Under Trump, what can we expect of the space program?

[Politruk]

In his first term, he asked NASA if a manned mission to Mars could be done while he was president. Told that was not possible, he lost interest in outer space. He did create a military Space Force -- that could be done during his presidency, because it was only a reorganization of existing parts of the Air Force. Otherwise, nothing important was done on his watch.

But now, he's joined at the hip to Elon Musk of SpaceX.

Could that possibly make his second term more eventful, in terms of space feats?

 

[Bn2f]

In his first term, he asked NASA if a manned mission to Mars could be done while he was president. Told that was not possible, he lost interest in outer space. He did create a military Space Force -- that could be done during his presidency, because it was only a reorganization of existing parts of the Air Force. Otherwise, nothing important was done on his watch.

But now, he's joined at the hip to Elon Musk of SpaceX.

Could that possibly make his second term more eventful, in terms of space feats?

I’ve been on the record telling people not to trust this administration and to stay healthy and, hopefully, include vaccination in that healthcare outlook. I’ll go further and, with a sad heart, ask folks to seriously think about joining or enlisting in military service under trump.
So hells no! Don’t be an astronaut and trust in trump or musk.

Also, so you’re telling me because this fool wants an expedited Mars mission, I’m to sit my ass on a makeshift firecracker? Yeeeeeah, like the Fauci ouchie, not trusting the science.

 

[AlexBailey]

I’m reassessing my original reservations on a Trump/Musk alliance.

Musk believes in developing efficiency - labor and energy.

As part of Space X Mars projects, their labs are using propulsion engines that run on methane, which can be produced with co2 and O2 from electrolyzed water. That same process can produce usable energy on earth while consuming co2 from Earth’s atmosphere.

If there’s anyone Trump might listen to and respect it’s a rocket man who’s richer and smarter than he is.

How soon before the military goes all electric?

 

[Politruk]

If there’s anyone Trump might listen to and respect it’s a rocket man who’s richer and smarter than he is.

Don't ever tell him that!

 

[AlexBailey]

Don't ever tell him that!

What do you suppose the price point is on androids and robots replacing labor?

A skilled worker may cost an employer $100k for 2080 hours/year (40hrs/week)
If an Android operates only twice as much it could labor for 4160 hours/year.

Over three years such an android could replace $600k in labor and won’t require the hassle of employees.

There will probably be more robots on Mars than people. I wonder what that economy is gonna look like. How much of the USA GDP will be supporting this dream?

 

[Politruk]

What do you suppose the price point is on androids and robots replacing labor?

A skilled worker may cost an employer $100k for 2080 hours/year (40hrs/week)
If an Android operates only twice as much it could labor for 4160 hours/year.

Over three years such an android could replace $600k in labor and won’t require the hassle of employees.

There will probably be more robots on Mars than people. I wonder what that economy is gonna look like.

What is Earth's economy gonna look like?!

 

[Bray123]

If there’s anyone Trump might listen to and respect it’s a rocket man who’s richer and smarter than he is.

That cuts out Musk anyway.

 

[LLCox]

If there’s anyone Trump might listen to and respect it’s a rocket man who’s richer and smarter than he is.

As much as the right doesn't believe in science I am surprised there is even a space force.

 

[Politruk]

My fear is that Musk will try to steal NASA's business -- get federal funding for SpaceX to go to Mars. Better than if nobody did it, but, still . . .

 

[Politruk]

As much as the right doesn't believe in science I am surprised there is even a space force.

They think it's for fighting Martians.

Nobody tell them!

 

[Politruk]

Say, what ever happened to that plan to mine asteroids?

 

[Politruk]

I’ve been on the record telling people not to trust this administration and to stay healthy and, hopefully, include vaccination in that healthcare outlook. I’ll go further and, with a sad heart, ask folks to seriously think about joining or enlisting in military service under trump.

Are you advising for enlistment or against it?

 

[jomar]

Well, the first order for DOGE will be to cut massive funding from whatever and then massively fund Musk’s government contracts. He’ll string trump along by telling him there’ll be a trump flag on mars before the end of his term.

 

[Bn2f]

Are you advising for enlistment or against it?

Against. I just saw the possible misunderstanding in my post. TY.
The intent was to request rethinking joining a military where your life or the lives of a family member or friend could be at risk of sacrifice to the whims of a person I consider 1. morally compromised to lead our military. 2. disrespects their service. 3. is a useful and willing asset/traitor to the interests our enemies.

 

[Politruk]

Say, what ever happened to that plan to mine asteroids?

Here's the thing: There is no physical reason why the human race cannot survive for another 10 billion years -- if we can establish a self-sustaining human presence off Earth's surface. "Self-sustaining" in the sense that people will spend their whole lives in space and raise children there -- which, at present, nobody does even in Antarctica.

Once we do that, our species can outlast the Sun.

But nobody is going to go out and spend their lives sealed in a can just for something as abstract as "racial survival." Space will not be colonized until somebody finds a use for it that is profitable in a commercial, economic sense. Asteroid mining, industries that can only be done in vacuum or zero-g, something like that.

 

[dmallord]

Say, what ever happened to that plan to mine asteroids?

That's still ongoing. There is 'a concept of a plan' to develop that market. First, the logistics and financing—small things—need to be worked out.

Then the big thing... when you strap a rocket to a hunk of iron ore in space, you have to hurtle it back into the atmosphere and land it... or create a crater, like the Chicxulub crater, on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. That is the 10-kilo one suspected of wiping out the dinosaurs. Gulp!

 

[dmallord]

Here's the thing: There is no physical reason why the human race cannot survive for another 10 billion years -- if we can establish a self-sustaining human presence off Earth's surface. "Self-sustaining" in the sense that people will spend their whole lives in space and raise children there -- which, at present, nobody does even in Antarctica.

Once we do that, our species can outlast the Sun.

But nobody is going to go out and spend their lives sealed in a can just for something as abstract as "racial survival." Space will not be colonized until somebody finds a use for it that is profitable in a commercial, economic sense. Asteroid mining, industries that can only be done in vacuum or zero-g, something like that.

Not germane to the current thread, but you mean something like the Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith, a classic of early science fiction circa 30s - 50s. Great stuff about telepathic lawmen meting out justice by reading a criminal's mind: no jury needed, a lensman could tell he was guilty or innocent and served as executioner if needed.

Excerpt:
Two thousand million or so years ago, at the time of the Coalescence, when the First and Second Galaxies were passing through each other and when myriads of planets were coming into existence where only a handful had existed before, two races of beings were already old; so old that each had behind it many millions of years of recorded history. Both were so old that each had perforce become independent of the chance formation of planets upon which to live. Each had, in its own way, gained a measure of control over its environment; the Arisians by power of mind alone, the Eddorians by employing both mind and mechanism.

 

[Politruk]

Not germane to the current thread, but you mean something like the Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith, a classic of early science fiction circa 30s - 50s. Great stuff about telepathic lawmen meting out justice by reading a criminal's mind: no jury needed, a lensman could tell he was guilty or innocent and served as executioner if needed.

Jeez, that's harsher than Judge Dredd!

 

[dmallord]

Jeez, that's harsher than Judge Dredd!

Definitely worse. You should read one of the death scenes... I'll tell you, it puts the fear of God into those who watch it and gives them pause for doing anything similar, much like Chloe's methodology–but more painful.

 

[Politruk]

Definitely worse. You should read one of the death scenes... I'll tell you, it puts the fear of God into those who watch it and gives them pause for doing anything similar, much like Chloe's methodology–but more painful.

I've read some of Smith, but not much. His writing style is just too crude and embarrassing to stomach. Not even trash-paperback quality.

 

[dmallord]

I've read some of Smith, but not much. His writing style is just too crude and embarrassing to stomach. Not even trash-paperback quality.

Ah, child, you don't understand that his style was 'the style' in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For their crude styles, you would also spasm over reading Gongora, Quevedo, or perhaps Shakespear or even more modern-day Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Hundred Years of Solitude and its Magic Realism bent. Unfortunate that, young padawan.

 

[Politruk]

Ah, child, you don't understand that his style was 'the style' in the late 1800s and early 1900s. For their crude styles, you would also spasm over reading Gongora, Quevedo, or perhaps Shakespear or even more modern-day Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Hundred Years of Solitude and its Magic Realism bent. Unfortunate that, young padawan.

Shakespeare it isn't.

 

[Politruk]

My fear is that Musk will try to steal NASA's business -- get federal funding for SpaceX to go to Mars. Better than if nobody did it, but, still . . .

This really is a serious possibility.

 

[TomTeacher19]

We will have zero alien invasions and he will take all the credit in the world for that

 

[Politruk]

We will have zero alien invasions and he will take all the credit in the world for that

Because the Space Force has 'em scared off!