Mars colonies are mainly ab terrible idea because companies like SpaceX ruin our living space on earth to get ahead. Just look around their launch sites that have transformed once vibrant ecosystems into a post apocalyptic hellscape. It‘s simply unsustainable to ruin a livable planet in order to colonize a dead rock. The whole Mars mission is a scam from that perspective alone. I think even entertaining the idea of a Mars colony and debating about it‘s independence from Earth is missing the point.
Mars Attacks: How Elon Musk's plans to colonize Mars threaten Earth.
Submitted 6 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://thebulletin.org/2025/03/mars-attacks-how-elon-musks-plans-to-colonize-mars-threaten-earth/
Comments
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Viri4thus@feddit.org 6 days ago
It’s hyperloop V2
umbrella@lemmy.ml 6 days ago
for the uninitiated: getting federal money abd running away with it.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 5 days ago
what i don’t get is why people are focusing on the amount of ecosystem that SpaceX displaces while completely ignoring that literally anything else also replaces ecosystem. City? used to be forest? Parking lot? used to be prairie. Suburbs? you guessed it
everything was an ecosystem before modern humans got there. i don’t get the particular outrage over SpaceX.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 6 days ago
I think the average person (and average Musk acolyte) doesn’t grasp how hard spaceflight is, much less sustainably living there.
Colonizing the bottom of the ocean would be orders of magnitude easier. Or the South Pole. Or Kīlauea’s open lava pit.
The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.
…Look, I’m all for science mission there, but “escaping” to Mars is the wildest fantasy. A few years ago I’d say Musk was lying or exaggerating, but I think he’s actually drinking the Kool-Aid, and doesn’t even grasp the basics of modern spaceflight.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
And that last paragraph sort of nails it on the head
Musk is a scammer, he always has been. He got lucky a few times which landed us to today. He has close to zero engineering knowledge and is a drug junkie to top of off.
Look close at all his companies, look at what they all have done since he got in
Tesla… How many new models were made since he got in? And no, he didn’t found it, he bought himself in and through some scheming got rid of the real CEO. How many models are his brain child? One. Yes, that one. That is Elon Musk. Tesla robotics? You mean the guys in spandex suits or the shitty pre 1990 robots that are controlled by some guys that were in highschool 3 years ago? There is nothing of substance there. The robo taxis from yeeaaars ago that will now be there next year? Uh huh… Tesla truck? We’re still waiting!
SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit. Anything beyond that is where shit gets really hard and we’re still waiting. All I saw was billions of tax dollars wasted in blown up rocket after blown up rocket and SpaceX cheering nluke idiots over a blown up banana. Hell, they obliterated a launchpad because btgey were dumb enough to not understand flame diverters…
Boring? We dig tunnels 1000 times cheaper but it must be just a dumb tunnel with no chance for escape or survival. We can add disco lights though, cool right!
Solar roofs? The ones that didn’t work and right now there is this huge court case about it?
The guy is beyond stupid, been saying this over a decade now, and somehow he keeps falling up
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 5 days ago
SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit.
okay lol
gian@lemmy.grys.it 3 days ago
esla… How many new models were made since he got in?
None. But without Tesla you would not have neither all the other models from other car companies. Tesla just started it and demostrated that it is possible to produce an electric car with a decent look (and better that some ICE cars in my opinion) at a time when most of the electric cars done by other company were just some ugly proof of concept (excluding a very few cases) to show at this or that event.
And I read somewhere that what Musk wanted from Tesla was to set the stage, as far as I remember he said that it was ok if Tesla bankrupt after setting the stage.SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit. Anything beyond that is where shit gets really hard and we’re still waiting. All I saw was billions of tax dollars wasted in blown up rocket after blown up rocket and SpaceX cheering nluke idiots over a blown up banana.
Considering that everyone else was not able to do even that, I would not call SpaceX a failure. And it is not that NASA did not have its fair number or launch failures, tbh.
You talk about beyond low earth orbit like something way harder, but it not really true. SpaceX put a Tesla in a orbit beyond Mars with a Falcon heavy some years ago, and they still have (and use) the Falcon Heavy.Hell, they obliterated a launchpad because btgey were dumb enough to not understand flame diverters…
True but they were trying to launch a rocket that nobody else even tried to build. I would say it is fair that they make some mistakes.
gian@lemmy.grys.it 3 days ago
Colonizing the bottom of the ocean would be orders of magnitude easier. Or the South Pole. Or Kīlauea’s open lava pit.
While it is true that you have different sets of problems to sole, nope, they are only cheaper to get to, not necessary easier to colonize, except maybe the South Pole where you just need to build something that only need to withstand the cold, which is easy enough and you could go outside without a space suite or something similar.
The problem with colonizing Mars is the cost, which have as a consequence the cost of everything you send to that place.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 5 days ago
The tech you’d need to make living on Mars independent of Earth, like consciousness uploading, self sufficient friendly AI, extensive human/plant bioengineering, terraforming… Well, they’re better at solving our problems on Earth anyway.
That sounds like a good argument for a Mars colony.
Not that I think continuousness uploading or AI have anything to do with a Mars colony… Even terraforming is totally unnecessary.
Honestly, I don’t think Mars is a great candidate for a space colony, though probably not for the same reasons you’re thinking. But I think it is in fact vital that we start colonizing space soon, and I think the technologies developed in pursuit of that goal will absolutely aid us here on earth.
brucethemoose@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Eh, none of that is something one casually develops for going to Mars. Is tech that fundamentally transforms the nature of society on Earth and being human, and again, is way more impactful than going to Mars.
Again, the argument I’m trying to make is that, by the time one can settle Mars without supplies from earth, you mind as well get your robotic swarm to make space habitats or something.
Brotha_Jaufrey@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Mars is an uninhabitable hellscape that I sincerely hope Musk and his billionaire friends colonize so that they all become one with Martian soil
Randomgal@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
This is some sci-fi fanfic level shit lmao
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 5 days ago
Typical bullshit article that has no idea what it’s talking abou (the drawings are nice though):
- Outer Space Treaty does not forbid the formation of a nation on Mars. It does not even forbid staking individual land-claims by settlers. What it does forbid is staking big land claims by earth-nations.
Copying from Wikipedia:
Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body.
Mars settlement passes all of these checks.
cmgvd3lw@discuss.tchncs.de 6 days ago
I feel like this is a headline from the future.
AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
What is the suggestion, then? Assuming a colony does ever get established, it’s impractical and naive to expect those who now live there to never demand land rights. The author makes good points but fails to discuss any potential solutions other than ‘stay earthbound’.
Letsdothisok@lemmy.world 6 days ago
God bless Elon and his endeavors.
j0ester@lemmy.world 6 days ago
You’re a troll.
Letsdothisok@lemmy.world 5 days ago
No, everyone deserves a prayer. Even you
EaterOfLentils@lemmy.world 6 days ago
b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 days ago
They have done zero work on actual habitation. It would make more sense to make life on earth sustainable. If you can’t do that you have zero chance of sustained life on a planet as hostile as Mars.
Pirata@lemm.ee 6 days ago
But then how could they make ungodly amounts of money while looking down on the peasantry?
hakunawazo@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Well, I would be glad if he would do it in person - and stays there.