Who is Elon Musk and what is he selling?
The Aspen Beat,
by
Glenn Beaton
Original Article
Posted By: Big Bopper,
2/7/2021 11:38:09 AM
Elon Musk wants to go to Mars. More precisely, he wants you or me to go. It’s a bad idea.
Apart from provisioning and energy problems that are potentially solvable, there are three big problems with a Mars mission: Getting there, getting back and being there. All three problems center around an insolvable radiation problem.
Molten material under the earth’s mantle slowly circles a solid iron core. This produces a dynamo effect generating an electrical current and a corresponding magnetic field. This magnetic field is well known, and is the basis for the simple magnetic compass that has been used for centuries.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
BarryNo 2/7/2021 12:09:34 PM (No. 687904)
Just another Liberal talking head prepping for shutting us out of outer space, again. First time, the Dems had all of the developed blueprints and technical data for the successful Apollo program destroyed. The Second time, they shut down the Shuttle program. The disasters of Challenger and Columbia were preventable, IF, the politicians and political appointees hadn't been interfering. Now we have the nascent moon return program, Musk's private attempts, and the Space Force, created by Donal Trump.
What do you think they'll do?
6 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
NeverForget 2/7/2021 12:16:44 PM (No. 687912)
What a short-sighted, wimpy naysayer Beaton is. No steely-eyed rocket man is he.
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
LadyHen 2/7/2021 12:21:07 PM (No. 687916)
This boundless, joyful spirit of imagination, curiosity, and adventure that makes us human is a gift from God. Challenges present opportunities for growth and often shine a light on the best we can be.
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
bgarrett 2/7/2021 1:11:41 PM (No. 687980)
Spend that money helping us on Earth
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Big Bopper 2/7/2021 1:13:04 PM (No. 687984)
Ummmm, OK guys, maybe Beaton is short-sighted, wimpy and liberal (well, no, he's definitely not liberal) and no rocket man (though he is indeed a former aerospace engineer).
But none of that name-calling solves the problem of space radiation.
4 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
The Other Guy 2/7/2021 1:20:20 PM (No. 687996)
I'm woefully ignorant about radiation effects on humans. except for knowing it's harmful and potentially lethal under some circumstances. Will a knowledgeable reader explain to me why radiation relative to a Mars mission is deadly but of no reported danger to sky lab inhabitants, especially those who have remained there for prolonged periods.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
NYbob 2/7/2021 1:43:41 PM (No. 688019)
#4, there is plenty of money to help us, it is just not well spent. Like relief supplies to Puerto Rico, food in Africa, wealth in Mexico and everything in Cuba, it is a matter of what kind of system is in place and who is running it.
Elon Musk is crazy in a good way. More or less on his own, he has remade the auto industry, the power industry, large segments of US manufacturing, and space exploration. HIS low Earth satellite network will remake communications around the world. Car insurance, ride sharing, home heating and cooling are coming and if you are ready for it or not, autonomous driving. Admit it. We all know people who need that technology TODAY. Any one of the things Musk has done would be a lifetime achievement for most. Colonies on Mars might be his big mistake, but in the process of getting there, he is doing a lot of things we will all use, while many of us complain about him for some reason. If you think his disruptions are bad now, wait until he brings back an asteroid of gold.
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
GO3 2/7/2021 2:42:55 PM (No. 688083)
Beaton is definitely not a liberal and contrary to what some think, operating outside of the Earth's protective magnetic shield presents some real problems. There have been only 24 humans outside the magnetic shield and those are the Apollo astronauts on moon missions. They have shown a higher rate of cardiac disease even when compared to astronauts on low earth orbit missions within the shield. There would not be extended stays on the ISS if it was orbiting outside the shield. Beaton is also right that if the challenge is met by shielding the spacecraft, the stay on the surface would present the same problems because Mars has no magnetic shield. There a more difficulties also, which are summed up in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQ1bKd7Los
I'm all for exploration of space and overcoming all of these difficulties, but let's get serious. It won't happen today or next year, or the year after that, etc.
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 2/7/2021 5:47:54 PM (No. 688245)
A sure-fire solution for depopulation, but only a spoonful at a time. I can't go, but enjoy.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Terry_tr6 2/7/2021 8:44:52 PM (No. 688364)
beaton sure seemed happy to dump trump. kind of like other late to trump media people, only some of which are skanky blonds....
0 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
toddh 2/8/2021 11:14:40 AM (No. 688907)
To be fair - NASA, ESA et al. face the same problem.
#6 - The International Space Station is well within Earth's magnetosphere, and hundreds of miles below the Van Allen radiation belts. Every Apollo moon mission went to the lunar day side, when the moon itself is in the Earth's magnetosphere. And they were only about a week long.
The solar wind is mostly protons, electrons, and alpha particles (helium nuclei, two protons and two neutrons). When these hit stuff, they can produce other types of radiation, depending on their kinetic energy. X-rays and gamma rays are the dangerous ones. Remember the neutron bomb? The fast neutrons' collisions with armor would radiate x-rays and gamma radiation, killing the occupants. (For some reason this was deemed a worse way to die than being burned to death by a HEAT round, and the ruling classes found it distasteful, so their idiot human drones campaigned against them and won.)
The sun is a continuous radiation bomb.
The Starship's stainless steel hull will help. Some of the other shielding that has been proposed by various people and agencies over the years are to use the water the crew will need, if it isn't from fuel cells. Or the ship could generate its own strong magnetic field but would probably need a nuclear reactor for that much juice. And even a shield made from the crew's, and I swear I am not the one making this up, the crew's poop.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 2/9/2021 6:00:35 PM (No. 690295)
I don't know who Beaton's tech advisor is, but he or she is right on top of things.
Mars is never going to be a decent place to live, except possibly underground at HUGE costs in energy. It is highly questionable whether there are enough sources of oxygen and water to support human life in any signficant quantity even if you imagine unlimited free energy.....which is pure hokum. The radiation problem can be solved, but you will need to live underground, not much fun, and not much room for farming - which will take a LOT of energy. Here farming gets freely distributed water (rain) and unlimited free oxygen, and plenty of sunshine. All three of those things are in very short supply on Mars. The sun is much farther away, much weaker, and water and oxygen are scarce.
Yes, we CAN 'go to Mars', and we CAN 'live on Mars', but only in the same way as you can live on the bottom of the ocean......ONLY with a LOT of resources shipped in from elsewhere at huge costs of energy and effort. Not worth it. And a Mars colony will never be independent without some 'unlimited' power source, such as fusion - and that is decades to centuries away.
And electric cars are a stunt, useful for a tiny fraction of people, at great cost with poor performance and a long wait to "fill the tank". No thanks. He is exactly right on batteries. Battery technology was explored in extreme detail by Thomas Edison's team in the 1890s through the turn of the century. They came up with some really wonderful batteries, like the Edison cell, re-usable forever. But, heavy, low energy density so only useful for large stationary storage. No good for transportation, even starting batteries for normal vehicles. There are no 'magic' solutions out there undiscovered, the ground has been thoroughly plowed by many teams of very well funded scientists for over a century. No easy 'discoveries' left, only small incremental improvements...a percent here, half a percent there. Not good enough.
0 people like this.
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