk. 
Who else will have put more time, more money, or more effort into getting there?  Who is most responsible for getting there?  Who deserves the honor more?
I have no issue at all with collecting a few billion USD from a couple of passengers to be among the first crew on Mars.  After all, how many people do you believe are going to be on the first flight?  Three?  Five?  A dozen?  I'm leaning more towards the latter, and they certainly won't need to all be "steely-eyed missile men".

Have you any idea what it would like be locked in a tin can with him for years?
Apologies in advance for any lack of civility - it's unintended

Offline libra

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He is psychologically unbalanced, all that Ambien and insomnia would make him unfit as a stock astronaut or for a trip to Mars - even in such a large and roomy ship as a Starship. He also has a pig of a character.
I can say from personal experience that school bullying doesn't help - it's a poison. Can damage a life beyond repair.  Leaves emotional scars.

And then there is this ugly thing - quite revealing, unfortunately.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/09/elon-musk-texts-twitter-trial-jack-dorsey/671619/
« Last Edit: 10/07/2022 05:47 am by libra »

Offline AmigaClone

Anyone else find this thread a bit premature?

Somewhat. I would consider the ideal time for a similar thread to start as being about 3 months after SpaceX successfully landing a couple of cargo Starships on Mars and closer to Earth has successfully completed at least one crewed Starship mission.

This far out, I would not dismiss the possibility that SpaceX not be in a position to raffle off the honor of being the first to step on the moon.

Offline AaronGolden

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Your point about whether SpaceX should "sell" that honor to the highest bidder is intriguing but also fraught with ethical considerations. I mean, what happens if the highest bidder promotes something that doesn't align with the broader goals of space exploration or humanity?

Offline MDMoery

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I fully expect NASA's contract for the Mars passenger trip to require that the NASA astronauts be first on the surface.

No such contract exists, and going to Mars is a SpaceX funded effort, so while the U.S. Government could offer to pay to send people, it would be up to SpaceX as to whether they wanted to do that.

Quote
I expect Elon will be totally in agreement as well.

SpaceX exists because Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars, so Elon Musk will do what is best for the Mars colonization effort.

As to what that is, we already know that Elon Musk is OK with taking money from billionaires to do space stunts, and Musk has said that colonizing Mars will take a LOT of money - more than he will ever have. So it would not be unthinkable that someone would pay a LARGE sum to be the first.

However I do like the idea of the captain of the ship being first...  :D

You can get BOTH if the billionaire IS the captain:  First human Mars landing: Jared Isaacman's FIFTH spaceflight

It would not shock me at all if a signed contract is already sitting in a file in Hawthorne for Isaacman to run the whole first crewed Mars mission.
« Last Edit: 10/18/2023 11:47 am by MDMoery »

Offline spacenut

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Ambien doesn't make you unbalanced.  My wife took it for years because she couldn't sleep.  Same with her brother.  Her brother is a chemistry professor.  My wife finally weaned herself off of it, by taking melatonin and eating some carbs before bedtime.  Some people just have a problem getting to sleep.  Also, by the time SpaceX gets around to getting humans to Mars, Musk might be in his 60's.  Maybe a little too old to make the trip, especially the first one. 

I think NASA might get involved.  Once Starship is proven out by launching satellites, fuel to a fuel depot and a moon landing.  SpaceX will shift to Mars.  At that point NASA might see the handwritting on the wall and get involved with a Mars mission and fund it or partially fund it to get their astronauts on board.  They saw SpaceX was serious about Starship with the test flights a while back and the successful landing.  So, they wanted Starship for the moon because of it's huge cargo advantage. 

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