Elon Musk Wants To Put A Million People On Mars, Says Interstellar Travel Will Sustain Mankind - Polidicks

[QUOTE=_Axel;46122950]Isn't there still that problem of materials for the cables? Last I heard they couldn't find anything strong and light enough to support its own weight.[/QUOTE] They want to use carbon nanotubes (since it's basically just a giant tether), but they're still working on a way to produce them in to a cable bigger than a few millimeters.

[QUOTE=_Axel;46122950]Isn't there still that problem of materials for the cables? Last I heard they couldn't find anything strong and light enough to support its own weight.[/QUOTE] Carbon nano tubes would do, and if the station itself sits beyond geostationary orbit, the centrifugal force will relieve the stress on the cables.

what if you get stuck on an orbital elevator?

[QUOTE=Blackwheel;46124986]what if you get stuck on an orbital elevator?[/QUOTE] This is a good point. What happens to the people inside a space elevator if something happens and power is cut off? Do they get parachutes and do a BASE jump?

[QUOTE=SgtTupelo;46120517]Just make a very large minigun that shoots small pods that contain people. And shoot a few million more just to ensure at least 1 million actually get there.[/QUOTE] [video=youtube;ZXHBKUbUmCs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXHBKUbUmCs[/video]

Whats insane is that we could spend thousands of years expanding through the solar system and a Supernova could destroy all the combined effort, even if we've colonized like 20 light years away (a pitiful amount on the global scale).

Just imagine a whole new start on a new planet. A virgin society, without war and without intolerance. All helping each other survive in and transform a hostile environment. That certainly would help people rethink the way they live on Earth. I'd be the first in line, given the opportunity. I hope it's not very far away in my lifespan. [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=SCopE5000;46126080]Whats insane is that we could spend thousands of years expanding through the solar system and a Supernova could destroy all the combined effort, even if we've colonized like 20 light years away (a pitiful amount on the global scale).[/QUOTE] It wouldn't matter. There's not a single star near enough to us that would go supernova in billions of years. Plus, we can easily avoid settling near supernova candidates.

[QUOTE=Abaddon-ext4;46122495]Warning: This idea below might not work without changes in political environment Build 2 space station up there, with a place for cargo and humans to live, preferably with centrifugal habitat for artificial gravity. Then slap several nuclear reactor with VASMIR on them, or make a nuclear thermal rocket if you are adventurous enough. Then send both of them in a cycler trajectory so both Earth and Mars will get that space station every 5 months, like this: [url]http://www.damninteresting.com/the-martian-express/[/url][/QUOTE] Don't think it quite works like that, earth and mars are sometimes on the opposite sides of the solar system, ideally any mars trips would embark only when the earth and mars are the closest to minimize in space transition time [editline]1st October 2014[/editline] I'm not saying you can't use a gravity assist. A great book called "the martian" utilizes one to rescue the main character but the problem is like in that book, it took tremendous amounts of rocket power to intercept the ship or station in this case since it'll zip through the earth and martian systems very quickly, not hanging around for long to resupply. The advantages are offset by the fact that you're really not saving anything

[QUOTE=No Party Hats;46119499]Thinking on it, we're actually remarkable in that regard. Rather than sticking to just the perfectly ideal places on our planet, we as a species has decided that "fuck it this place is really shitty but i can deal with it" and have adapted to live basically anywhere aside from the poles at this point. Then we do space shit, and rather than wait till we find the perfect planet for colonization, we just go "yeah mars seems like it might be legit? whats that? it's really fuckin hot and has only trace amounts of water? yeah whatever" humanity kicks ass[/QUOTE] whats the deal with people being all like mars is really hot is it because it's red because mars is not hot

Want to get to mars but don't have a big enough rocket? Simple. Build a factory on the moon finally. The low gravity will make launching a large craft much easier. Just got to ship the parts to the moon which can be done but honestly would be super expensive. We'd need to perfect reusable one stage cargo craft first.

[QUOTE=IceWarrior98;46126788]Want to get to mars but don't have a big enough rocket? Simple. Build a factory on the moon finally. The low gravity will make launching a large craft much easier. Just got to ship the parts to the moon which can be done but honestly would be super expensive. We'd need to perfect reusable one stage cargo craft first.[/QUOTE] Or we could build a big enough rocket.

[QUOTE=MillySoose;46119259]Elon Musk is a big dreamer. I won't stop him from trying though.[/QUOTE] ok how were you planning to stop him in the first place