Starship and a Human city on Mars

[Carl Sagan]

1 hour ago, Stive Pesley said:

Really? Our milkman had an electric vehicle in the 1980s!

I suppose every god figure has to have a legion of blind faithers that believe he's the messiah

And strangely milk floats never became mainstream.

It took Elon's extraordinary drive and vision to make them a reality, despite haters who think that people who do extraordinary amounts of good in the world cannot be good people (in fact the opposite) because they don't share the hater's deeply virtuous views. So they spread lies about diamond mines...

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

1 hour ago, Carl Sagan said:

And strangely milk floats never became mainstream.

It took Elon's extraordinary drive and vision to make them a reality, despite haters who think that people who do extraordinary amounts of good in the world cannot be good people (in fact the opposite) because they don't share the hater's deeply virtuous views. So they spread lies about diamond mines...

I'm sure he purported this rumour himself about 10 years ago in a magazine. His dad had shares in a diamond mine in Zambia.

[Day]

1 hour ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

I'm sure he purported this rumour himself about 10 years ago in a magazine. His dad had shares in a diamond mine in Zambia.

2014 interview with Forbes.

An article which has since been deleted. Internet archive has a copy though.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140729222547/http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2014/07/28/elon-musk-tells-me-his-secret-of-success-hint-it-aint-about-the-money/

[EtoileSportiveDeDerby]

One for you @Carl Sagan. Cite de l'espave in Toulouse. If you ve not been well worth a visit. Your namesake is mentioned a couple of times in a space film.

[GboroRam]

21 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

And strangely milk floats never became mainstream.

It took Elon's extraordinary drive and vision to make them a reality, despite haters who think that people who do extraordinary amounts of good in the world cannot be good people (in fact the opposite) because they don't share the hater's deeply virtuous views. So they spread lies about diamond mines...

I really don't have a problem with what Elon's done. Plenty more rich people have done less, in fact caused more problems than they solved. He's perhaps overstated his contributions but he's obviously part of the whole EV and space thing. I'll gloss over his contribution to Twitter, but to be fair I hated it before him and he's not improved it in my eyes, so that's just a waste of billions to me.

He's a complex person. I understand he's come from money - emerald mines, not diamond, I thought - so it's difficult to think that he's not had a start that most people haven't. It's like Jarvis Cocker told us, even if he's playing at being a pauper, working long hours in difficult jobs, there's always the option to go back to Mum and Dad and say he got it wrong, forgive me. So he's not had the same drab existence that most of us had. He could risk it all, knowing he's got options most of us would never understand. But it's hard to hold him at fault for that, he didn't choose his family and he hasn't taken the easy route that perhaps he could have.

I also don't mind that he's using space as a vehicle for his ego, as some of his critics may level at him. It's going to produce things that will be positive for humanity. And as others have said, all that Bezos has contributed is a massive carbon footprint for his big f'off yacht. There's no expectancy that Musk will do anything positive with his wealth, that's the beauty of capitalism. It's yours, you can waste it killing the planet if you want (I'd argue it's a massive flaw in capitalism that there's no protection from killing everyone, if it makes people rich enough). It isn't a zero-sum game, we don't have to save the bees OR go to Mars. We are perfectly capable of doing both. And more. World governments should be doing far more than Elon is doing, that's the main problem. Because there's more money to be made in doing things the old, dirty, planet-destroying way than innovating and doing something creative that fixes the world's problems.

[Rev]

23 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

Really? Our milkman had an electric vehicle in the 1980s!

I suppose every god figure has to have a legion of blind faithers that believe he's the messiah

Have you ever tried stealing a pint of orange squash from the back of a Tesla?

Damn near impossible. 

[Archied]

44 minutes ago, Rev said:

Have you ever tried stealing a pint of orange squash from the back of a Tesla?

Damn near impossible. 

That tickled old Ernie 

[Rev]

2 minutes ago, Archied said:

That tickled old Ernie 

Pasteurised?

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, GboroRam said:

Because there's more money to be made in doing things the old, dirty, planet-destroying way than innovating and doing something creative that fixes the world's problems.

Except Elon has managed to become the richest man in the world investing in this. So there must be money in it somewhere. 

[Carl Sagan]

20 hours ago, David said:

2014 interview with Forbes.

An article which has since been deleted. Internet archive has a copy though.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140729222547/http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimclash/2014/07/28/elon-musk-tells-me-his-secret-of-success-hint-it-aint-about-the-money/

Sigh. Further up this thread people were talking about "million is emerald money" or some such. There was none. Growing up in a place like South Africa in the 1970s was not like growing up in the West. Elon's parents had an abusive relationship and divorced. His father Errol has now had two kids with his step-daughter. Clearly he was someone who ducked and dived and wheeled and dealed. The stories of emerald wealth come from Errol who is obviously estranged from Elon and Elon's mother Maye (who says the first she ever heard about an emerald mine was on Twitter). Even Errol also says he didn't get much from his 40k stake in an emerald mine and the money he made came from elsewhere.

Here's a long take from Snopes saying they can find no evidence that Elon Musk got any money from an emerald mine: https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/ and quoting Musk's previous biographer Ashlee Vance saying: "For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is a self-made billionaire." There's a new biography coming from legendary biographer Walter Isaacson and I have no doubt it will say the say thing. If you want the history, Maye Musk was born in Canada and when Elon was 17 a new Canadian law was passed to say if you were the offspring off someone born in Canada, you could apply to become a Canadian citizen. Elon did this, arrived in Canada hoping but failing to rendezvous with a distant relative of his Mum, so he had no option but to make his own way with nothing. 

[Day]

2 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

Sigh. Further up this thread people were talking about "million is emerald money" or some such. There was none. Growing up in a place like South Africa in the 1970s was not like growing up in the West. Elon's parents had an abusive relationship and divorced. His father Errol has now had two kids with his step-daughter. Clearly he was someone who ducked and dived and wheeled and dealed. The stories of emerald wealth come from Errol who is obviously estranged from Elon and Elon's mother Maye (who says the first she ever heard about an emerald mine was on Twitter). Even Errol also says he didn't get much from his 40k stake in an emerald mine and the money he made came from elsewhere.

Here's a long take from Snopes saying they can find no evidence that Elon Musk got any money from an emerald mine: https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/11/17/elon-musk-emerald-mine/ and quoting Musk's previous biographer Ashlee Vance saying: "For what it's worth, my reporting, based on conversations with hundreds of people, confirms Musk's story. Regardless of your opinion of him, he is a self-made billionaire." There's a new biography coming from legendary biographer Walter Isaacson and I have no doubt it will say the say thing. If you want the history, Maye Musk was born in Canada and when Elon was 17 a new Canadian law was passed to say if you were the offspring off someone born in Canada, you could apply to become a Canadian citizen. Elon did this, arrived in Canada hoping but failing to rendezvous with a distant relative of his Mum, so he had no option but to make his own way with nothing. 

I have no side to pick here, don’t hate the guy or love him, just replying to the post above and knew I had seen it mentioned in an interview with him.

I have no real interest in him as a person or knowledge of his backstory. How he came in to money, born into it or earn it, not sure why it even matters, he has it and that’s it.

My only gripe is with how he’s running my favourite social media platform, think he’s doing a terrible job and it’s only a matter of time before he destroys it.

 

[TigerTedd]

1 hour ago, David said:

I have no side to pick here, don’t hate the guy or love him, just replying to the post above and knew I had seen it mentioned in an interview with him.

I have no real interest in him as a person or knowledge of his backstory. How he came in to money, born into it or earn it, not sure why it even matters, he has it and that’s it.

My only gripe is with how he’s running my favourite social media platform, think he’s doing a terrible job and it’s only a matter of time before he destroys it.

 

If it makes you feel any better, this is my favourite social media platform, and you’re doing a fine job running it. Although my feed seems to be nothing but your posts, and I’m not sure why. 

[Day]

7 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

If it makes you feel any better, this is my favourite social media platform, and you’re doing a fine job running it. Although my feed seems to be nothing but your posts, and I’m not sure why. 

I’ve boosted the algorithm to push my posts on you all 😂

[GboroRam]

13 hours ago, TigerTedd said:

Except Elon has managed to become the richest man in the world investing in this. So there must be money in it somewhere. 

There's money to be made exploiting any situation. If you're innovative enough, you can make money without causing massive damage to our ecosystem. Unfortunately since the industrial revolution it's been less risky to make it by destroying the planet. 

[Carl Sagan]

On 08/04/2023 at 10:20, GboroRam said:

There's money to be made exploiting any situation. If you're innovative enough, you can make money without causing massive damage to our ecosystem. Unfortunately since the industrial revolution it's been less risky to make it by destroying the planet. 

I'm sure I've said it elsewhere on the forum, but the Industrial Revolution is possibly the greatest thing that ever happened. For instance, here's its impact on infant mortality:

And now it's given us the opportunity to reach for the stars. The initial orbital flight test for Starship is scheduled for this coming Monday! Here's the best-case timeline for what will happen when:

Getting beyond stage separation would be an amazing achievement on the first launch.

[GboroRam]

11 hours ago, Carl Sagan said:

I'm sure I've said it elsewhere on the forum, but the Industrial Revolution is possibly the greatest thing that ever happened. For instance, here's its impact on infant mortality:

And now it's given us the opportunity to reach for the stars. The initial orbital flight test for Starship is scheduled for this coming Monday! Here's the best-case timeline for what will happen when:

Getting beyond stage separation would be an amazing achievement on the first launch.

Absolutely without the industrial revolution, we'd be still cultivating a bit of soil and feeding a cow, if we were lucky. However it's undeniable that it's the same massive leap forward in our society is the cause of the speeding up of the end of it. I'm pleased Musk is able to do something about it, and it's a shame that not more people are willing to use their wealth in a positive way. If anything, they're just accelerating things mostly. 

[TigerTedd]

35 minutes ago, GboroRam said:

However it's undeniable that it's the same massive leap forward in our society is the cause of the speeding up of the end of it. 

Its a race to the finish line. 

Edited April 13, 2023 by TigerTedd

[Day]

39 minutes ago, TigerTedd said:

It’s a race to the finish line. 

Led by Putin and Jong Un, then their even more insane successors take power.

Does make you stop and think what’s the point in separating my rubbish into different colour bins and selling a limb for an electric car when we’re all sitting ducks as mad men battle to take control of the world.

All it takes is one of them to wake up and think f it, order that push of a button and it’s game over for us all anyway.

Elon won’t have chance to evacuate us all to another planet, even if he could, would we want to live in a world where that oddball is control of an entire planet. 

Not trying to antagonise Mr Sagan here, as much as a genius Mr Musk may be, he really is an oddball that can’t even be trusted to run a social media platform, never mind an entire planet.

Would be a world where only verified twitter users that pay him 5 doge coins can vote in leadership polls, then not respect the result of said poll if it went against him anyway.

Sod it, push the button Putin 😂

 

 

[Carl Sagan]

Here's the ship on the pad (the orbital launch mount), ready to fly on Monday so long as the Federal Aviation Authority gives its approval before the weekend:

I'd suggest she looks mighty fine.

[Carl Sagan]

At the eleventh hour, the Federal Aviation Authority have approved the launch license, "valid for 5 years". Which i think means SpaceX can launch Starships out of Boca Chica, Texas, for the next five years. Amazing if so. By the end of that period I would hope the very first Humans will be en route to Mars.

Here's one of the networks with confirmation: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/faa-approvals-maiden-flight-spacex-super-heavy-starship-rocket/

The first attempt will be on Monday. There's some talk it will be at 1pm UK time.