Artemis II mission and returning to lunar exploration

Has to be a lot more than just a presence on other planets. We need to be able to survive without any contact with Earth or its resources.

All of the things you mentioned are going to be critical for off Earth settlement, even for just research, but most people can't see beyond the (undeniable) fact that he's a giant asshole. Even though he hasn't personally invented much of anything, he's at least putting his family's ill gotten gains to good use now. I can at least give him credit for that.

Volcano: Yellow Stone has the biggest on one Earth, just sayin'.

My brother traveled to FL with his son to see a few Shuttle launches back in the 1990s.

Someone has to be first. Odysseus fooled around in the Greek Isles, Vikings got the dragon/Longships for war and Knarr for transporting stuff.

Now that Artemis II is up up and away, getting a Moon colony established will be interesting. Elon's Starship/heavy lift rockets will be the new "semi-trucks" hauling supplies for NASA - next gen Teamsters? It's going to take non-govt companies to make this possible since govt is about as efficient as stone tools.

Elon is right about planetary exploration (first.) Mars is the only one that will be possible to put people on. Beyond that, we'll need most excellent new technology to leave our solar system - maybe a wormhole teleport phone booth. Hell, cars still run on gasoline.

My dad was really BIG on space. My brother and I each have 4 different 16x20 Apollo/Gemini photos from the original negatives. Long story how, he just knew the right people at work. We used to take them to elementary school for show & tell. I have a john Glenn signed Friendship 7 postcard date stamp on liftoff. He did a lot of these: you mailed it in, he'd sign a bunch, then NASA would mail/post stamp them on launch date. I have it in a Lucite frame on my desk, zip code for home address was 1-digit (Syracuse, NY 5). The photos are amazingly crystal clear framed with acid free mounting and museum glass frames. I'm sure there a lot were printed back then, however, these are special for me as a memory of Dad.

If the Earth becomes uninhabitable, why is it important to have a relative handful of the chosen few living in supremely uninhabitable space, Mars or the Moon? If the Earth dies, maybe it’s time for the human race to die? (Nothing personal fellow humans lol) To spend $trillions to “make sure the human race” survives some hypothetical disaster doesn’t resonate with me. Now if you told me space exploration will make people here on Earth better off, I’ll listen.

The genius of Elon: I hadn't projected out his boring project to be used on other planets, moons, asteroids, ect. You don't hear much about it. Combine boring tech with Optimus "Sandhogs" and dig away 24x7 in hostile environments.

I viewed Optimus w/Dojo as the ultimate robot with Elon's anal-retentive focus on hands. All things humans do accommodate our hands as that is our human-tool.

Other robot companies, while they do amazing things & tricks like Boston Robotics (China robots are what we expect from Made In China crap), they just don't have the advanced compute/LLM and tech that Musk has developed. The opposable thumb is 100% key to Optimus' ability to do hand things other robots can't. Also why racoons can so easily get into trouble. Paws & hooves while useful to animals for what they need are useless for humans.

Then Starship the heavy lift rocket was envisioned/developed way before we needed it to haul stuff into space at a low cost. Currently around $300/pound with a goal of $10/pound.

Starlink can be used for communication around the Moon and Mars. As far as I know, Starlink is the first successful LEO communications satellite for mass use at a VERY reasonable price offering upwards, today, of 300Mbps.

While the Neuralink chips. While helping with people with neurologic medical issues, thin of what it can do as a "computer in your brain" that won't been to be recharged and can be used to help communicate without the use of a cell phone and work as an AI tool using LLM to "learn" how best to help humans - who needs the Internet when data can be stored on your brain at the sub-atomic level that mitigates "senior moments." Picture the AI in an Optimus robot technology implanted in a human? You'd be able to remember what you had for lunch last week, senior moments and brain farts begone!

Yeah, and the Left hates-on Musk. As John Wayne once said, “Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”

There is nothing in writing, anywhere, where it states that humanity will survive forever.

Humanity won't survive without earth. Though the thought of a few of the "elite" transporting to Mars to escape a meteor has bounced around my head before. Would be funny to watch them self implode without any peons around for them to mooch off

^ HA!

^^ Survival is sure not guaranteed. Ask any T-Rex or Neanderthal.

Earth is really quite a nice place for humans to live, so it might make sense to take care of the home that we have now. I like the trees, the ocean, the breathable atmosphere, and the cost of living is just a tad lower compared to other areas in the heliosphere. Having said that, if you kids want to go play a few AUs away from earth, that's totally fine! Just stay away from the termination shock and try to be home by midnight!

P.S. Don't forget to take a jacket, as that solar wind was really fierce today...

^ hahaha

The Artemis mission is impressive but I'd rather see us use our resources a) protecting the inhabitable planet on which humans evolved, and 2) developing technology to deflect or destroy a meteor that threatens the Earth.

AI (artificial intelligence) will write the final chapter for humans within 200 years.

What is so impressive about the ARTEMIS mission? we alledgely did this all over 50 years ago and were told - THERE IS NO VALUE IN GOING BACK TO THE MOON. (no ROI on the $280 billion per launch)