patrick.net

This is a sci-fi documentary looking at the journey to Venus..

More ohomen BS! Of course, I blame myself for clicking on that link.

I think someone is using ohomenbot on "autopen mode" right now. Elena, is that you?

The only positive thing I can muster out of Elons quest to send a manned mission to Mars. Is that it will once and for all prove if that is even possible.
I suspect the second mission will be robotic human remains recovery mission.

To clarify why I think the mission failing will be more palatable than it succeeding.
I think once humanity realizes there is no mulligans, or do overs, we can't simply hop on a ship and escape after we fuck this planet up.
I think once we realize that subject is just stuff of Sci Fi fodder. We might start working toward world peace, citizens around the world will start paying attention to the leaders they elect, or allow to rule over them. I think the world simply will have a better outlook if the thought of escape wasn't on the table. We would stop treating the world like it's a handiwipe.

Colonizing other planets in the solar system is a complete waste of time. You expend massive amounts of energy to escape one gravity well just to plonk yourself down at the bottom of another one. You're also a sitting duck for targeted asteroid or missile strikes.

You're much better off creating a hollow asteroid habitat. Pick a longish potato shaped one, drill boreholes all the way through, fill with water, then bake in a solar oven until things melt, the water turns to superheated steam, and you end up with a popcorn-type hollow habitat. Spin it up for any gravity you want. Keep 10 - 20 Km of asteroid regolith between the inside and the outside, and everyone is protected from cosmic rays, solar flares, even low-yield nukes.

Best of all, you can mount drive engines and have the whole thing be mobile. Nobody could touch you. The asteroid habitat is free of any gravity well, so it can go anywhere in the solar system. Head out to the Jovian Trojan asteroids to make more habitats. Best yet, a habitat this big could support a genetically stable population, so you have an interstellar generation ship as a bonus.

Greg Bear did a good treatment of this with the Eon/Eternity books.