IN
the early years of the 20th century, zeppelins filled with flammable
and explosive hydrogen were all the rage in Germany, a reckless
infatuation that ended with the eruption and crash of the Hindenburg in
1937. Sometimes, technology is a triumph of wild-eyed enthusiasm over
the unpleasant facts of the real world.
Today
we are witnessing a similar outburst of enthusiasm over the literally
outlandish notion that in the relatively near future, some of us are
going to be living, working, thriving and dying on Mars.
A Dutch nonprofit venture called Mars One aspires to send four people
to Mars by 2026 as the beginning of a permanent human settlement. In the
United States, the nonprofit Inspiration One has plans for a two-person
team to fly within 100 miles of the planet, launching from Earth in January 2018. And the entrepreneur Elon Musk, who runs a rocket company called SpaceX, has said he hopes to send the first people to Mars in 11 to 12 years.
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3 comments:
As the poet has sung, and as the Instapundit has remarked:
"Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids."
Let's just send Elon Musk there.
Of course the argument against sending Elon Musk to Mars is the outside possibility that there might be some kind of life there, and Musk would infect their planet as well.
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