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If we want to survive as a race in the long long term, we have to start colonizing at some point.
I just don't see why you're so pessimistic. Let these people go after their dream.
Everything people need to survive needs to be brought from Earth. Every aspect of life on Mars needs to be bootstrapped from absolutely nothing. There's no working models for any of that on Earth. That means it all needs to be designed, built, tested, and iterated upon before a single person boards a SpaceX Starship.
Even with Elon Musk's billions that is a vast expense. Even if it was all built, it's billions spent to send people to Mars to simply not die in case a nuclear war wiped out Earth.
It's not pessimistic to point this out, it's realistic. Dreaming about colonizing Mars and hand waving away every practical consideration is just fruitless fantasizing. It's not a plan. It doesn't actually move towards a colony anywhere.
The opportunity cost is billions of dollars and a lot of engineering effort not spent on solutions to more immediate problems that might benefit more people.
Musk talking about colonizing Mars is 90% PR for SpaceX and 10% ego stroking. If SpaceX could build a Starship a week to send people to Mars it would be Musk's friends and billionaires and millionaires. I doubt there's more than a car load of people that work at SpaceX that would be able to afford a Mars ticket. I can't fawn breathlessly over a billionaire describing his fantasy of leaving all us poors to rot on a planet his fellow billionaires ruined.
I really loved America's stunt of going to the Moon and I want a sequel.
Eventually I would like us to have some sort of habitat on Mars which I do not think is far-fetched. I believe SpaceX will spur this movement.
These people propose solutions for the wealthy. They are BTW ruining my dream of seeing more stars than satellites in the sky. (I’m a material scientist, coatings won’t work)
Therefore I heavily disagree with you: short term survival requires protecting our life support systems here on earth, namely climate and biodiversity (the Earth-System).
I am also very disappointed that people use the word “colonisation” so often, a brief look at history support my doubts.
I don’t mind exploring the solar system when the above issues are fixed, but this has to be done in a scientific way, I.e. exploration, not for a blind colonialist purpose.
I do believe in this goal though as do others, you should respect other people's dreams, especially when it doesn't detract from yours.
I didn't say this was for short-term survival. This is for long-term survival, we still need to and we are tackling our own planet. Elon himself has disrupted many industries that were contributing to the destruction of this planet (auto, oil & gas)
If you want to help the planet, go help it, don't neg others.
The Starlink constellation, so far, is not respectful to people who want a clear sky for instance.
Regarding Mars, I don’t want to take your dreams back, I just think it has to be framed in a more global and long term context.
How do the feelings of a few astronomers trump connecting the rest of the world to the internet?
You're blowing things way out of proportion as well. You fell for all the aggressive attack campaigns. I've seen all the articles you've read, it's not a real issue.
> I just think it has to be framed in a more global and long term context.
What message from SpaceX did you take issue with exactly? I don't think anyone is suggesting we'll all be living on Mars in a few years.
