NASASpaceFlight.com Forum

SpaceX Vehicles and Missions => SpaceX Starship Program => Topic started by: bioelectromechanic on 10/02/2016 08:09 am

Title: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: bioelectromechanic on 10/02/2016 08:09 am
What are you guys thinking about the goals of SpaceX vs Oneill's vision of human colonies in space?
I don't recall Elon talking, or being asked about it.
Title: Re: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: rklaehn on 10/02/2016 08:20 am
I don't think Elon is opposed to the Oneill vision of living in space. Note the last part of the ITS presentation. He just thinks that mars is the best place to start a self-sustaining colony at our current technology level.

Jeff Bezos seems to subscribe more to the Oneill vision. See this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-15/jeff-bezos-sees-millions-of-people-living-working-in-space). So we got very wealthy people pursuing both approaches.

Ultimately it boils down to transportation. If you have cheap transportation, enabled by full and rapid reusability, you will have both. If you don't, you will have neither.
Title: Re: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: TheTraveller on 10/02/2016 08:40 am
The full Mars colonisation vision, which Elon didn't have time to share during his presentation:

Tim Urban interviews Elon and learns THE PLAN
http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/09/spacexs-big-fking-rocket-the-full-story.html
Scroll down to THE PLAN & have a read how Elons sees 1,000,000 people living on Mars.

$60k for a ticket and high Mars wages would sure help.
Title: Re: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: TheTraveller on 10/02/2016 11:01 am
Mars landed BFS with access scaffolding. That was quick work. Would suggest the other cargo door has the cargo/pax lift.
Title: Re: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: Barrie on 10/02/2016 11:43 am
I don't think Elon is opposed to the Oneill vision of living in space. Note the last part of the ITS presentation. He just thinks that mars is the best place to start a self-sustaining colony at our current technology level.

Jeff Bezos seems to subscribe more to the Oneill vision. See this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-15/jeff-bezos-sees-millions-of-people-living-working-in-space). So we got very wealthy people pursuing both approaches.

Ultimately it boils down to transportation. If you have cheap transportation, enabled by full and rapid reusability, you will have both. If you don't, you will have neither.

This. My hope has always been that EM's single-minded drive for Mars-first will lead to developments that enable everywhere-first.
Title: Re: Mars vs The High Frontier
Post by: Mongo62 on 10/02/2016 01:01 pm
I don't think Elon is opposed to the Oneill vision of living in space. Note the last part of the ITS presentation. He just thinks that mars is the best place to start a self-sustaining colony at our current technology level.

Jeff Bezos seems to subscribe more to the Oneill vision. See this article (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-15/jeff-bezos-sees-millions-of-people-living-working-in-space). So we got very wealthy people pursuing both approaches.

Ultimately it boils down to transportation. If you have cheap transportation, enabled by full and rapid reusability, you will have both. If you don't, you will have neither.

Ideally, Elon Musk takes care of the "world-settlement" side (where the larger moons and asteroids count as worlds) and Jeff Bezos takes care of the O'Neill side, since he also wants to see million of people living in space but has not mentioned colonizing existing worlds (other than perhaps the Moon, if the name "New Armstrong" means what I think it does).

I really want to see both of them succeed, plus plenty of other visionaries, such as Robert Bigelow and the folks at Planetary Resources, and other people we have not yet heard of.