Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-thermal propulsion

Re:Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-the... by ben_w on Thursday February 17, 2022 @02:09PM (#30377230)

> 2000-years-out sort of set of ideas.

Nah, if we really cared we could do either in like a decade or two depending on the Starship timeline.

> If you build for tomorrow, you solve yesterday's problems. If you build for the next millenium, you solve nobody's problems.

Essentially agree; this is why I don’t buy into longtermism: https://kitsunesoftware.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/morality-th...

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Re:Design of a rapid transit to Mars mission using laser-the... by 0_____0 on Thursday February 17, 2022 @02:23PM (#30377408)

If our species declared Total War Against The Lack of a Martian Magnetosphere, I could see that happening. However, that implies that our species are in a state of development and coordination that would largely obviate the existential need to create a "Planet B" as people imagine it.

Thanks for the link to the blog post, I enjoyed it.

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