Watching those Space X boosters land is pretty darn exciting. Congrats, Space X. Another will land at sea. Amazing.
Space X has a really incredible and unique mission. Wow.
I hate to burst the bubble for Elon about his Mars delivery of his car. The intensity of sunlight is less than Earth. A new form of solar panel to intensify available sunlight will be needed to charge it and drive it. Think about it.
My understanding is Elon's car will slingshot around the sun to gain acceleration to speed up the trip to Mars. Very exciting stuff.
The late Gene Roddenberry helped launch Elon's dream. Fantastic. I hope all goes well. If I remember correctly, it was Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home (click here) where slingshotting around the sun engaged time travel.
While I think this is a very interesting venture, it still needs specifics about human space travel. One of the biggest concerns of scientists out of the Goddard Space Center was the radiation met in space by human beings unable to live through it's intensity and speed. Slingshotting around the sun has to raise that intensity as well.
Elon needs to mimic the Ozone Layer when travelling outside the safe life giving Earth. It probably can be done. A manmade Ozone Layer to encircle space travelers. Even travel to Earth's moon is somewhat safer than the solar wind of Sol.
An Ozone Layer surrounding a planet that has none is a very different animal. The physics are completely different.
Morally, if humans are serious about space travel to far away places, the first step is to create a ship that is safe and supports human life all by itself. A ship that can conduct it's own research into events that could destroy their lives. If space travel is to venture to living on other Earth-like planets there needs to be a moral retreat in the way of a space ship that sustains their lives when nothing else does. The ambition has to be tamed by a morality that values life over adventure.
