So it wouldn't be a big space ship with a gym and swimming pool and "observation deck" like in the movies? Count me out.

Seriously, that trip sounds awful.

So it wouldn't be a big space ship with a gym and swimming pool and "observation deck" like in the movies? Count me out.

Seriously, that trip sounds awful.

For all the people (and pilots) that have no interest in going to Mars, great, you are probably too old and would not qualify anyways. You would be like most people in Europe in 1450 looking at a world map and noticing the edge of the earth is undefined, so nothing good can be out there, thus, it is far better to stay safe and warm in Italy or Spain. There are probably less than 1% of humans that would even want to go to Mars, and far less that would be accepted, but with 7 billion humans, that is still a large number. The first people to arrive on Mars will be like celebrities at first, then the years will go by, and no one really knows what will become of the Martians from Earth.

So you agree with me now?

The idea of a trip to Mars is very interesting to me. I agree with Jason's reasons for not wanting to go himself, or finance the venture. But I will root for those who do. There is something about exploration that is its own return. And one reason to go I haven't seen yet is the search for alien life. Finding life of Martian origin would be a very big deal. The head of the Mars Society, Dr. Zubrin, was a speaker at the Twin Cessna convention a couple years ago, and that was his main reason for wanting to go.

A decent fictional book about colonizing Mars is "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Ok, Ok, Ok, let me get this straight....

Elon Musk is making a lot of money selling CO2 credits to other companies, because CO2 is so very bad.

He is going to use that money to colonize a planet that is 96% CO2.

Oh the irony is thick.

Holy sh*t!

That's what the aliens are saying about Earth.

FIFY

FIFY

I have a theory about that.......

600-100 years ago (or until computers came to fruition) there was a lot of "obvious" new "discoveries" people who didn't know very much could "visualize". One could see a bird flying and know it's possible to build a machine that could fly..... One could see a "horseless carriage" was possible. The "Future" was just lying on the ground and could easily be picked up by lots of folks similar to how Gold was just lying on the ground in California that spurred the Gold Rush. Once everyone picked up the easy stuff, then they had to start digging.

Today, you already have to have a significant scientific background to see where the opportunities lie. IMO, there are more opportunities (frontiers) today than there have ever been in the history of the world BUT....... you need to understand a great deal to be able to see them. You have to have the knowledge or at the very least the "ambition" to drill down in an industry to see the opportunities.

Am I making sense?

yes, I agree with you, and in many ways the situation makes for a great divide in the population. I have a hard time discussing or even making small talk about my work with family and friends that don't have a scientific and engineering background. Often times if they ask what we are working on and i tell them a bit, they laugh and think I'm feeding them a science fiction story. With nothing left to discuss we drift apart. I find my circle of friends becoming more and more homogeneous over the years, which can't be a healthy thing for society if it's happening to everyone like for me.

100% me too.

I have a theory about that too..... That's why so many of us are here on BT. "Internet" has made it so you can be friends with "like minded" people over great distances. Who needs "real" friends?

Watch what happens with virtual reality in the coming years.

funny chat with a technician at one of our dealers recently. He was bitching about not taking the right parts with him to a repair. Said that an unmanned machine reported a failure and told him it needed replacement parts including hydraulic relay valve, o-rings, wire connector, etc. He was complaining because the computer didn't put zip ties on the list and he didn't have enough zip ties lying on the floor of his truck to do the wire harness up properly. How could a mechanic anticipate the need for zip ties without the computer putting it on the list? A bit of "idiocracy" come to real life.

I have a theory about that.......

600-100 years ago (or until computers came to fruition) there was a lot of "obvious" new "discoveries" people who didn't know very much could "visualize". One could see a bird flying and know it's possible to build a machine that could fly..... One could see a "horseless carriage" was possible. The "Future" was just lying on the ground and could easily be picked up by lots of folks similar to how Gold was just lying on the ground in California that spurred the Gold Rush. Once everyone picked up the easy stuff, then they had to start digging.

Today, you already have to have a significant scientific background to see where the opportunities lie. IMO, there are more opportunities (frontiers) today than there have ever been in the history of the world BUT....... you need to understand a great deal to be able to see them. You have to have the knowledge or at the very least the "ambition" to drill down in an industry to see the opportunities.

Am I making sense?

Yes, but I bet many people would have said something similar 60-100 years ago. I think it's just one of those things where you don't know what you don't know. If we were born into a time period where, for instance, travel at speeds near the speed of light was a reality, I think it probable we would think that was an "obvious" discovery.