"Musk to Mars" Topic

The plan is to send a robot to Mars by the end of 2026. Humans will follow by 2031.

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First thing is to stop the "Starship" from blowing up. He's been pretty mum about the latest one. And he has yet to show the "Starship" can land. The booster can on its special launch pad, but the upper stage has yet to be successful.

The only way you learn and improve is from mistakes. And better the mistakes now than later.

How many failures did the US and USSR have trying basic satellites in the 50's? Lots.

Dream your dreams, gentlemen.

The next time you meet Musk, ask him: "So, what's really at Cydonia…?" ;-)

Given the number of mistakes, Space X must have learned an awful lot. At this rate, the best you can hope for is decades long delays of these sketchy plans.

And if a Musk Mission ever gets there, the chances are it'll be greeted by the Chinese.

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Musk has said that he plans missions with a specific goal in mind. It might be to simply lift off, or fly to a specific altitude. If it makes that distance, then the mission is a success even if it is destroyed. They gather the data and collect the parts to inspect them to see what went wrong.
He can do this because he does not answer to taxpayers or a board that wants flights to be perfect. But as others have mentioned, you can learn more from failure. That's why his launches are quick after a failure, as long as they find out the reason for the previous failure and correct it they are ready for the next one.

Mike

When you say, "the next one" are you referring to the next catastrophic explosion?

No, he does not answer to taxpayers, but he should, considering what he gets from them in federal contracts. Which renders DOGE findings suspect at best. His contracts are off limits and he now has taken steps to block access to DOGE results to cover his team's multiple errors.

Ochoin, not the Chinese, but Starbucks for sure.

Most likely a big billboard…

"Are you paying too much for your car insurance?"

Sadly, not *just* the Chinese. The 'Axis of Evil' has the Iranians & Russians joining the project. So a putative Space X rocket might well arrive just to meet Chinese, Russian & Iranian owners of Mars.

Of course, the US could call on help from its allies…..remind me, which allies does the US have?

Elon should leave tomorrow to beat the crowds.

@Doc Were you looking for a reasonable discussion? With TDS and gain of function TMDG, running rampant!? Those who suffer from it will be seen and heard doing the following:

"When in trouble and in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout"

But Doc, enjoy the "MSM generated faux" outrage. 😉

Apologies Doc, and 35th, some of us did subvert any serious intent.

If Musk did not have the role in the government he now has, he would be much more likely to generate more supportive comments, I think. The ethics issues aren't derived from MSM, they are just simple facts you can understand from any source. This hurts Musk's credibility on other matters where he might otherwise be lauded for his ideas, IMO. His comments on cutting basic government services while promoting Mars travel, presumably at our expense as well as his, seems ill-timed at best to me.

Tort honestly, he was the darling of the other side, until the moment he backed the President. Then he became Rasputin. 😂 The TMDS is so bad with them, they are dumping their Teslas they own and buying gas guzzlers. Burning Teslas and throwing Molotov cocktails at dealerships. These are the same people who decry global warming and how we all are about to die. Now they are now rooting against SpaceX and are happy about failures.

That is pretty deranged IMHO. 🤣

Go read Boorstin's THE DISCOVERERS about Prince Henry and the Portuguese exploration of Africa. Remember they didn't even know whether Africa has a southern ending -- hence "the Cape of Good Hope." Each annual voyage carefully mapped the coast and aimed to get just a bit further down it. They were stuck for years at a cape that turned out to be nothing much, once they made it around it. Musk is following that same linear and incremental approach, and he will succeed.

But as to what the robot will find on Mars . . . remember when they had raised the HUNLEY and were speculating what they would find when they cracked it open, somebody said that the first thing they would see will be a sign saying "Re-elect Strom Thurmond."

And Musk and SpaceX will be bringing them home:
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He is using his personnel funds to further Mankind's advancement into space.

He truly is an evil man. ( Well maybe to Martians )

I think we are talking about two different things.

On one hand, Musk is the richest man in history. He is overtly political, and uses his massive wealth to influence elections and intimidate elected officials, does not understand how government works or doesn't care. He is hopelessly conflicted running DOGE as the personal recipient of huge amounts of taxpayer funds.

On the other hand, he is also brilliant and may turn out to be Prince Henry. But not for now – he is out of his lane..the relentless single-minded focus of the great explorers temporarily not in evidence. He is currently investigating Social Security. This is like asking a plumber to take out your gall bladder. Go back to working on Mars and we can talk great explorers.

The Tesla thing is unfortunate, but there are plenty of of whataboutisms to answer with. There is irony for both sides here – conservatives finally supporting electric cars! Even Trump! Pre-owned vehicles are available..

Actually, IMO fossil fuels should be part of an array of a diverse energy resources for a self sufficient America. But many people believe that the US owns the oil produced here, rather than market-based global oil companies, so that's all the energy we need. Rule one…always follow the money.

And if a Musk Mission ever gets there, the chances are it'll be greeted by the Chinese.

According to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mars has always been part of the traditional territory of China, just like Tibet, Vietnam, Mongolia, the South China Sea, and Hawaii. Chinese astronomers discovered Mars 3,000 years ago and named it Huoxing (the fire star). They didn't call China the Celestial Empire for nothing.

The plan is to send a robot to Mars by the end of 2026. Humans will follow by 2031.

Wouldn't the 2026 mission have a much greater chance of success with a human crew, led by Elon Musk himself?

Tort, I personally don't care about electric cars, nor will I own one.

I speak of how absurd what they are doing is, based on what they have tried to make us all do "for the environment". Even in some states talking about making them mandatory for all after a certain year, just over a year ago.

Now trash them!! Musk is evil!!

My personal favorite is the anti-Musk protester on the scooter, defacing someone else's Tesla, and when confronted by the owner of said Tesla, tells him it's his free speech to do so! Then he rides off, and you see a Palestinian flag on the back end of his scooter. On to the next protest!! 🇵🇸 You can't make this stuff up. 🤣

It's a derangement. 😉

If you are an anti-Musker from the US, try and listen to the full 6 minutes. It's a lot different then MSM propaganda. What he says about the money is true. What he say's about the reason for the illegal flood, many of us believe was the reason.

What i've said before about the other party:
"they always accuse you of doing what they are doing, or what they are planning on doing"

To SB, Legion and others on TMP, it's what we have been saying since the floodgates of the border opened.

Subject: Citizen Free Press on X: "Why the Democrat party is trying to destroy Elon Musk. t.co/UGG93ra2Wr / X


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Cavalry to the rescue.

Case in point about the derangement.

"Kim Kardashian Smeared as a ‘Nazi' After Posing with Tesla Robot, Cyber Truck"

She posted on X. Just Some of the comments on X in response:

"What next …. the ‘salute.'"

"Cybertrucks do have more rights than women these days…"

"oh you in the cult."

"Kim KKKardashian strikes again."

"This is sick."

"N*zi Alert! N*zi Alert! Now Kimye makes sense."

"Satanist propaganda."

"Marie Antoinette vibes mixed with Eva Braun."

Musk hey? Now do Soros.

I agreed with you that it's unfortunate, 35th. I should have said idiotic…sheer ignorance alone does not explain this behavior.

And yes, I came to believe that Dems had deliberately left the border unguarded to dredge up voters after listening to you guys🤔. Very few Americans change their minds! Less than 1 per cent I think.

But Musk needs to get the IGs back and do a proper job. They are not the enemy, they know the systems better than anybody, some are Trump appointees also. Business people think that acting smart and moving quick is the same thing as competence. Musk is not really moving as fast as he says. It is just too big of a job. He promised transparency but he slammed that door when the mistakes started coming. It will take years to do this right, and doing it right is what most Americans are now asking for.

On one hand, Musk is the richest man in history. He is overtly political, and uses his massive wealth to influence elections and intimidate elected officials, does not understand how government works or doesn't care. He is hopelessly conflicted running DOGE as the personal recipient of huge amounts of taxpayer funds.

I don't agree. His politics is pretty focused on one thing -- reducing the oppressive power of an out of control bureaucracy used by the Democrats to impose policies that benefit them and to wage war on their opponents.

He's a product of Democrat Lawfare. They made him!

Let's look at Musk -- libertarianish innovator and entrepreneur feels something is off about the Covid narrative and expresses his opinion on Twitter. He's told to shut up and stay in his lane. That pisses him off, so he says so and again expresses his opinions (which were correct, btw), and not only is he told to shut up, he's twitter mobbed and mocked in the Establishment media and people supporting him also got twitter mobbed, and he refused to recant while expressing bewilderment at this rapid change from Green Hero to Zero by the people he thought supported him. Then the Biden admin's actions really pushed him over the edge when they launched a series of government investigations and suits…and then the Biden Admin pointedly excluded Tesla from its high profile EVV initiative.

So he said, OK, fine, game on! F--- all you guys, want to play, fine, let's play!

So he bought Twitter and ended the Twitter-FBI relationship and opened up the Left's personal echo chamber to all comers, where before those with opposing views had been banned and censored. He exposed the FBI relationship with Twitter and other social media firms which was hugely embarrassing and also led to the exposure and cancellation of other Biden Admin censorship programs like their new Department of Homeland Security Disinformation Governance Board…a totally Orwellian move, headed by a young POLITICALLY CONNECTED woman with no real world experience who thought singing a "Misinformation" song to the tune of a Merry Poppin's song was a great idea.

He exposed an actual, deep threat to Free Speech by the Federal Government.

The response was even more threats and attacks, and the SEC going after his businesses, the FAA slow rolling space launch permits, Democrat-Left organizing boycotts and attacks on him and his businesses.

This prompted Musk to get more political until he joined team Trump and now not only has the Democrat-Left lost power in the social media realm, but DOGE is exposing and trying to end the corrupt abuse of our system that had granted immense power and $$$ to the Democrat-Left establishment.

The Department of Government Efficiency is an OFFICIAL Executive Branch department created by a Presidential Executive Order and given investigation powers. Musk, as the head for now, has NO POWER to do anything except Audit and Report. That's all.

You can read the Executive Order here and see what Doge has been doing for yourself: doge.gov

All of his "controversial" actions are not his actions, he advises the relevant department heads and offers resources, they decide what to do. Sometimes they've moved fast and caused confusion, like the horrible scary email asking federal workers to reply with a 5 bullet point email on what they did last week. Oh no, what a burden to do what most normal company employees do every week, or even daily depending on the company and their role. Well, then the Department heads issued coordination emails after that to clarify and Trump has further clarified his role.

Doge has NO power to fire anyone. So anyone fired is done by the head of the relevant agency, not Doge.

Damn happy we have Doge! So far we've become aware of TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS in possible fraud through the application of AI tools that apply Fortune 500 corporate contracting and expense best practices to government spending and contracts.

Like the $4.7 USD USD TRILLION in expenses with NO DESCRIPTION! Or the $20 USD USD BILLION in EPA slush funds shoveled out the door before Trump came into office to "environmental consulting firms" that seem to have been created just for this cash -- an undercover reporter recorded an EPA official saying they were basically trying to "shovel as many gold bars off the back of the Titanic as they could before it sunk."

Doge has revealed the most massive, destructive and sustained public theft in human history. And we haven't even really seen the audit trail on the Ukraine War yet have we? Remember Zelensky saying that Ukraine has only gotten $75 USD USD Billion of the $200 USD USD+ Billion sent by the US? Where is the missing $100 USD USD BILLION!?!?!

What's the saying about Payback and all that?

+1 SB

Elections have consequences. Remember Obama saying that?

My original post had nothing to do with anything except being overly optimistic. As the article itself states"…the billionaire has a reputation for setting overly optimistic deadlines." It even has a brief paragraph towards the end illustrating that.

Getting into space is hard and the recent Starship successes (landing back on the launch pad is a wonderful success) as well as the successful SpaceX launches that are occurring with regular frequency tend to make us all forget that. It's obvious that either the problem that caused the first explosion wasn't fixed or a different problem has arisen (nothing has been released yet that I know of). Sending a robot that somewhat resembles a human to Mars by the end of 2026 just seems a mite optimistic at this point.

SB – Musk to me is not the hero he is to some. There is no way he is not a classic example of large scale conflict of interest. Of course this goes on in other whatabout scenarios, but this is too much in our faces after the massive campaign donation.

Based on the accounting reports DOGE stopped putting out, there were some math issues and a lot of hyperbole. Most people want to see government waste brought under control. I think I saw a poll today saying only 39% approve of Musk handling this. So there are a lot of opinions on this guy, not all give him hero status.

As I said….. deranged

Subject: Exclusive | Trans Tesla vandal — who allegedly threw Molotov cocktails at cars — lives with mom and calls himself a baby: sources


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And another

Subject: Jewish Tesla owner 'speechless' after catching Jewish anti-Musk activist drawing swastika on his Cybertruck


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Musk runs huge businesses and he founded a company that became PayPal. So he knows business and money. While government does not have to show a profit it does have to use money responsibility and spend it for what it was intended to be spent on. Sending money to dead people is not good stewardship. Sending money to people overseas to teach them about sexual relationships is not good stewardship.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that.
California gave incentives to build a car factory in their state and the moment the incentives ran out, so did Tesla, which I predicted he would do. The only reason to build there was the incentives, the business climate there is terrible. He is a smart businessman and we need more of that in government rather than less.
When I was a security guard we had to account for all our time at work in 15 minute intervals or less, and keep the log current. Seems like a memo every week listing 5 things is pretty basic.
Mike

With all due respect Mike, I think business people are often terrible in government. Public service is often more complex with all kinds of needs and goals that are unfamiliar to the guy who owned a bunch of widget factories and got rich..the goal of business is profits. Most government employees have multiple accounting requirements way beyond five things I did last week.

I have worked under a number of durational political appointees, nearly all from the wrong backgrounds. Their management skills regarding public safety and service usually were just not there. Of course certain media portray all of this differently. It's sounds so easy to fix. We are going to find out the truth sooner or later.

There are plenty of deadbeats in both the public and private sectors. Pretty much all of us want the government cleaned up ..running better and less waste.A majority don't want Musk doing it. He has no experience in managing huge and diverse multiple agencies that serve and protect Americans.He is hopelessly conflicted for this work. Let him privatize NASA…

😳

TMDS has even reached Europe. Did Musk eliminate Italian government workers? Cut US taxpayer giveaways to Italy? Maybe they just hate electric cars or Space X. 🤔

Subject: Citizen Free Press on X: "ANTIFA IN ITALY DESTROY TESLA VEHICLE AS THEY MARCH. The violent Left always gets away with destruction. t.co/wGc0pEfS1W / X


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I think business people are often terrible in government.

Exhibit A: Robert MacNamara running the Vietnam war.

If Musk wants us to share his confidence, let him ride the very next launch.

Well John, so far those impacted seem happy. I know they haven't made it safely home yet. 😉

Subject: Citizen Free Press on X: "STRANDED NASA ASTRONAUTS THANK ELON AND TRUMP. t.co/9PHH3LFuqp / X


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I had a few rocket propulsion classes in college. One professor was a "hands on" engineering type who later went on to lecture. All his weekly homework problems were solving real propulsion problems on real rockets, I still remember "Me 163 week". He lectured three times a week for fifteen weeks, each time he opened his lecture with some sort of catastrophic failure he had personally witnessed and what they learned from it.

Rocket science has a reputation for being difficult for a reason.

Musk's work in the private sector is everything his brief time in public office is not. He does not deserve the Tesla backlash, and the space rescue is a huge event for all.

His work on cutting waste, no longer visible to the public despite his transparency pledge, is not what most Americans want from him. Go back to what you do best, Elon.

His work on cutting waste, no longer visible to the public despite his transparency pledge, is not what most Americans want from him. Go back to what you do best, Elon.

As Twain once said "There are lies, damned lies, then there are statistics."

Your statement is not supportable -- it depends on who you voted for in the last election and who's doing the polling and what questions you ask.

*If you use Quinnipiac University poll then they say 60% of Americans disapprove.

*If you use the Harvard poll, the they say 76% of Americans APPROVE.

If you break down more, then something like 95% of Democrats say Doge is a threat to the nation, and 80% of Republicans approve of Doge's audits and actions.

I think the negative polling is no doubt impacted by the 24x7 negative and inflammatory Establishment media coverage -- like the article posted to start another thread on TMP about awful doge/dei cuts and a website URL at DOD -- designed to put pressure on the Trump admin to stop the audits and cuts, and to provide those who oppose transparency with a moral outrage to justify their stance.

Favorite line from GhostBusters: "You don't know what it's like in the private sector, they expect results".

Yes Col, and true.

Not in agreement at all here SB. Polls show most Americans want the government reformed and more efficient, basically a given. A win for Trump.

Polls show they don't want Musk doing it. Throwing this in the political mixer and coming out with a way to blame someone else is not what many want either. If Musk brings back the IGs, and there is not a shred of evidence that they are corrupt, with a team of forensic accountants and sets them to work, this will restore some credibility to the task. It's not that big of an ask.

This was always going to take years. You will not get how complex it is to manage this project by watching right wing media. Nothing is happening in 24 hours. And if you can't understand who does what and where the ripples go, Americans are going to lose out big time. You can't fire people and rehire people like it's reality tv. The health and safety of the whole country is at stake. Find the waste. No whataboutisms, it is time to look ahead and deliver. As I have said you don't call a plumber to take out your gall bladder. Even the richest one on earth.

I want Musk to privatize NASA. This is what he would be super qualified to do, and we are already paying him anyway.

Polls show they don't want Musk doing it.

Depends on which poll you read, eh?

If Musk brings back the IGs, and there is not a shred of evidence that they are corrupt, with a team of forensic accountants and sets them to work, this will restore some credibility to the task. It's not that big of an ask.

Obama canned most Bush-era IGs -- I don't recall anybody freaking out about it. And perhaps the Deep state is so pervasive they felt they needed to act now before it found its footing and pushed back…by, I dunno, launching an organized international terror campaign on Tesla…

Just saw a story that in LA the number of applications for FEMA money to rebuild is 20 times the number of homes destroyed. Real homeowners are discovering that someone has already applied for money for their house and they are frozen out of the system. I think we need musk's DOGE big time.

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"Identity theft in natural disasters may seem shocking, but it is not uncommon — especially when maps of affected areas and addresses are easily available online. Several individuals have already been arrested for fraud in connection with FEMA grants in the L.A. fires — one of whom is suspected of having collected on similar fraudulent applications for two decades, going back to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005.

Newly-installed Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman had warned in January that fraudsters would descend on L.A. Victims have been asked to contact the FBI, at 1-800-CALL-FBI/."

This article provides no sources to cross check other than an unnamed FEMA official and an earlier Brietbart article also done without citing sources other than "individuals in contact with Brietbart" FEMA has been fighting fraud for years, giving detailed tips on how to avoid it. Doc, can you find a named individual who can provide evidence and confirmation?

SB, Legion and others on TMP, it's what we have been saying since the floodgates of the border opened.

I don't know what anyone with any common sense and logic would have thought that Biden's et al open border policy would be a good idea. It has turned out to be nothing but trouble.

But some still don't seem to get it …

But any way, FWIW when we land on Mars will we be the "illegal aliens"?