He's not just shooting his mouth off though, is he?To reiterate, the SpaceX Starship project is in development right now. Starship (FKA Big Fffffalcon Rocket, FKA the Interplanetary Transport System) is literally designed as an ...interplanetary transport system to take large numbers of people to Mars (NASA has also commissioned a lunar variant for the Artemis project, a real mission to establish a permanent presence on the moon, which is actually happening). You can watch the Starship prototypes being built and tested live on the internet.
How far away from having a moon base? A small number of years. First the orbital base (Zubrin's 'orbital toll booth'), then there will be various landers, some of which will contain habitation modules, some of which will be permanent features on the surface. To me, that's a moon base.
How far away from your moving goalpost? A few decades, or less if we pull our fingers out. The process for extracting water from lunar regolith is pretty simple in theory (collect dirt, add heat, collect vapour), and once we have that technology in place we already know how to extract hydrogen fuel and oxygen. Not sure how much staff would be required.
Not sure how you're defining an attempt at a manned Mars mission. Obviously there has been no crewed launch to Mars, but they have been proposed. You should really check out Robert Zubrin, who worked on designing crewed Mars missions from the 80s onwards. He's the creator of 'Mars Direct' and its subsequent updated plans. It all uses existing technology.
The good reason it's not been paid for yet is (in chronological order): The collapse of the British Empire (and subsequent abandonment of the British space program), Mao's scientist purge (and consequent late entry into the space race), the collapse of the Soviet Union (or maybe even the death of Korolev in 1966), and the American short term political system/military-industrial complex. Space Shuttle was a jobs program that effectively stalled the US space program for a generation. If Apollo technology had been developed, if reusability had been prioritised sooner, we could have had crewed missions all over the solar system by now!
(How far away from having a moon base? A small number of years. First the orbital base (Zubrin's 'orbital toll booth'), then there will be various landers, some of which will contain habitation modules, some of which will be permanent features on the surface. To me, that's a moon base.
How far away from your moving goalpost? A few decades, or less if we pull our fingers out. The process for extracting water from lunar regolith is pretty simple in theory (collect dirt, add heat, collect vapour), and once we have that technology in place we already know how to extract hydrogen fuel and oxygen. Not sure how much staff would be required.
Not sure how you're defining an attempt at a manned Mars mission. Obviously there has been no crewed launch to Mars, but they have been proposed. You should really check out Robert Zubrin, who worked on designing crewed Mars missions from the 80s onwards. He's the creator of 'Mars Direct' and its subsequent updated plans. It all uses existing technology.
The good reason it's not been paid for yet is (in chronological order): The collapse of the British Empire (and subsequent abandonment of the British space program), Mao's scientist purge (and consequent late entry into the space race), the collapse of the Soviet Union (or maybe even the death of Korolev in 1966), and the American short term political system/military-industrial complex. Space Shuttle was a jobs program that effectively stalled the US space program for a generation. If Apollo technology had been developed, if reusability had been prioritised sooner, we could have had crewed missions all over the solar system by now!
brb Learn Ukrainian and prepare for a referendum,
Wed 5 Oct 2022, 20:15,
archived)