Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by lz400 on Friday April 13, 2018 @08:11AM
(#16829197)
One thing is having the technology to send a rocket to Mars, another thing to have a completely functional and self-sustaining colony, that doesn't depend on Earth supplies and that offers the possibility of a life that is not just growing potatoes and looking at rocks from the habitat's window. I suspect we're hundreds of years from the latter.
Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by ben_w on Friday April 13, 2018 @08:44AM
(#16829422)
That’s reasonable, but you did originally say “physically goes to” rather than “colonises”.
Re:SpaceX's Valuation Climbs to $25B with New Funding Round
by lz400 on Saturday April 14, 2018 @07:51AM
(#16836939)
I think it's possibly the same or similar. I don't buy the pioneering mission with people who go knowing that they're not going to get back and possibly die of radiation exposure. I think nobody is going up there until there's a lot more tech in place, at least at the level of The Martian, ie: knowing how to get them back and guaranteeing survival
Further, the only estimate I have for how much processing power will be needed to simulate a human brain in real time is 10^19 flops, which means Moore’s Law needs to carry on for another 25 years just for the hardware to beat Musk’s Mars ticket price.