A collection of 12 posts
Jeff Bezos is inspired by a vision that does not involve living on Mars—or on any planet besides Earth—but inhabiting artificial worlds in free space.
The privatisation of space travel is cutting the cost of rocket launches and powering innovation.
Mars contains all the materials needed to support not only life but technological civilization.
Many of these cultures surely had their share of Elon Musks—beings who wished to colonize other worlds.
On May 30th, 2020, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA’s facility at Cape Canaveral. Hidden in the roar of the thrusters was the crack of a starting gun for the second era of human expansion: The era of private crewed space exploration was on. During the last
Do we have the right to supplant Martian life with our own? Yes—because a human life has more value than that of a bacterium.
Those who travel to Mars will not need to debate free markets, bureaucracy, or state control of the means of production. They will not care about the ethnicity or gender identity of their peers. They will be too busy figuring out how to survive.
It is well known by now that, at some point, Mars had a lot of water on its surface, not just an isolated lake or two. There is strong evidence of now-dry rivers and deltas.
The universe is a big place. To the question of what we want to be, and how we want to express that being, compromise is canceled.
Build an education system that promotes both liberal arts and liberal values.
The answer is obvious: We need to celebrate Christmas twice.
Setting aside for the moment the many physical and biological problems that must be overcome to establish a permanent base on Mars, it’s worth considering how one would govern such a remote colony.