It is not 'just' about starving children in Africa, but also about actual space research. It is crippled by huge manned projects with questionable scientific return. With money spend on Apollo, Shuttle and ISS we could have already explored every corner of solar systems. Just imagine hundreds of lunar and mars rovers.
This is the most bothersome and asinine aspects of Elon Musk fandom. Instead of a smart space approach we're degenerating back into a Star Trek-like fantasy of manned exploration. Sorry but our bodies are not built for space travel and the costs of fitting machines around us to keep us alive is incredible. I don't know why people can't be satisfied with robotic missions. Lusting after landing on what is essentially a dead and hostile planet like Mars is a bewildering prospect. I don't see these people going to Antarctica, which would be a comparable experience.
Seems to me, cheap and effective terraforming is a prereq to any planetary migration or exploration. Even then it would just be a pick up and drop service to Mars or where-ever. Exploration, in general, should be done by robots.
Because SpaceX's end-goal isn't to land humans on Mars to conduct a bit of science. It's to start self-sustaining off-world colonies in order to increase mankind's prospects of surviving in the universe.
You can literally put an infinite number of rovers on Mars and still not have this.
Robots can do "a bit of science" just as well, if not better. With a comparable budget, you'd see some pretty incredible robots on Mars. Meanwhile we're pissing away dollars shoving meatbags into tincans in LEO and pretending its progress.
Even during the madness of spending that was the Apollo program the time spent actually doing "a bit of science" was extremely limited. The cost per minute doing science with people is a whole different league than robots.
Sure, but just to be sure, you don't seem to be responding to what I said. Elon Musk's venture isn't based on doing science. Again, they're trying to build a colony for a goal that isn't necessarily scientific, but will have scientific benefits.
I find it fascinating how they want to build colony, but right now we are not even able to drill small hole in there. It is like running startup in three steps: 1) collect underpants 2) ???? 3) profit!!!!
You need robots even for colony. Farting into bubbles on LEO will not get you there.
They are doing it the other way round from the gnomes though.
They are starting with profit, are not sure about the middle, but know that if it all works then they are definitely going to have to collect some new underpants.
The end goal is the sustainable colony. The only way to get there is to have low-cost, routine surface to orbit launches. That is what SpaceX is working on now, that is their current goal.
I'm unsure of how you consider what they're doing right now immaterial to their goals.
Ignoring the ethical arguments, you could also improve and augment the human (or its support species) to lessen the necessity for terraforming.
If I had a synthetic bacterium in my intestines that allowed me to digest a wider variety of foods, such as sawdust or tree leaves, that would even reduce our need to terraform Earth (via agriculture) to support larger human populations.
By the time we have acquired those capabilities from our biological research, it would be useful to already have the capability to transport live organisms to hostile environments on other planets. Those organisms should then be able to adapt to their local niche conditions.
To me, cheap and effective terraforming means designing a single-celled, self-reproducing organism that can survive in the hostile environment while also making it a tiny bit less hostile.
Antarctica is a herring. (And similar analogies like building an underwater city.) It's inhospitable, but land usage rights are tied up among the international community (not for bad reasons) so you can't just take a ship of pilgrims and supplies there and start building and hunting penguins as you please. And even if you could, you'd still have to worry about outsiders. Mars is an entirely unowned dead planet and the first-mover advantages will be huge. If you can get things there, tools and people, no one's going to stop you from doing what you want.
I think Musk is smarter and Mars colony is just very good PR. Hey, I am going to Mars, I need rocket... and bunch of satellites... and maybe some rovers to explore it.... and perhaps some automated drilling operation on Mars to find water... and how about seizmic detonations... you know, cosmoboys must be safe :-)
Nobody is going to spend any serious money just on robots.
