Starship will attempt a launch this weekend

Re:Starship will attempt a launch this weekend by gizmo686 on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @10:42AM (#38264637)

We've had an in-orbit base for over 20 years without any claim of future tax revenue or commercial viability. On Earth, we have a long history of establishing research bases in places where there is no potential for a viable colony (e.g. Antarctica).

All we need is the political will and we can fund a Mars base as a purely government funded research program.

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Re:Starship will attempt a launch this weekend by voxic11 on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @11:26AM (#38265438)

Sure a research base, but we probably wont see colonies on mars for the same reasons we don't see colonies in antarctica.

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Re:Starship will attempt a launch this weekend by CptFribble on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @11:42AM (#38265711)

A self-sufficient colony outside Earth is a worthy goal in and of itself:

1. The indomitable human spirit and drive to explore and expand

2. It's cool

3. More room for humans

There are also reasons that don't apply to Antarctica:

1. Hedging our bets against planet-ending catastrophes (global warming, giant asteroid/comet strike, ultra-pandemic)

2. Another stepping stone to exploring further interesting/important space goals, like gathering resources from the asteroid belt/moons of jupiter/etc, discovering life on Europa, and so on

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Re:Starship will attempt a launch this weekend by kiba on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @11:57AM (#38265960)

Part of the reason we don't colonize Antarctica is that it isn't romanticized to the same degree as the colonization of Mars.

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Re:Starship will attempt a launch this weekend by wredue on Tuesday November 14, 2023 @12:25PM (#38266378)

That was a time of reasonable faith in science and a political era where one could get large agendas done.

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