Musk: "We're going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction."

[speak easy]

Elon Musk: “We’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

The speculation is that NASA will dump Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Bezos' Blue Origin will 'take' the Moon, and Musk will have Mars. What does it feel like living in a Tech-Bro-Bannana Republic? A place with something like speculation like this.

During the last 10 days, Musk has begun airing [some criticisms on NASA's Artemis Moon program] publicly. On Christmas Day, for example, Musk wrote on X, "The Artemis architecture is extremely inefficient, as it is a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program. Something entirely new is needed."

Then, on Thursday evening, he added this: "No, we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.

It would be one thing if Musk was just expressing his opinion as a private citizen. But since playing a significant part in the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States last year, Musk has assumed an important advisory role for the incoming administration. He was also partly responsible for the expected nomination of [crony] Jared Isaacman to become the next administrator of NASA. Although Musk is not directing US space policy, he certainly has a meaningful say in what happens.

"I was born after the Moon landings; my children were born after the final space shuttle launch," [Isaacman posted on X] "With the support of President Trump, I can promise you this: We will never again lose our ability to journey to the stars and never settle for second place. We will inspire children, yours and mine, to look up and dream of what is possible. Americans will walk on the Moon and Mars and in doing so, we will make life better here on Earth."

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/01/elon-musk-were-going-straight-to-mars-the-moon-is-a-distraction/

Blue Original already has a NASA contract for a Lunar Lander. The speculation is Bezo will be given a contract for the rocket as well. Queue the Washington Post critique.

Elon, may I respectfully suggest that you go plant a South African flag on the surface of the Sun.

[Celerity]

1. Enshittification Comes to Space

[FalloutShelter]

3. Yep!

[TheBlackAdder]

47. He'll send others to die for his project while he reaps the credits.

Trump and Musk both reminds me of the opening of this song.

Fifty thousand men were sent to do the will of one,
His claim was phrased quite simply,
Though he never voiced it loud
I am he, the chosen one.

In his name they could slaughter,
For his name they could die.
Though many there were believed in him,
Still more were sure he lied
But they'll fight the battle on.

A song that pretty much means that there will always be a charlatan, and when one goes another replaces.

[sakabatou]

2. Carnival barker makes outrageous claims

People cheer, not caring for the announcer making realistic claims.

[speak easy]

5. all I want to hear from Musk

is. "I'm going straight to Mars." Eat your own dogfood Elon.

[NickB79]

4. It's a suicide mission with current levels of tech at our disposal

But I encourage Musk to be first in line to step on the Red Planet.

[Botany]

24. We do not currently have the technology* to shield the astronauts from cosmic radiation on such ...

… that long of a flight or on the surface of Mars but if Musk wants to go I’m all 4 it.

* at least that is my understanding of “that stuff.” And I do have a 2.3 from
Ohio University which is the same as a PhD from M.I.T. and 3 Nobel Prizes.

[Auggie]

27. +1 for Bobcat Brains

Class of ‘79 reporting in …

[Botany]

30. I was there @ that time.

I am sorry if I did anything to you or your friends because I was really high @ the time.

[Xavier Breath]

33. We're all just glad to see that the healing has begun.

[Auggie]

58. No worries. I was probably drunk.

[GreenWave]

32. Musk wants tech people to create patented material on Mars to sell back to Earth!

[Borogove]

6. Please proceed, Elon, and don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.

[0rganism]

7. Mars is a boondoggle. The moon is our natural jumping-off point for space exploration

It's like nature hands us a built-in space station full of ice and hydrogen isotopes perfect for fusion reactors with a low-gravity environment ideal for superscale construction of colonies and craft, less than a light minute from home.

Musk wants humanity to ditch all that for a risky shot at a barren wasteland of a planet beset by dust storms with little in the way of observed resources, no planetary magnetic field, and at least one moon with a sharply-decaying orbit, far enough away from Earth that any colony operates entirely on its own, with near-zero hope of extraction if anything goes wrong. Stupid and Expensive, rolled into one big government contract for Musk. Maybe he's fixated on mining the asteroid belt or some such. He's now positioned to singlehandedly and permanently ruin the USA's chances at a strong space program with a thriving off-world colony.

We are on the verge of losing everything.

[CrispyQ]

17. Your last sentence...

[0rganism]

19. yeah...

I weep for our future, when it could have been so bright.

[rampartd]

46. i was hoping for "star trek'

this ricardo montalban wanna be and his harry mudd sidekick give us soylent green

[._.]

8. He's Lying

The Moon is a known quantity, and that quantity is military as well as commercial. Military bases and mining for Helium III.
Musk knows this.

[speak easy]

9. "Musk knows this"

but does not want to carry the can on the first mission(s) that may go pear shaped. Astronauts stranded on the Moon? Bezos/NASA take the blame.

[Autumn]

10. I don't know who I'm more sick of. This ass or the ass he bought and paid for.

[Johonny]

11. We are on Mars already

Our rovers and satellites are doing science while he plays make believe world builder.

[Rebl2]

12. Please be

on the first rocket to mars musty musk. Oh, and take the orange one and his family with you.

[Prairie Gates]

13. Whatever

[spapeggy]

14. LOL Blue Origin is only capable of suborbital flights

Good luck

[speak easy]

37. Blue Origin is expected to launch its 1st New Glenn rocket next week

New Glenn is a heavy-lift vehicle that, like SpaceX's Falcon and Starship rockets, is designed to be reusable, with its first stage returning to Earth for an ocean platform landing. Each New Glenn booster should be capable of up to 25 flights, Blue Origin has said.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/blue-origin-ready-to-launch-1st-new-glenn-rocket

[Wounded Bear]

15. He's gonna get more people killed...

So far, we haven't had any fatalities in space. The lives we have lost have either been at launch or on re-entry. Musk is going to lose people in interstellar space.

[lapfog_1]

26. call it space or interplanetary space

interstellar is a *lot* farther away. By some estimates even Voyager won't enter interstellar space for 100s of more years ( needs to cross the Ort belt ).

[Wounded Bear]

40. Yeah, I missed on that one...

[PCIntern]

16. How about going straight to Hell?

Tired of assholes and assholery.

[Blue_Tires]

39. Co-signed

[Ping Tung]

18. Please take Donnie with you (tho' he may complain about the Bone SpurI). Melania can be stewardess.

[dalton99a]

20. Fuck Mars. Go to Uranus

[3catwoman3]

54. Trump's head is already up the planet...

..Elanus.

[Irish_Dem]

21. It's all a way to fleece the US taxpayer.

Musk knows exactly what he is doing and how to play the game.

At the same time he can damage the US budget and degrade the US economy.

[CrispyQ]

22. If he thinks this is remotely possible in his lifetime he's nuts and/or colossally stupid. -nt

[Metaphorical]

23. Musk can't get a ride home

I have long suspected that Musk was a stranded Martian who has been trying desperately to raise the technology of the planet to a point where he can finally get back home. That's all he actually cares about, and the stupid humans keep thwarting him at every turn.

I agree with other commentators here. Colonizing the moon makes a great deal of sense at this point - it's achievable, there are enough volatiles to reduce the need to cart expensive materials up Earth's gravity well, it has low gravity making it ideal as a staging platform for solar missions, and it is a natural sling shot, adding it's momentum to that of the Earth. It may have the advantage of having lava tubes close to the surface, which can significantly reduce the need to dig. Solar radiation is a big problem on the Lunar surface, and environmental containment becomes much easier in tunnels.

Mars is problematic - you need to be able to create two completely self-contained environments (ship and planet) for anywhere from 3 to 10 years. You have to deal with highly corrosive winds and dust, water is always going to be a problem, the atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and there's almost no nitrogen in the atmosphere or phosphorus in the soil, meaning that before you could do farming you'd need an absolutely massive amount of ammonia (and this is not even taking into account the fact that Mars only receives about 45% as much sunlight as Earth.

Mars is a long term (centuries if not millennia) project, and would STILL require that Earth have a moonbase to be able to even attempt.

[Blue_Tires]

43. Exactly...

A one-way trip is simple enough, but going to Mars, landing, taking off again and landing on Earth in the same reusable spacecraft with enough payload to sustain life and the materials needed to build his utopian colony for genetically superior white folks is pure fantasy daydreaming

[lapfog_1]

25. nothing is stopping him from going to mars all on his own

NASA's budget is only $25 B a year right now... and that covers both Space and Aeronautics and things like climate change studies, supercomputers, grants to colleges and universities for research, etc.

Eloon can spend $25B of his own money and fund a 5 year mission to Mars without taxpayer money. He might not even notice the drop in his net worth.

In fact, I think he should be on the first rocket to Mars.

[Blue_Tires]

59. Even Melon Husk is smart enough to know

If he's serious about doing this and doing it in a halfway proper manner, the associated costs can break even him... He needs NASA resources and expertise.

Also, when Elmer inevitably loses astronauts in space in his rush to establish his Martian Empire like in "The Expanse" he'll need a convenient scapegoat to blame, like NASA.

[Voltaire2]

28. Note that fascist oligarch Musk has not taken a ride into space on his actually pretty good rockets.

So he is, as usual, just bullshitting everyone.

Also, one of the points of a permanent moon base is to drastically reduce the cost of interplanetary flight by staging those flights from the low gravity moon, and eventually creating the tech to produce spacecraft on the moon using resources from the moon. That plan actually makes sense. It is why both the US and China have prioritized permanent moon bases.

My guess is that shithead's interference will guarantee that China gains a strategic advantage with their lunar efforts. Their tech is already excellent, and their oligarchs are subservient to the state, unlike ours.

[MineralMan]

29. I want Musk to be on the first flight to Mars.

Let him stay there.

Or, better. (post-credit scene from "Don't Look Up":

?si=nta8LGqBfPPXj4kr

[Keepthesoulalive]

31. Some would call him an egomaniacal nutcase

I’m sure there are more professional terms for his malady. I will simplify and call him a privileged dumbass .

[Polly Hennessey]

34. Well, when you get there, please don't come back.

[ecstatic]

35. Hopefully on your own effing dime

Not with taxpayers' funds handed to you on a silver platter from trump.

[Blue_Tires]

36. I'm old enough to remember when

The "official" go-to authorities on the space program were actual scientists with 'Ph.D' after their name instead of billionaires dropping loud and ultimately meaningless hot takes on social media...

Melon Husk has been talking out his ass for 6+ years that he's only 2 years away from unmanned flights to Mars and 4 years away from manned trips when multiple industry experts say he's still a decade at least from reliable unmanned flights... He's just so fucking desperate to establish his own little pure libertarian paradise on Mars and be worshipped like a god like he's some James Bond villain. My consolation is knowing it almost certainly won't happen in his lifetime unless he lives another 30+ years.

[legallyblondeNYC]

38. Meanwhile - our astronauts are still on the space shuttle.

Any update on the plan to get those Americans home?

[Voltaire2]

55. Station not shuttle.

And yes there is a plan, not only a plan but a schedule. It is really expensive to travel there, and there is no emergency. So on schedule a vehicle will arrive and they will go home.

[legallyblondeNYC]

60. Oh yes - station. Thanks!

[Oopsie Daisy]

41. No we're not. We are NEVER going to Mars *

* ever. What a waste of money and lives. Robotics can do more for less, for longer, and safer.

[Midnight Writer]

42. I am all in favor of "job maximizing" programs.

If we can spend billions subsidizing billionaires like Musk, subsidizing oil companies and pharma companies, subsidizing defense contractors, subsidizing corporate farms, then why shouldn't we provide decent jobs for scientists and engineers?

I'd love to see a massive expansion of government jobs. Subsidize internships, apprenticeships, entry level jobs, and rehabilitative jobs for those that need them. I believe a lot of our problems, such as poverty, crime, homelessness, and drug addiction, are the result of folks who have no decent jobs, no prospects, no marketable skills, no hope for the future.

We provided jobs during the Great Depression to keep America moving, and it was a magnificent success. Why do we not do this now?

An economy built from the bottom up serves ALL the people, not just the oligarchs. The oligarchs are doing fine. They don't need subsidies. It is the poor and working class that is in crisis and need attention.

[allegorical oracle]

44. Brings out my worst memories of Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners...

"You're a real riot, Leon, a real riot!"
Hardy Har Har.

[speak easy]

45. To the moon, Elon, to the moon!

[Prairie_Seagull]

48. I would think the "Rare 'on' earth minerals"

would be enough to motivate more moon exploration first.

[edhopper]

49. We are already on Mars

with our robot explorers. We can do more for so much less by expanding that program.

And Musk promised self driving cars by 2020, how is that working out.

[ismnotwasm]

50. Dumbass

[applegrove]

51. After the astronauts get back to earth from being on the Space Station

for a few months, they can't walk. So good luck with Mars.

[Voltaire2]

56. That's actually an interesting point.

The trip using known technology is around 17 months.

[Bluethroughu]

52. Musk can get on the first flight and head out.

Adios...your ego is not your amigo.

[Aviation Pro]

53. Wait a second you drug addled, illegal alien

You think Helium 3 is a distraction? Oh, that's right, you don't know fuck all about science.

[videohead5]

57. He can leave tonight

And take Trump with him.