My reply to HomerDK's reply, linked to just in case somebody blocks somebody bsky.app/profile/chic... ^ Here.

Sure there is. It's just not one that Mr.I-got-a-BS-in-Physics-from-Penn-on-Daddy's-diamond-mine-money-so-now-I-think-I'm-Einstein would ever understand. Ion drives have been with us for a long time, and so have solar cells. The former can be improved on, and the latter definitely should be.

A large portion of the Earth's land surface is arid. There, solar is good, renewable energy. Better solar cells will be of use here on Earth, not just in space. But going out to Mars, one will start out with a little over 1 KW per square meter, dropping to about half of that.

For inner solar system use, there's your power source, and for all practical intents and purposes, it is free and limitless, so there's no good reason to make the drive used for interplanetary travel energy efficient. Propellant should be what one conserves, instead.

Because kinetic energy scales as the square of the speed (*), and momentum is proportional to the velocity, itself, there is a natural tradeoff between energy efficiency and the efficient use of that hard-to-replace mass ... (*) or, if you prefer, the scalar product of the velocity with itself

... being shot out the back of a drive. To optimize propellant usage, one should maximize the speed with which it exits. This will allow one to impart far more momentum to the craft with the same amount of propellant.

But Elmo can't or won't understand that, no matter how patiently one it explains it. He just won't listen. He spent his daddy's money on Starship, so by gosh, that's what he's going to use to get to Mars: chemical rockets designed for getting things in and out of orbit.

Sort of using a tugboat as an ocean liner. He's like every student I've ever given a time out to during a discussion section, and now he's being put in charge of funding everything that the government is involved in, scientific research included. I swear I'm going to lose it.

Sending him to Mars, HIS WAY, with those two year long breaks in the supply line being forced by his STUPID reliance on transfer orbits for manned space flight - yeah, actually that would be an excellent use of taxpayer money.

Have him miss, slingshot him around Jupiter, and send him on a one way trip out of the system. We can even be charitable and put a small fission pile onboard the ship, so the heat and lights and air scrubbers will keep working. He doesn't need to die in agony. He just needs to go.

Go far, far away, where the only people who will ever have to hear from him, again, worship that blockhead, already. So, it will be an honor for them, living out their lives in that little habitat out in the darkness with him. Next stop, Oort Cloud! See you in 10,000 years, Elon!

What about technology to live on Mars with very high radiation and very little protection against solar flares? It is odd to me how everyone seems to sail right past these two very obvious threats that we currently have NO way of avoiding. Even on ISS you have stay limits, Mars is outside...

He said it would be a suicide mission, and it would be that way for a long time. Of course, he has no problem sacrificing the parasites for his child's play. He has no intention of ever going.

It should be contingent upon the project - only if he’s first.

It’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make.

That’s why I want Musk to go first.

Musk will ignore the danger. There’s too much profit to be made mining Mars. Watch the movie Total Recall from 1990. There’s an evil overlord who withholds oxygen from workers in order to exploit them. Even the vehicles look like Tesla pickups. Musk watches too many movies.

Maybe he is hoping the 3 boobed woman will be there waiting

Now that you mention it, that’s a good reason FOR colonizing 😜