The revolutionary breakthrough will come with rockets that are fully and rapidly reusable. We will never conquer Mars unless we do that. It'll be too expensive. The American colonies would never have been pioneered if the ships that crossed the ocean hadn't been reusable.
Elon Musk
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Well, I would say that re-usability can certainly be important, but even -more- important is the motivation for people to make the trip. The americas were opened up largely by trade. Specifically, private trade. People undertook the journey in the hope of making lots and lots of money.
If there's a colony on mars, or perhaps even many colonies, creating profitable trade opportunities will motivate people to make the long, dangerous trip through space.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
People also went to the Americas to be free and many knew it was a dangerous trip and the unknown was very dangerous with all the stories of savages. I am willing to go to Mars for the freedom.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
That too is a possibility. But there's only so much that will be accomplished by that if there's no possibilities of trade. You'll simply end up with two groups of isolated humanity, one of them living in domes on mars, without much travel between them.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Well Elon has always said, that the goal is a roundtrip and that the trip back would be free. I can only imagine what new technology will develop there that wouldn't here. I am sure there will be a whole lot of trade when we find certain resources and new tech is developed.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Oh, I'm sure there will be -something-. Maybe not tech, but perhaps some kind of planetary shipyard. Mars has much lower gravity than the earth, and so it would be easier to lift stuff, like building materials, to orbit.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I would have to say that Elon is probably the Howard Hughs of the 21st century.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit