Re:There’s No Planet B
by ben_w on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @03:47AM
(#34410417)
> You need to first build the infrastructure to build infrastructure before you can lay the first 3D printed brick for a factory
While I disagree with the specific claim here (bricks are easy mode, sand sintered with a fresnel lens brought from Earth), for the general point you're otherwise making:
Yes, and?
Depending on which bit you're pointing at, "a few" was just for the PV for everyone, or just per manned flight. For the "million colonists" (again, no idea if that's a well thought out number) that's thousands to tens of thousands of manned flights, and 3000 to 50000 unmanned flights each with about 100 tons of payload depending on which random early stage wild guess you use to calculate from.
5 million tons of stuff from Earth may or may not be enough to bootstrap, I wouldn't know. (Does anyone?)
But your specific criticisms… don't feel like they're aware of the scale Musk is aiming for.
On a separate point:
I have read of both liquid CO2 and graphite (which can obviously be made from that) being used as lubricants, but I'm emphatically not suggesting they're drop-in replacements. Obviously one would have to design mining equipment specially to use them, likewise for thermal issues.
Given who owns The Boring Company, this is probably already being researched.
While I disagree with the specific claim here (bricks are easy mode, sand sintered with a fresnel lens brought from Earth), for the general point you're otherwise making:
Yes, and?
Depending on which bit you're pointing at, "a few" was just for the PV for everyone, or just per manned flight. For the "million colonists" (again, no idea if that's a well thought out number) that's thousands to tens of thousands of manned flights, and 3000 to 50000 unmanned flights each with about 100 tons of payload depending on which random early stage wild guess you use to calculate from.
5 million tons of stuff from Earth may or may not be enough to bootstrap, I wouldn't know. (Does anyone?)
But your specific criticisms… don't feel like they're aware of the scale Musk is aiming for.
On a separate point:
I have read of both liquid CO2 and graphite (which can obviously be made from that) being used as lubricants, but I'm emphatically not suggesting they're drop-in replacements. Obviously one would have to design mining equipment specially to use them, likewise for thermal issues.
Given who owns The Boring Company, this is probably already being researched.