Elon Musk’s ideas aren’t enough to turn humanity into a multi-planet species
“Those soft, messy biology problems Musk is ignoring are the critical problems, the ones that are truly difficult for long-term Mars living. A rocket explosion is the exception rather than the rule these days. But space is tough on the human body. We evolved here, on Earth, and we rely on our habitat in ways that we still don’t fully understand. Our circulatory system, our visual system, and our muscles all struggle in low gravity; we are vulnerable to radiation; we must eat, we must shit, we must breathe. Here, on Earth, the problems of eating, breathing, and shitting are all solved; there, whether in space, on Mars, or on any other planet, they are maddeningly difficult. How difficult? Well, figuring out agriculture the first time took our species a couple millennia — and that’s on Earth, where the soil isn’t poisoned by perchlorates. […]
“Though the Mars plans may provide Musk with his motivation, his actual gift to human society may be something entirely different. His work with reusability has been astonishing, and the fuel plans he presented yesterday were inspired. If Musk is the father of space mining or sustainable rocketry, rather than the architect of life on Mars, that is still a remarkable thing. None of us, after all, ever know what our legacy will actually be.”
I admit it: I’m an optimist. I wanted Elon Musk to show me a strong Mars plan with real finances and real life-support design. I was hoping he’d talked some of his billionaire friends into…
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