Category Archives: Mars Colonization

Our astronauts will be settling on Mars indefinitely. It's not feasible to send water, oxygen and food from Earth to the astronauts: they will produce those on Mars.

On Mars, water can be extracted from the soil. The rover will select the location for the settlement primarily based on the water content in the soil. We expect this to be at a latitude of between 40 and 45 degrees North latitude. Water extraction will be performed by the life support units. The rover will deposit soil into a water extractor in the life support units. The water extractor will heat the soil until the water evaporates. The evaporated water will be condensed and stored, the dry soil expelled, and the process repeated to extract more water.About 1500 liters of reserve water will be stored in each life support unit, which will be consumed primarily at night, and during periods of protracted low power availability, for example during dust storms.

Since Mars has gravity, water can be used in the same way as on Earth. Each astronaut will be able to use about 50 liters of water per day. The water will be recycled, which takes much less energy than extracting it from the Martian soil. Only water that can not be recycled will be replaced by water extracted from the soil.

Oxygen can be produced by splitting water into its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen will be used to provide a breathable atmosphere in the living units, and a portion will be stored in reserve for conditions when there is less power available, for example at night, and during dust storms.

The second major component of the living units' atmosphere, nitrogen, will be extracted directly from the Martian atmosphere by the life support unit.

When the astronauts land on Mars, there will be storable food from Earth waiting for them to use. The storable food from Earth will only serve as emergency rations, which means the astronauts will try to eat as much fresh food that they produce on Mars as possible. It is likely that algae and insects will also be part of the diet on Mars.

Food production will occur indoor under artificial lighting. In total, there will be approximately 80 m2 available for plant growth in the original habitat. The first crew will also be able to use the habitat of the second crew to grow food because the hardware for the second crew lands only a few weeks after the first crew lands.

A thick layer of Martian soil on top of the inflatable habitat will protect the plants (and the astronauts) from radiation. CO2 for the plants is available from the Mars atmosphere and water is available through recycling and the soil on Mars. Nutrients for the plants could come from recycling human waste or could be imported from Earth.

Any plant production surplus will be stored as emergency rations for the second crew and for emergencies. Non-edible parts of the plants will be recycled or stored until more advanced recycling equipment is shipped from Earth.

Mars One will investigate the volume requirements for food production in the simulation outpost and the crews will be trained for many years to operate the greenhouse equipment. The aim is for colony to be independent from the food they receive from Earth. There will always be enough emergency rations in storage, locally produced or from Earth, to survive until the next supply mission comes.

Mars One released aconceptual design report of the Surface Habitat Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) performed by Paragon Space Development Corporation. The ECLSS will create a safe environment for the Mars inhabitants, supplying them with clean air and water while recycling wastes. A concise abstract of the independent Paragon report can be found here:How to keep humans alive on Mars - Abstract Surface Habitat ECLSS Conceptual Design.

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Will the astronauts have enough water, food and ... - Mars One

In many cases astronomical phenomena viewed from the planet Mars are the same or similar to those seen from Earth but sometimes (as with the view of Earth as an evening/morning star) they can be quite different. For example, because the atmosphere of Mars does not contain an ozone layer, it is also possible to make UV observations from the surface of Mars.

Mars has an axial tilt of 25.19, quite close to the value of 23.44 for Earth, and thus Mars has seasons of spring, summer, autumn, winter as Earth does. As on Earth, the southern and northern hemispheres have summer and winter at opposing times.

However, the orbit of Mars has significantly greater eccentricity than that of Earth. Therefore, the seasons are of unequal length, much more so than on Earth:

In practical terms, this means that summers and winters have different lengths and intensities in the northern and southern hemispheres. Winters in the north are warm and short (because Mars is moving fast near its perihelion), while winters in the south are long and cold (Mars is moving slowly near aphelion). Similarly, summers in the north are long and cool, while summers in the south are short and hot. Therefore, extremes of temperature are considerably wider in the southern hemisphere than in the north.

The seasonal lag on Mars is no more than a couple of days,[1] due to its lack of large bodies of water and similar factors that would provide a buffering effect. Thus, for temperatures on Mars, "spring" is approximately the mirror image of "summer" and "autumn" is approximately the mirror image of "winter" (if you consider the solstices and equinoxes to be the beginnings of their respective seasons), and if Mars had a circular orbit the maximum and minimum temperatures would occur a couple of days after the summer and winter solstices rather than about one month after as on Earth. The only difference between spring temperatures and summer temperatures is due to the relatively high eccentricity of Mars's orbit: in northern spring Mars is farther from the Sun than during northern summer, and therefore by coincidence spring is slightly cooler than summer and autumn is slightly warmer than winter. However, in the southern hemisphere the opposite is true.

The temperature variations between spring and summer are much less than the very sharp variations that occur within a single Martian sol (solar day). On a daily basis, temperatures peak at local solar noon and reach a minimum at local midnight. This is similar to the effect in Earth's deserts, only much more pronounced.

The axial tilt and eccentricity of Earth (or Mars) are by no means fixed, but rather vary due to gravitational perturbations from other planets in the Solar System on a timescale of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of years. Thus, for example Earth's eccentricity of about 1% regularly fluctuates and can increase up to 6%, and at some point in the distant future the Earth will also have to deal with the calendrical implications of seasons of widely differing length and the major climate disruptions that go along with it.

Aside from the eccentricity, the Earth's axial tilt can also vary from 21.5 to 24.5, and the length of this "obliquity cycle" is 41,000 years. These and other similar cyclical changes are thought to be responsible for ice ages (see Milankovitch cycles). By contrast, the obliquity cycle for Mars is much more extreme: from 15 to 35 over a 124,000-year cycle. Some recent studies even suggest that over tens of millions of years, the swing may be as much as 0 to 60.[2] Earth's large Moon apparently plays an important role in keeping Earth's axial tilt within reasonable bounds; Mars has no such stabilizing influence and its axial tilt can vary more chaotically.

The normal hue of the sky during the daytime is a pinkish-red; however, in the vicinity of the setting or rising sun it is blue. This is the exact opposite of the situation on Earth. However, during the day the sky is a yellow-brown "butterscotch" color.[3] On Mars, Rayleigh scattering is usually a very small effect. It is believed that the color of the sky is caused by the presence of 1% by volume of magnetite in the dust particles. Twilight lasts a long time after the Sun has set and before it rises, because of all the dust in Mars' atmosphere. At times, the Martian sky takes on a violet color, due to scattering of light by very small water ice particles in clouds.[4]

Generating accurate true-color images of Mars's surface is surprisingly complicated.[5] There is much variation in the color of the sky as reproduced in published images; many of those images, however, are using filters to maximize the scientific value and are not trying to show true color. Nevertheless, for many years, the sky on Mars was thought to be more pinkish than it now is believed to be.

As seen from Mars, the Earth is an inner planet like Venus (a "morning star" or "evening star"). The Earth and Moon appear starlike to the naked eye, but observers with telescopes would see them as crescents, with some detail visible.

An observer on Mars would be able to see the Moon orbiting around the Earth, and this would easily be visible to the naked eye. By contrast, observers on Earth cannot see any other planet's satellites with the naked eye, and it was not until soon after the invention of the telescope that the first such satellites were discovered (Jupiter's Galilean moons).

At maximum angular separation, the Earth and Moon would be easily distinguished as a double planet, but about one week later they would merge into a single point of light (to the naked eye), and then about a week after that, the Moon would reach maximum angular separation on the opposite side. The maximum angular separation of the Earth and Moon varies considerably according to the relative distance between the Earth and Mars: it is about 25 when Earth is closest to Mars (near inferior conjunction) but only about 3.5 when the Earth is farthest from Mars (near superior conjunction). For comparison, the apparent diameter of the Moon from Earth is 31.

The minimum angular separation would be less than 1, and occasionally the Moon would be seen to transit in front of or pass behind (be occulted by) the Earth. The former case would correspond to a lunar occultation of Mars as seen from Earth, and because the Moon's albedo is considerably less than that of the Earth, a dip in overall brightness would occur, although this would be too small to be noticeable by casual naked eye observers because the size of the Moon is much smaller than that of the Earth and it would cover only a small fraction of the Earth's disk.

Mars Global Surveyor imaged the Earth and Moon on May 8, 2003 13:00 UTC, very close to maximum angular elongation from the Sun and at a distance of 0.930 AU from Mars. The apparent magnitudes were given as 2.5 and +0.9.[8] At different times the actual magnitudes will vary considerably depending on distance and the phases of the Earth and Moon.

From one day to the next, the view of the Moon would change very differently for an observer on Mars than for an observer on Earth. The phase of the Moon as seen from Mars would not change much from day to day; it would match the phase of the Earth, and would only gradually change as both Earth and Moon move in their orbits around the Sun. On the other hand, an observer on Mars would see the Moon rotate, with the same period as its orbital period, and would see far side features that can never be seen from Earth.

Since Earth is an inner planet, observers on Mars can occasionally view transits of Earth across the Sun. The next one will take place in 2084. They can also view transits of Mercury and transits of Venus.

The moon Phobos appears about one third the angular diameter that the full Moon appears from Earth; on the other hand, Deimos appears more or less starlike with a disk barely discernible if at all. Phobos orbits so fast (with a period of just under one third of a sol) that it rises in the west and sets in the east, and does so twice per sol; Deimos on the other hand rises in the east and sets in the west, but orbits only a few hours slower than a Martian sol, so it spends about two and a half sols above the horizon at a time.

The maximum brightness of Phobos at "full moon" is about magnitude 9 or 10, while for Deimos it is about 5.[9] By comparison, the full Moon as seen from Earth is considerably brighter at magnitude 12.7. Phobos is still bright enough to cast shadows; Deimos is only slightly brighter than Venus is from Earth. Just like Earth's Moon, both Phobos and Deimos are considerably fainter at non-full phases. Unlike Earth's Moon, Phobos's phases and angular diameter visibly change from hour to hour; Deimos is too small for its phases to be visible with the naked eye.

Both Phobos and Deimos have low-inclination equatorial orbits and orbit fairly close to Mars. As a result, Phobos is not visible from latitudes north of 70.4N or south of 70.4S; Deimos is not visible from latitudes north of 82.7N or south of 82.7S. Observers at high latitudes (less than 70.4) would see a noticeably smaller angular diameter for Phobos because they are farther away from it. Similarly, equatorial observers of Phobos would see a noticeably smaller angular diameter for Phobos when it is rising and setting, compared to when it is overhead.

Observers on Mars can view transits of Phobos and transits of Deimos across the Sun. The transits of Phobos could also be called partial eclipses of the Sun by Phobos, since the angular diameter of Phobos is up to half the angular diameter of the Sun. However, in the case of Deimos the term "transit" is appropriate, since it appears as a small dot on the Sun's disk.

Since Phobos orbits in a low-inclination equatorial orbit, there is a seasonal variation in the latitude of the position of Phobos's shadow projected onto the Martian surface, cycling from far north to far south and back again. At any given fixed geographical location on Mars, there are two intervals per Martian year when the shadow is passing through its latitude and about half a dozen transits of Phobos can be observed at that geographical location over a couple of weeks during each such interval. The situation is similar for Deimos, except only zero or one transits occur during such an interval.

It is easy to see that the shadow always falls on the "winter hemisphere", except when it crosses the equator during the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes. Thus transits of Phobos and Deimos happen during Martian autumn and winter in the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. Close to the equator they tend to happen around the autumnal equinox and the vernal equinox; farther from the equator they tend to happen closer to the winter solstice. In either case, the two intervals when transits can take place occur more or less symmetrically before and after the winter solstice (however, the large eccentricity of Mars's orbit prevents true symmetry).

Observers on Mars can also view lunar eclipses of Phobos and Deimos. Phobos spends about an hour in Mars's shadow; for Deimos it is about two hours. Surprisingly, despite its orbit being nearly in the plane of Mars's equator and despite its very close distance to Mars, there are some occasions when Phobos escapes being eclipsed.

Phobos and Deimos both have synchronous rotation, which means that they have a "far side" that observers on the surface of Mars can't see. The phenomenon of libration occurs for Phobos as it does for Earth's Moon, despite the low inclination and eccentricity of Phobos's orbit.[10][11]Due to the effect of librations and the parallax due to the close distance of Phobos, by observing at high and low latitudes and observing as Phobos is rising and setting, the overall total coverage of Phobos's surface that is visible at one time or another from one location or another on Mars's surface is considerably higher than 50%.

The large Stickney crater is visible along one edge of the face of Phobos. It is easily visible with the naked eye from the surface of Mars.

Since Mars has an atmosphere that is relatively transparent at optical wavelengths (just like Earth, albeit much thinner), meteors will occasionally be seen. Meteor showers on Earth occur when the Earth intersects the orbit of a comet, and likewise, Mars also has meteor showers, although these are different from the ones on Earth.

The first meteor photographed on Mars (on March 7, 2004 by the Spirit rover) is now believed to have been part of a meteor shower whose parent body was comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff. Because the radiant was in the constellation Cepheus, this meteor shower could be dubbed the Martian Cepheids.[12]

As on Earth, when a meteor is large enough to actually impact with the surface (without burning up completely in the atmosphere), it becomes a meteorite. The first known meteorite discovered on Mars (and the third known meteorite found someplace other than Earth) was Heat Shield Rock. The first and the second ones were found on the moon by the Apollo missions.[13][14]

On October 19, 2014, Comet Siding Spring passed extremely close to Mars, so close that the coma may have enveloped the planet.[15][16][17][18][19][20]

Auroras occur on Mars, but they do not occur at the poles as on Earth, because Mars has no planetwide magnetic field. Rather, they occur near magnetic anomalies in Mars's crust, which are remnants from earlier days when Mars did have a magnetic field. Martian auroras are a distinct kind not seen elsewhere in the Solar System.[21] They would probably also be invisible to the human eye, being largely ultraviolet phenomena.[22]

The orientation of Mars's axis is such that its north celestial pole is in Cygnus at R.A. 21h 10m 42s Decl. +5253.0 (or more precisely, 317.67669 +52.88378), near the 6th-magnitude star BD +52 2880 (also known as HR 8106, HD 201834, or SAO 33185), which in turn is at R.A. 21h 10m 15.6s Decl. +533348.

The top two stars in the Northern Cross, Sadr and Deneb, point to the north celestial pole of Mars.[23] The pole is about halfway between Deneb and Alpha Cephei, less than 10 from the former, a bit more than the apparent distance between Sadr and Deneb. Because of its proximity to the pole, Deneb never sets in nearly all of Mars's northern hemisphere. Except in areas close to the equator, Deneb permanently circles the North pole. The orientation of Deneb and Sadr would make a useful clock hand for telling sidereal time.

Mars's north celestial pole is also only a few degrees away from the galactic plane. Thus the Milky Way, especially rich in the area of Cygnus, is always visible from the northern hemisphere.

The South celestial pole is correspondingly found at 9h 10m 42s and 5253.0, which is a couple of degrees from the 2.5-magnitude star Kappa Velorum (which is at 9h 22m 06.85s 5500.6), which could therefore be considered the southern polar star. The star Canopus, second-brightest in the sky, is a circumpolar star for most southern latitudes.

The zodiac constellations of Mars's ecliptic are almost the same as those of Earth after all, the two ecliptic planes only have a mutual inclination of 1.85 but on Mars, the Sun spends 6 days in the constellation Cetus, leaving and re-entering Pisces as it does so, making a total of 14 zodiacal constellations. The equinoxes and solstices are different as well: for the northern hemisphere, vernal equinox is in Ophiuchus (compared to Pisces on Earth), summer solstice is at the border of Aquarius and Pisces, autumnal equinox is in Taurus, and winter solstice is in Virgo.

As on Earth, precession will cause the solstices and equinoxes to cycle through the zodiac constellations over thousands and tens of thousands of years.

As on Earth, the effect of precession causes the north and south celestial poles to move in a very large circle, but on Mars the cycle is 175,000 Earth years[24] rather than 26,000 years as on Earth.

As on Earth, there is a second form of precession: the point of perihelion in Mars's orbit changes slowly, causing the anomalistic year to differ from the sidereal year. However, on Mars, this cycle is 83,600 years rather than 112,000 years as on Earth.

On both Earth and Mars, these two precessions are in opposite directions, and therefore add, to make the precession cycle between the tropical and anomalistic years 21,000 years on Earth and 56,600 years on Mars.

As on Earth, the period of rotation of Mars (the length of its day) is slowing down. However, this effect is three orders of magnitude smaller than on Earth because the gravitational effect of Phobos is negligible and the effect is mainly due to the Sun.[25] On Earth, the gravitational influence of the Moon has a much greater effect. Eventually, in the far future, the length of a day on Earth will equal and then exceed the length of a day on Mars.

As on Earth, Mars experiences Milankovitch cycles that cause its axial tilt (obliquity) and orbital eccentricity to vary over long periods of time, which has long-term effects on its climate. The variation of Mars's axial tilt is much larger than for Earth because it lacks the stabilizing influence of a large moon like Earth's Moon. Mars has a 124,000-year obliquity cycle compared to 41,000 years for Earth.

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Astronomy on Mars - Wikipedia

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If you let NASA tell the story, some of the people walking around on this planet right now may end up taking a stroll on the surface of Mars during their lifetimes.

People such as Elon Musk believe well colonize the red planet entirely and become a two-planet species. And this could be one of humankinds most important endeavors after all, who knows when another asteroid the size of the one that may have taken out the dinosaurs is going to hit again.

It could also be far more complex than NASA or SpaceX has actually considered.

Were going to need a way to grow food, store water, and produce breathable air in order for humans to survive on Mars.

But colonizing a harsh world is about more than just not dying. In order for humankind to grow and prosper on Mars as we have on Earth, were going to need good old-fashioned Earth viruses. And lots of em.

Thats according to the director of Arizona State Universitys Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Professor Paul Davies.

Davies recently discussed the importance of viruses in an interview published in The Guardian:

Viruses actually form part of the web of life. I would expect that if youve got microbial life on another planet, youre bound to have if its going to be sustainable and sustained the full complexity and robustness that will go with being able to exchange genetic information.

As Davies and myriad other scientists suspect, its possible that viruses are not just part of Earths biome but an essential component of evolution.

This is because of a fascinating aspect of evolutionary growth called horizontal gene transfer.

During horizontal gene transfer a species is believed to get certain traits through exposure from viruses rather than the traditional genetic route. According to Davies, some scientists believe most of the human genome is derived from viral sources.

In other words: humans are still evolving. Its possible our further evolution will require access to viruses that modify our genome over vast periods of time.

If we were to successfully colonize Mars (which would involve solving innumerable problems in its own right), those people who lived, procreated, and died there could potentially diverge from the human race.

Its conceivable that, after a certain number of generations of Martian colonists have been born, the human race could split into an Earth species and a Mars one solely based on exposure to viruses.

These are probably far-future problems, but the rate at which politicians and private-sector companies are attempting to conduct crewed missions to Mars with the expressed purpose of building a colony is alarming.

Its impossible to know the ramifications of colonizing a planet without our Earthbound viruses most of which are actually good, theyre not all COVID-19.

And its also impossible to know the ramifications of intentionally transporting and unleashing our planets diseases on the rest of the cosmos.

The good news, according to Davies, is that any aliens out there almost certainly have their own biomes and viruses that sustain their life. And, typically speaking, a virus is only harmful to the host it evolved to attack.

So, space viruses probably arent harmful to humans. But what happens when an alien virus and an Earth virus start mixing things up? And what happens to humanity when we leave our Earth viruses behind?

Its obvious that theres more to colonizing another world than just hauling supplies and figuring out how future generations can eventually terraform a barren wasteland. Heres hoping the people authorizing these projects are listening to more than just billionaires and engineers.

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Scientist says viruses may be the key to colonizing other planets - The Next Web

Any current review of Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is inherently incomplete, since the five-part Netflix docuseries is aiming to debut in real time alongside the event its depicting: the Sept. 15 launch of SpaceXs Inspiration4, which will be the first all-civilian flight to orbit the Eartha feat itll accomplish multiple times during its three-day journey, at speeds of 17,500 mph and at a height greater than that of the International Space Station. Consequently, the only episodes available to press at the moment are its first two prologue installments (premiering Sept. 6); chapters three and four will hit the streaming service on Sept. 13, and a feature-length finaledetailing the actual missionis set to land in late September, shortly after the Inspiration4 touches back down on Earth.

Those concluding segments will no doubt deliver up-close-and-personal footage from inside the Inspiration4 Crew Dragon capsule that will house its four amateur astronauts, who will be launched into space via a previously used Falcon 9 rocket. In its maiden passages, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space is basically a long-winded promotional video crafted to stoke excitementand offer justificationsfor the endeavor, which just about everyone here touts as a history-making project that will help us get closer to answering the most profound questions about existence and serve as the first step in mankinds quest to become a multi-planetary species. Its an aggressive sales pitch masquerading as a typical Netflix non-fiction venture, helmed by The Last Dances Jason Hehir with all the dewy-eyed melodrama, swelling music, and rousing headshots that a 45-minute episode can contain.

Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space insistently pushes its message from the get-go. According to Times chief science editor Jeffrey Kluger, Inspiration4 is a hinge point in history, and will kick the doors open to space for the rest of us. Thats because, by sending non-professional astronauts into space, the undertaking will pave the way for more commercial flights, as well as further the goal of reaching deeper into the cosmos, where we might someday colonize distant worlds. This is a goal of dubious worth, but its one that Hehirs docuseries champions with a chin-held-high sort of confidence. At the same time, it also has SpaceX founder Elon Musk address the main criticism of the Inspiration4 flight, and similar ones recently spearheaded by Richard Branson and Jeff Bezosnamely, that these are joy-ride stunts designed to feed the egos of billionaires.

I think we should spend the vast majority of our resources solving problems on Earth. Like, 99 percent-plus of our economy should be dedicated to solving problems on Earth, says Musk in one of his few obligatory on-screen appearances. But I think maybe something like 1 percent, or less than 1 percent, could be applied to extending life beyond Earth. His motivation is colonizing Mars, and the exciting, inspiring future of multi-planetary habitation. After all, he proclaims, If life is just about problems, whats the point of living? In this context, Inspiration4 isnt just an expensive lark; its the next big pioneering phase in mankinds evolution, and thus deserving of the private investment required to make its Jetsons-style dreams a reality.

Musks brief comments aside, however, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space does very little to take a critical look at this enterprise. At least in its initial pair of installments, the docuseries plays like a PR product, casting everything in glowing terms, including its portraits of the missions four astronauts. That group is led by Jared Isaacman, a billionaire whose history of entrepreneurship, risk-taking and fighter jet-piloting made him the ideal driving force behind Inspiration4. Isaacman is an amiable and eloquent guy whose every comment is tailor-made to hit on a particular talking point and, as he explains, a guiding motivation behind his SpaceX relationship was an initiative he developed with St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital to raise $200 million for cancer research. Putting his money where his mouth is, hes already given his own, separate $100 million donation to the organization.

St. Jude also provided Inspiration4 with two of its passengers: Hayley Arceneaux, a pediatric cancer survivor and current St. Jude physicians assistant, and Christopher Sembroski, who won his ride by entering into a raffle promoted by SpaceXs Super Bowl commercial. The fourth crew member is Sian Proctor, a 51-year-old entrepreneur (whod previously trained for space flight) who earned her spot through a viral-video competition. Together, as Isaacman explains, they represent the four pillars of the Inspiration4 mission: Leadership (Isaacman), Hope (Arceneaux), Generosity (Sembroski), and Prosperity (Proctor). This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release. And though all four of these individuals seem genuinely thrilled about their opportunity, the docuseries vignettes on their backstories are as cornily handled as the scenes in which they announce to friends (in person, and via Zoom) that theyre going to spacemoments that awkwardly strain for astonishment and euphoria.

This is as cheesy as it sounds, like something produced for a marketing brochure and a press release.

One can imagine Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Spaces more timely later episodes supplying greater suspense. Yet in its early goingwhich involves repeatedly underlining SpaceXs connection to the history and ethos of the American space programthe entire affair mostly comes across as prepackaged corporate publicity. Some authentic emotion does occasionally sneak in, as with a brief snapshot of Sembroskis wife breaking down in nervous tears while visiting SpaceXs Cape Canaveral HQ to watch the Crew-2 flight take off in April 2021. Yet even the shows discussion about the dangers of space travelreplete with recaps of the 1986 and 2003 space shuttle disastersseem less interested in grappling with the cost/benefit of these missions than in raising the proceedings suspenseful dramatic stakes.

Those hazards are, of course, real, and theyll certainly be front-and-center as Inspiration4 makes its way from the planning stages to the launchpad. The notion that Netflix viewers will get a front-row seat for this journeybe it a triumph or a failureremains an intriguing prospect. Yet one hopes that, as its subjects enter orbit, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space quiets down about its own importance, and lets its action speak for itself.

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Netflix Strokes Elon Musk's Otherworldly Ego With 'Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space' - The Daily Beast

The Below & Beyond DLC for Surviving Mars launched today on Steam. The DLC lets players explore and expand their colony into the caves and lava tubes of the Martian surface. Surviving Mars is a sci-fi builder about colonizing Mars and surviving the process. Mining resources and building structures are some of the many things players will have to do to ensure the survival and improvement of the Colony.

With the DLC, players will be able to go below the surface and mine resources, construct special rocket-propelled buildings, and find exotic minerals and data samples. Besides the new areas, players will now be able to unlock additional buildings, vehicles, upgrades, and locales. They will also be able to unlock asteroid mining and tunnel colonization.

The Surviving Mars Below & Beyond DLC brought some free updates for players, improving the UI, balancing some mechanics, and more, so players will have a better experience overall. If you want to read the full patch notes you can go to the official game website. There you will find all the information you need.

Surviving Mars is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

- This article was updated on September 7th, 2021

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Surviving Mars Below & Beyond DLC Launches Today, Here's What's New - Attack of the Fanboy

The increasing frequency of both natural and man-made catastrophes such as worldwide pandemics and climate catastrophes has re-validated the urgency to establish humanity as a multi-planet species. Indeed, the founding ethos of Elon Musk's private spaceflight company SpaceX was to make life multi-planetary, partly motivated by existential threats such as large asteroid strikes capable of wiping out life on our planet. However, one of the biggest challenges to making this dream a reality is how to get to distant stars and planets within a human lifetime.

Consider that with conventional fuel rockets, it takes about seven months just to get to Mars, and a ridiculous 80,000 years to get to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using our fastest rockets. This means that ordinary rockets are simply out of the question for interstellar travel, and something a little bit more out there is needed.

Luckily, we might now have the answer to this space travel conundrum.

Once the exclusive province of science fiction films, space colonization has been moving closer to becoming a reality thanks to major advances in astronautics and astrophysics; rocket propulsion and design, robotics and medicine. Trekkies, along with the otherworldly technology featured in the Star Trek series, have helped define the science fiction universe. One of the most mind-boggling of these technologies from those shows is the "Impulse Drive," a propulsion system used on the spaceships of many species to get across the galaxy in amazingly short timeframes measured in months or a few years rather than centuries or millennia.

And now scientists have unveiled the Holy Grail of Space Travel: A real-life Impulse Drive system able to achieve sub-light velocities using zero fuel propellants. After 30 years of tinkering and fine-tuning, a pair of scientists might finally be close to turning science fiction into science fact.

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And, NASA is taking the idea seriously.

MEGA Drive

Conventional spaceships burn rocket fuel to achieve escape velocities, maneuver, and even land, in the case of SpaceX rockets. But what if you could build a spaceship that runs entirely on electricity?

That's exactly what the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) drive does.

Jim Woodward, a physics professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, and Hal Fearn, a physicist at Fullerton, have developed the Mach Effect Gravity Assist (MEGA) Drive propulsion based on what they say is peer-reviewed, technically credible physics.

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With the help of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant, the two scientists have developed MEGA Drive based on the physics described in Einstein's theory of relativity. MEGA Drive--which is showing excellent promise in early testing and is already in phase two testing--is pretty much the holy grail of space travel and space science because it could power not only local travel within our solar system, but also interstellar travel that is currently undoable using available technologies.

So, how does MEGA Drive work?

It's a well-known Newtonian law that an object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed unless an external force acts on it. All objects resist changes to their state of motion or rest due to inertia.

In 1872, Austrian physicist Ernst Mach made a conjecture that these forces of inertia result from the gravity of objects in the distant universe. This became known as the controversial Mach's principle. While most experts have now dismissed it, Woodward and Fearn think the idea is simply misunderstood and have built their impulse engine based on it.

The MEGA Drive applies the Mach principle. There are several textbook definitions of the Mach principle; however, the two scientists think of it as the ability of distant matter to influence things up close. To get your head around it, they use this old analogy of how matter bends space-time.

If you put a heavy object on a trampoline, it falls in and curves the rubber sheet. Now, if you roll a ball on the trampoline, it will keep orbiting the heavy mass in the center. That's how a planet behaves when it's attracted by the gravity of a star. The thing is, for the rubber sheet to act that way, it has to be stretched or under tension. So these scientists are basically saying that the distant matter of the universe is what's pulling the space-time and making it taut and causing it to act like a stretched rubber sheet loaded with potential energy. And according to the team's understanding of the Mach principle, so is space-time, meaning they think there's a big gravitational potential out there, and the MEGA Drive can actually tap into that potential energy.

Related: Aramco On Lockdown After Houthi Missile Attack

The MEGA Drive works by making a stack of piezoelectric crystals alternately heavier and lighter by applying electric current to them. Actually, this is not some kind of New Age healing crystals; piezoelectric crystals do expand and contract under the influence of electricity, essentially interacting with what Einstein says are universal inertial fields in the universe, caused by gravity. By making an object heavier one instant and lighter the next, you can create thrust by using the very same Newtonian every-reaction-causes-an-equal-and-opposite-reaction principle used by rocket engines by throwing matter behind them to move forward.

MEGA Drive's main kicker: Unlike a conventional rocket that ejects burnt gases to create thrust, the MEGA Drive does not permanently lose its energy-producing crystals by actually throwing them away; You simply push them when heavy, and pull them back when light, thus creatingmomentum to move forward.

"If you now have a double frequency mechanical oscillation, you can push on it when it's more massive and pull it back when it's less massive. You've got propelling, but you don't have to throw it over and say goodbye. You get to throw it over when it's more massive and then because of this interaction with this inertial gravitational field, you can let it become less massive and then pull it back in," says Woodward.

Woodward says each Mach Effect drive unit can generate about a hundred millinewtons of force. As currently built, the Mach Effect engines are six-centimeter cubes just over two inches per side. By making them more efficient, Woodward says you'd get more power from each. And, by stacking as many of them as you want on your ship, you can generate enough forward momentum to power your ship.

Then it's just a question of how much electricity you can feed the drives, with a nuclear power plant mooted as a possible source of electricity.

According to Woodward, you can generate ~10 newtons of force for every kilowatt of electricity fed into the Mach Effect engines. Early applications would be in satellites used in chemical rockets to maintain orbits and alignment with the engines fueled by electricity, vastly extending their useful lifespans. Indeed, in this case, solar panels could provide all the necessary energy to power the drives.

Another interesting finding: The team has calculated that the smaller the device, the larger the force it can generate. So instead of scaling up, they hope that arrays of thousands of tiny MEGA Drives powered by a nuclear battery could one day be deployed to accelerate large probes into interstellar space. Indeed, the scientists claim that the drives are sufficient to power a human-crewed starship to nearby stars such as Proxima Centauri located some 4.25 light-years away from the sun and back in some reasonable fraction of the human lifetime.

That sounds pretty futuristic, of course, and relies on peer review and replication of Woodward's results. To be clear, it will take a healthy dose of dogged persistence to replicate Woodward's feat. Indeed, Mike McDonald, an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory contracted by NASA to verify Woodward's work, gives it a rather unnerving 1 in 10 to a 1 in 10 million chance --but it's a shot, nevertheless.

And if MEGA Drive proves viable, it will become one of the rare instances when science fiction is vindicated and transformed into scientific fact.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

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Water is one of the most valuable resources when it comes to survival and in order to find a permanent human presence on the Moon, water is one of the most important resources. Humans need water to drink, to wash, to bathe, and everything that we do here on Earth. This mission is very crucial for NASA as it plans to make exoplanetary colonization a reality. The Artemis program is NASAs effort to find a permanent human presence on the Moon, as noted in a report by Engadget which simply means that we could soon be living on the Moon but that plan is way ahead in the future and this mission by NASA is very crucial in taking that first step.

NASAs scientists and researchers are planning to send the first lunar rover on Moons South Pole in search of water i.e., dihydrogen-monoxide deposits. Humans already know that there is a lot of water on the moon, especially in its north and south poles but it isnt in liquid form, as we already expect. Thus, this mission is set out to find water in different states of matter with hydrogen molecules as the most crucial element.

NASA has previously conducted multiple missions on the Moon including SOFIA, Prospector, LCROSS, and articulating the combined knowledge from these missions, scientists know that there are millions of gallons of water on the Moons surface combined with regolith which is the Moons soil or Moondust.

Now, scientists know that there is water on the Moon but are not sure about the distribution of water on the Moons surface, the form in which water will be available, and where exactly to look for water and this is why NASA is conducting its VIPER Mission (Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover) which is set course for 2023.

The VIPER, as it scouts over the Moons South Pole will use its NSS technology which is the Neutron Spectrometer System that will survey the regolith on the Moon in search for water molecules at depths up to 0.9 meters by considering and analyzing the energy losses at the molecular level, in cosmic rays that occur when hydrogen molecules strike, as mentioned in a report by Engadget. We already know one thing for sure, where there is hydrogen, there is water.

Anyhow, the VIPER Mission will not be NASAs first mission on the Moon, but it will be the organizations first autonomous mission on the Moon. As Engadget notes, the Moon has no atmosphere which makes the weather conditions extreme on the surface. If it is hot, it is too hot, and of if it is cold, it is too cold, and preparing the Lunar Rovers for such extreme conditions is a task for NASA.

Another challenge is regolith, the Moons electrostatically charged soil that can either pile up to be a mountain for NASAs VIPER or bury the rover deep into the surface. NASA notes that in order to prepare its lunar rover for the same, the team has programmed it to swim.

VIPER is being prepared for any extreme conditions that the rover might face on the Moon. NASA has confirmed that VIPER will not be running blind on the Moons surface and the space research organization is working on the production of a lunar road map that will ensure to guide the rover all the way up to the South pole. As mentioned in a report by Engadget, NASA is said to use its open-source Stereo Pipeline software tool along with its Pleiades supercomputer to assemble all the images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using photoclinometry. The use of these technologies combined will help the VIPER to avoid pitfalls and other challenges such as craters on the lunar surface.

Furthermore, the VIPER is said to be installed with NASAs rocker-bogie suspension system. It will be powered with solar energy and will be able to move in any direction at any point in time, independent of where the rover is pointed at. Each of the four wheels of the VIPER lunar rover will have the capability to be steered independently.

This mission is fairly crucial for NASA as it will allow the scientists to study the Moons surface primarily to find water but much more. The study of Moondust a.k.a. regolith will be very significant in this mission. The VIPER Mission could be mans first step towards finding exoplanetary colonization and could be a major contributor to NASAs Artemis Mission.

What do you think, can humans imagine a life on the Moon? I think it can be a possibility in the future but not anytime soon, there is a lot more to know about our natural satellite before we can go live on it.

In another mission, NASA is also planning to launch a rocket on the Moon to bring back Moondust to Earth in order to test the soils endurance and capabilities, if it can be used for construction purposes. NASA is working tirelessly to bring the future to us and very soon, we could be living and colonizing Mars, the Moon, and maybe some other exoplanet.

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NASA will send its lunar rover to find water on the Moon in 2023 - Techstory

Once you get offworld, count water among your most valuable resources: drink it, wash in it, use it to power your spacecraft. This humble molecule is critical to space exploration and exoplanetary colonization which is why, ahead of an international effort to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon (aka the Artemis Program), NASA scientists plan to land the worlds first autonomous lunar rover there in search of dihydrogen-monoxide deposits worth their weight in gold.

Weve known that there is water ice on the Moons surface for nearly thirty years potentially hundreds of millions of gallons buried amid regolith at the poles thanks to the pioneering efforts of the Lunar Prospector, LCROSS, and SOFIA missions.

Every mission, no matter what type, whether roving or not, will be standing on the shoulders of what was learned by other missions before, Dan Andrews, VIPER project manager, told Engadget. Otherwise you're just throwing away really good learning.

However, we dont necessarily have a great understanding of how those frozen molecules are actually distributed or how to best extract them from the lunar soil and thats where the upcoming Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission comes in.

This golf cart-sized machine will be delivered to the Moons South Pole in late 2023 and spend its scheduled 100-day mission scouring the area for four ice stability regions surface regions where we might find ice just laying about, shallow regions where the ice is covered by 50 centimeters of regolith, deep regions where the ice is buried up to 100 centimeters, and dry regions where there is no ice present below 100 centimeters. Andrews notes that those regions exist all over the place in both the North and the South Pole. There's thousands of them.

As the VIPER trundles about, it will employ its Neutron Spectrometer System (NSS) to indirectly survey the soil around itself in search of water at depths up to three feet (.9m) by looking for the energy losses in cosmic rays (mostly in the form of neutrons) that occur when they strike hydrogen molecules. And where theres hydrogen, there could well be water.

NASA

Once the NSS finds a suitable concentration, the VIPER will deploy its meter-long TRIDENT (The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrains) to drill down and pull up soil samples for examination by the onboard Near-Infrared Volatiles Spectrometer System (NIRVSS pronounced nervous), which can identify the hydrogens form, whether thats free hydrogen atoms or slightly more complex hydroxyls. And even before the rover sets a wheel off its orbital delivery vehicle, the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSolo) will be sampling gases kicked up during landing in search of stray hydrogen atoms.

When the LCROSS mission slammed a probe into the moons surface, it measured and analyzed the resulting ejecta for water ice using variations of nine commercially available instruments that could be traced back to everything from NASCAR car instrumentation to manufacturing. The VIPER mission is taking a similar tack. While not directly a part of the mission itself, other units of the instruments that will land aboard VIPER will also be delivered to the Moon in both 2021 and 2022 as part of NASAs Commercial Lunar Payload Services program for use in various experiments. This will serve as a sort of shake-down cruise for the instruments, allowing the VIPER team to see how the gear theyre sending will operate under real-world conditions. If the instruments work beautifully, well great, Andrews said. If the instruments have a peculiar behavior that was unexpected, we can plan that in. And if they outright fail... we at least have the chance to try to diagnose why it did go wrong.

While it wont be the first wheeled vehicle to roll across the Moon, it will be the first autonomous vehicle to do so with a mission far more important than ferrying astronauts around. But the Moon is a harsh and unforgiving mistress, presenting an entirely unique set of challenges not faced by the larger rovers currently crawling over Mars. For one thing, Mars has an (albeit thin) atmosphere, the Moon has none, which means it gets really, really hot, and it gets really, really cold, Andrews said. There's no moderating atmosphere so that becomes a really strong design point for the rover.

Whats more, at the South Pole where the VIPER will be prowling the sun will rarely get more than 10 degrees above the horizon, which causes unbelievably long shadows, he continued. And since there's no atmosphere, the lighting conditions are such that it looks to be very, very bright and right next to it can be unbelievably dark and black, which can create havoc for visual navigation systems.

And then theres the regolith the moons razor-sharp, electrostatically-charged, insidiously-invasive soil. Created from eons of micrometeorite impacts, the stuff has built into berms and hills, lined craters and valleys across the lunar surface. Regolith can pile high and deep enough to bury the likes of a VIPER. So to ensure that the rover remains mobile, Andrews team taught it to swim.

NASA

Under typical conditions, the VIPERs wheels roll conventionally at the ends of a rocker-bogie suspension system at speeds approaching a blistering half-mile-per-hour (thats 20cm/s). Since the rover is powered exclusively through solar energy with a 450W battery, rather than a handy radioactive core, we need to be able to move in any direction at any time, independent of how [VIPER is] pointed, Andrews explained. That means we need to be able to crab walk. So, each of our four wheels has the ability to independently be steered.

And when the rover finds itself mired in regolith, it can turn these wheels sideways acting as scoops to drag itself forward. Whats more, the suspension setup enables the rover to lift each wheel independently, like a foot. Combining the vertical movements with dragging action somehow resulted in the Shaq-esque shimmy.

We know we're going in and out of craters and in fact we want to, because some of the areas where the water that can be found are going to be in very dark permanently shadowed craters and because no robot or human has been down there, we don't exactly know what it's going to be like, Andrews said. So we needed to improve the capabilities of the rover to handle a lot of the unknown.

The VIPER will not be driving blind, mind you. NASA is already hard at work producing a lunar road map to help guide the rover on its journey. The 3D, meter-scale maps were created using NASAs open source Stereo Pipeline software tool alongside its Pleiades supercomputer to assemble satellite images captured by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using a technique known as photoclinometry. With them, the VIPER will be less likely to fall into craters or tip head over wheels trying to climb a too-steep incline.

Unlike its Mars-based cousins, VIPER wont have to rely nearly as heavily on automation thanks to its drastically shorter signal lag time 6-10 seconds compared to the 15-20 minutes needed to talk to Mars. Thats still too long a delay to take control of the VIPER directly from Earth, but it will allow Mission Control to plot a series of incremental 15-foot-long navigational waypoints. Once we pick the landing site... which will be in October, Andrews said. We're going to pick the optimal traverse plan for the rover to get as much science as we can out of it.

After VIPER completes its mission, NASA researchers should have a much broader and more detailed view of where water deposits are located in the region. But what will happen to VIPER itself once its duties are done?

While the decision on that subject is still being debated by the VIPER team, Andrews points to two possible outcomes. We could drive the rover into the deepest, darkest crater it can find, consequences be damned, to see just what the heck is down there (maybe ghosts!). The other option would be to park it on the highest and best-lit mound of regolith we can find and hope that the rover can be revived after the region sinks into 6 to 9 months of complete darkness.

NASA would then have to decide if it is worth them keeping the team going for that amount of time, Andrews conceded, so when the South Pole comes back into the sun, to try to somehow bring Viper back to life... Is it worth it to NASA, is it worth the money, to do that? Those are the trades that the agency is going to have to make.

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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Elon Musk has been called many things, including eccentric, weird, spontaneous, and brilliant. Many consider him a genius, but some think the Tesla and SpaceX founder is simply out of his mind. In fact, there was a time in his childhood when Musk doubted his own sanity and thought he might be sent to a mental institution. Why would a 6-year-old think that?

Musk might be many things, but the South African native has never been accused of mediocrity.

Notable for his sometimes outlandish behavior, Musk crashed a million-dollar car that wasnt insured and sent a Tesla into orbit around Mars.

He even smoked a joint with Joe Rogan on a live broadcast.

On that episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk admitted to wondering if he were crazy when he was a young child.

It was not a happy childhood. I think when I was, I dont know, 5 or 6 or something, I thought I was insane.

When Rogan asked why, Musk explained that even as a youngster, he knew other peoples minds were not always exploding with ideas like his.

He added that he felt strange while hoping others wouldnt find out and put me away.

Not content with acting oddly, Musk has also made numerous bizarre statements. In 2015, he appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. When the host asked if he was trying to save the world, Musk replied, Im trying to do useful things. He also noted that Mars is a fixer-upper of a planet that might be better suited to human colonization if we dropped thermonuclear weapons over the poles.

Scientists are skeptical that such a nuclear-powered plot would make Mars more Earth-like, CNN reports. Nonetheless, Musk repeated his assertion with a two-word Twitter post in 2019: Nuke Mars!

Theres a good chance Musk is not an arch-villain, a superhero, or a crazy genius. As he revealed to a global audience on Saturday Night Live this past May, Musk has a form of autism called Asperger syndrome. MSN reports that Musks place on the autism spectrum explains his sometimes seemingly odd behavior and interactions.

During his opening monologue, Musk said he was the only SNL host with autism. The New York Post corrected him while explaining that SNL alumnus Bill Murray has also been diagnosed with Aspergers.

To an outsider, it may seem that Musk lives a charmed life full of success and unimaginable wealth.

But according to his ex-wife and mother of most of his children, the future entrepreneurs formative years were the opposite of easy. His second wife, Talulah Riley, confirmed the SpaceX leader endured a brutal childhood and experienced night terrors during their time together, the Daily Mail reported.

And in a Life Stories by Goalcast clip, Musks first wife, Justine, revealed much about her ex-husbands difficult childhood in South Africa. The erstwhile Mrs. Musk explained that the future billionaire was bullied by can-tossing schoolmates who harassed the boy so much that he hated going to school.

Eventually, young Musk sought refuge in computer games, inspiring his interest in programming. Justine also noted that the bullies who threw cans at a young Musk dont do it anymore.

RELATED: Elon Musk Has No Chill

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Wade at night into the gently lapping surf at Boca Chica Beach, an undeveloped stretch of sand about 20 miles east of the Texas border town of Brownsville, and ahead youll see nothing but Gulf waters meeting skyendless, dark but for the stars and languid whitecaps. A pensive, ancient view to make you feel small and the world enormous.

Turn around and everything inverts. Beyond a smattering of working-class Latino families, gathered around bonfires and pickup trucks on the beach, looms something brimming with novelty, brightness, and ambition: the South Texas launch site for SpaceX, where one day a 400-foot rocket may leave Earth en route to Mars.

Just 1,500 feet from the waters edge, amid rolling sand dunes and acres of tidal mud flats, rises a launchpad of towering cranes and scaffolding lit up like a sports stadium. Two miles back down State Highway 4, the only road reaching this remote bit of Texas coastline, is a bustling command and production facility. Around 10 p.m. on a June evening, construction workers huddle together on a platform encircling a huge white tank, consulting in Spanish about the job at hand, their acetylene torches showering sparks into the night air. Out front, where the company has erected an illuminated sign reading Starbase, tourists arrive to take selfies. One man says he came all the way from Kentucky, hoping to get a job with SpaceX. Hes exultant. Its like 530 years ago, he says, the last time we settled a new world.

There are those in Brownsville who call SpaceXthe California-based corporation founded by Elon Musk, the worlds second-richest mana form of colonization. Brownsville is an area thats been colonized and recolonized and has done so much to benefit people who come from somewhere else but not the people from here, says Michelle Serrano, a local activist with the progressive network Voces Unidas.

Musks company, a 19-year-old concern now worth $74 billion, is a trailblazer in the field of privatized space travel. Last year, SpaceX became the first private company to carry NASA astronauts from Floridas Cape Canaveral, the traditional hub of U.S. space launches, to the International Space Station. Musk is presently feuding with fellow space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the worlds richest individual, over future NASA contracts. Ultimately, Musks dream is to establish human society on Mars, an enterprise for which Texas beachgoers and rare wildlife are paying the price.

About a decade ago, Musk began scouting locations for a new launch site, looking for cheap land near a body of water to catch falling rockets and relatively near the equator for aeronautic reasons. The tip of South Texas seemed to fit the bill. SpaceX began gobbling up properties near Boca Chica Beach, which runs 7 miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande to the ship channel that separates it from South Padre Island.

Musk met with county and state officials, who rushed to lure him to an area where poverty rates hover around 30 percent. The state kicked in $15 million in incentives, and Cameron County abated the companys property taxes for 10 years. In 2013, then-state Representative Ren Oliveira passed a bill allowing the county to close the beach during SpaceX launch activities, a move otherwise forbidden by Texas 62-year-old Open Beaches Act, one of the nations strongest laws protecting public beach access.

Musk seems to have imported the Silicon Valley Mantra of move fast and break things to south Texas, where federal and local officials have mostly stayed out of his way.

For years, Musk barely touched the site. Then, in 2018, a space complex began to emerge. By mid-2019, test rocket launches started. Soon, the explosions followed. At least eight times, experimental space rockets met fiery demises during testing or landing, spewing flames and metal debris into crucial shorebird habitat abutting the beach. The company bought out most residents, some under duress, of a tiny subdivision next to the new production facility. Musks public enthusiasm also helped spur gentrification in nearby Brownsville, where housing costs rose last year by 20 percent, outpacing most major Texas cities. Meanwhile, local families, who had for generations come to Boca Chica Beach whenever they pleased, found their path increasingly blocked.

Charlie Guillen, 39, has fished at Boca Chica his whole life, just like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Standing in the surf, anglers can reel in redfish, black drum, speckled trout, and whiting. Free of charge and open 24/7, Boca Chica has long been the beach for locals, Guillen says, while tourists pay for entry to the condo-riddled South Padre beach. Guillen, who runs a yearly fishing tournament at Boca Chica, used to come to the beach three or four times a week. But since SpaceX began closing the area every few days for everything from launches to equipment moving, he goes less and less.

Boca Chica is the poor mans beach, he says. Its kind of like the fajita: People used to throw that away, and when they found out the poor guy was eating something pretty good, they took it away and started charging a lot of money for it.

According to agreements with federal and state regulators, SpaceX should generally give 14 days notice before closing the road to Boca Chica and do so for only 300 hours a year. But advisories posted by the county, and monitoring by the state parks agency, show the company routinely provides only a day or two heads-up. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service and an independent environmental group have calculated that SpaceX closed the highway for more than 1,000 hoursaround 42 daysin both 2019 and 2020 and is on a similar pace this year. The company also often changes plans last-minute and exceeds announced times.

Musk seems to have imported the Silicon Valley mantra of Move fast and break things to South Texas, where federal and local officials have mostly stayed out of his way. SpaceX employees have used the shoulder of State Highway 4 as a parking lot, and the two-lane road has seen a surge in traffic, potholes, and roadkill. One family is suing the company over a fatal car accident. Musks company also told federal regulators it would block lighting from reaching the beach, where it might disturb nesting sea turtles. A beach visit dispels that notion. Federal documents further state SpaceX is avoiding launches during turtle and bird nesting season, roughly March through September, which is disproved by a glance at the feds own public data or Musks Twitter feed.

In fact, Musks entire Texas project has changed from what the Federal Aviation Administration approved in 2014. Back then, SpaceX said the site would be for launching proven Falcon rockets, the ones its used to carry astronauts. That never happened, and the company is instead testing much larger experimental Starships designed for Martian travel. Hence the fires and explosions.

Musk seems to see Boca Chica as terra nullius, no mans land. Weve got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if [a rocket] blows up, its cool, he said of the area in 2018.

On a Saturday morning in June, Mary Helen Flores, a 56-year-old Brownsville native who helps run volunteer beach cleanups, pulls up to Boca Chica in her white SUV. Parked vehicles extend to the horizon in both directions; mothers sit with children in the shallow tide; seagulls and brown pelicans swarm. There was no other beach like Boca Chica on the entire Gulf Coast that you could drive on for free, stay as long as you wanted, and it was completely undeveloped, Flores says.Theres no replacing that, so I dont understand how it was just pissed away.

Mars. Elon Musk wants to go to Mars, a planet at least 34 million miles away with no breathable air and temperatures about 80 below zero. Once there, he wants to colonize it, establishing an independent human civilization. Why? To save humanity, if you take his word for it.

Either were going to become a multi-planet species and a space-faring civilization, or were going to be stuck on one planet until some eventual extinction event, Musk has said. Elsewhere, hes stated his only reason for amassing a $160 billion net worth is for this sort of astral charity: I am accumulating resources to help make life multiplanetary and extend the light of consciousness to the stars.

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Theres a certain logic to Musks claims. By burning fossil fuels and proliferating nuclear weapons, we humans have made our planet more catastrophe-prone. Plus, some hundreds of millions of years from now, the sun could grow too hot for life on Earth. Musk believes we need a fail-safe, a vision thats earned him both fans and detractors.

The advocates of Mars colonization are saying, Earth has all these problems with regard to its potential habitability for humans, which is certainly true, says Daniel Deudney, a professor of political science at John Hopkins University who wrote a recent book arguing against space colonization. But their solution is to go to an utterly lifeless, vastly inhospitable space millions of miles away and start from scratch, as opposed to saving the rainforests or preventing acidification of the ocean.

Deudney describes life on Mars as hellish: To breathe and avoid death by radiation, humans would shelter in heavily insulated domes or bunkers. Wed need to create contained, artificial ecosystems, something weve been unable to pull off on Earth. Musk says we should terraform Mars, or make it Earth-like, while NASA says thats impossible in the foreseeable future. And if we did ever establish a self-sustaining populationa huge ifDeudney believes wed come to regret it.

As space colonies became independent, Deudney argues, war would overtake the final frontier just as it does on earthly frontiers, only deadlier. Think weaponized asteroids. The space environment is intrinsically violent in ways that are completely alien to terrestrial existence, he says. Really, our future generations will curse us for having started this. Better, Deudney says, to put our limited time and money toward directly addressing threats at homethe only place in the universe that we know is conducive to complex life.

Of course, there are other uses for Musks massive reusable rockets, even if Mars colonization never takes off. Take luxury tourism. SpaceX has plans to shuttle three tourists to the International Space Station, in a rocket launched from Florida, for a price of $55 million each. Another billionaire, Richard Branson, became the first person to self-fund a brief trip to suborbital space in July, and his company has sold seats on such flights for about $250,000. For reference, the median household income in Brownsville is $39,000 a year.

Then, theres satellite deployment. For its budding internet service, SpaceX has launched more than 1,000 satellites into orbit, with plans to send off about 40,000 more. This swarm of reflective objects, sometimes visible to the naked eye, has already polluted astronomers space images with trails of light, like a child drawing with a highlighter. Musk is screwing astronomy with his satellites, says Nicholas Suntzeff, professor of observational astronomy at Texas A&M.

There was no other beach like Boca Chica on the entire gulf Coast Theres no replacing that, so I dont understand how it was just pissed away.

Suntzeff especially fears the potential use of satellites for corporate advertising. Next year, SpaceX plans to ferry a satellite into orbit for a company that will display images of a customers choice on the satellite in return for cryptocoin payments. The pictures will be visible only via livestream on electronic devices, but Suntzeff suspects ads will one day be seen from the ground. When you look up at the sky and instead of seeing the moon, you see Chick-Fil-A, its gonna really piss people off, he says. The sky is the heritage of all humanity and a few companies trying to make money will take that away from us.

Last, theres the long-standing overlap between space and military technologies. In the century behind us, the Nazi Wernher Von Braun invented the V-2 rocket, a long-range ballistic missile for use against the Allies that later propelled the first man-made object into space. In our current century, the American military already pays SpaceX to launch spy satellites, and the Air Force is interested in using the companys Starship to deliver large payloads all over the world.

Musk is not the first to dream of developing Boca Chica Beach. In the 1800s, a settlement called Clarksville stood where the sand meets the mouth of the Rio Grande; in the 1930s, an Army colonel from Missouri erected a small seaside resort on the beach. Both projects were ravaged by hurricanes. Musk isnt even the first rocket enthusiast to grace Boca Chica. In 1933, a skydiving exhibitionist put on a show billed as the Human Rocket, in which he leaped from a moving plane and planned to ignite fireworks with a cigar as he descended. With hundreds gathered on the beach to watch, the man vanished mid-stunt into the mist over the Gulf. Newspaper reports suggest he either drowned or fled to Mexico.

In 1954, a new bridge facilitated travel to South Padre Island, and from then on Padre became the hub for waterfront tourism and entertainment. Boca Chica was left alone to cement its identity as the poor peoples beach, free and a touch wild.

Perhaps, though, Musk will be the man to stick the landing at Boca Chica. Maybe SpaceX will avoid a serious hurricane hit, a scenario that Texas parks department has said could cause catastrophic damage. Rather than vanish in the mist, Musk might write Boca Chica into the world history books. Already, hes taken to calling the area Starbase, anddespite the fact that most of the surrounding land is owned by the state or federal governmenthe professes plans to settle a kind of company town. SpaceX has also hinted at schemes for a luxury resort.

Maybe, one day, Brownsvillians at Boca Chica will be able to stand in the shadow of a colossal Mars-bound rocket, bathed in the lights of a high-dollar hotel, watching countless satellites careen overhead like for-profit shooting stars, knowing that they were a part of history. Some locals will hold jobs at SpaceX, and a few may even be well-paid enough to buy a ride into murderous space itself. Perhaps, it will all be worth it.

Henry Garcia, a slight 55-year-old, stands in the Boca Chica surf holding his infant grandchild on a Friday evening. As the sun sets, a salty breeze erases the last of the days heat. This is where you release the stress, man, forget about everything, he says. Garcia has six more family members with him, spanning three generations, grilling chicken nearby and prepping a bonfire. Hes fed up with SpaceX disrupting the area. We want em out of here, he says. They stop us from enjoying the beach. Its all ambition.

Asked about the jobs the company brings, Garcia shrugs, then gestures across the yawning Gulf. I prefer this.

Originally posted here:
Elon Musk's SpaceX Mission Takes Flight in South Texas - The Texas Observer