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From: Bill Sloman <bill.sloman@ieee.org>
Newsgroups: sci.electronics.design
Subject: Re: OT?: Musk: We are going straight to Mars
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2025 20:42:12 +1100
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On 5/01/2025 7:40 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> On a sunny day (Sun, 5 Jan 2025 01:16:14 +1100) it happened Bill Sloman
> <bill.sloman@ieee.org> wrote in <vlbfre$g439$1@dont-email.me>:
> 
>> On 4/01/2025 10:46 pm, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>> On a sunny day (Sat, 4 Jan 2025 11:24:13 +0000) it happened Martin Brown
>>> <'''newspam'''@nonad.co.uk> wrote in <vlb5ou$efa1$1@dont-email.me>:
>>>
>>>> On 04/01/2025 08:06, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>>>> Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”
>>>>> What to make of Musk's comments that are critical of NASA's lunar plans?
>>>>>     https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/
>>>>
>>>> He's already on a different planet!
>>>>
>>>> By all means send him to Mars (one way ticket) and good riddance!
>>>
>>> Na. I like it
>>> A Mars landing will improve the standing of the US too.
>>> And it may confirm life there (sample return possible too).
>>
>> It might, but probably won't.
>>
>>> and confirm the Viking positive experiment:
>>>    http://www.gillevin.com/
>>
>> It wasn't exactly positive.
>>
>>> Else...
>>> China will land on Mars and claim all of it and find life there.
>>> :-)
>>
>> Why would they bother?
> 
> Moon has always been part of China ;-)
> 
> 
> 
>>> So many money sucking NahSah projects, driving around the block doing acrobatics
>>> going nowhere.
>>> If Columbus had been that way the Aztecs would still rule :-)
>>
>> Columbus didn't expect to discover America - he though the earth was
>> smaller than Eratosthenes had worked it out to around 300BC and that
>> he'd get to China. Most people at time correctly though that he was nuts.
>>
>>> I remember those Moon landings, was at the National TV network control room
>>> relaying it to the country here.
>>> It united much of humanity, very inspiring.
>>>
>>> Now US cannot even go there it seems.
>>
>> It was an expensive stunt, very attention-getting at the time - I
>> watched it while I was doing the final tidying up on my Ph.D. thesis.
>>
>> The US is working on going back there, but with rather more emphasis on
>> finding out useful information.
>>
>>> Hope Musk makes it while I am still around.
>>
>> He's too busy cultivating Donald Trump to bother.
> 
> He may well use his political position to get more support for a Mars mission
> That Super Heavy spacecraft could do it.

It could perhaps take somebody to Mars, but keeping them alive there for 
any length of time would require a whole sequence of very expensive trips.

> 'When' depends a lot on the date:
>   https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/science/what-is-the-earth-mars-transfer-window-know-the-best-time-to-travel-to-red-planet-19478425.htm
>    2026?

Traveling there is just half the story.

-- 
Bill Sloman, Sydney