the mass increase due to relativistic effects is really really small, significantly smaller than the weight loss due to fuel consumption, which btw is described by the Rocket Equation.

but … but what about human lefts?

yeah i know, that’s why i said “lol” :D

what i don’t get is why people are focusing on the amount of ecosystem that SpaceX displaces while completely ignoring that literally anything else also replaces ecosystem. City? used to be forest? Parking lot? used to be prairie. Suburbs? you guessed it

everything was an ecosystem before modern humans got there. i don’t get the particular outrage over SpaceX.

My conspiracy is that Musk thinks he’ll get to Mars more likely if he aligns with the Republicans, and he acts so super stupid on purpose to get along with them.

… and it has landed him a top position in government so far

the comments about slashing social security are definitely unhinged IMHO (so i’m definitely not supporting that) but i’m european and we have more appreciation for social safety nets i would say. america is more individualist, so maybe that’s just “america being america”.

SpaceX? They got billions to get us to Mars. They never go beyond the super easy part in rocketry, low earth orbit.

lol

Typical bullshit article that has no idea what it’s talking about (the drawings are nice though):

• Outer Space Treaty does not forbid the formation of a nation on Mars. It does not even forbid staking individual land-claims by settlers. What it does forbid is staking land claims by earth-nations.

Copying from Wikipedia:

Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty include prohibiting nuclear weapons in space; limiting the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes; establishing that space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and precluding any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body.

Mars settlement passes all of these checks.

Furthermore, people want to go to Mars, not the Moon. Bringing up the moon is only confusing.

oh they do, it’s a great invention after all.

batteries didn’t make much sense in the past because where do you take the electricity from? combusting coal to generate electricity to charge your car is not much better than just combusting oil directly. now, we have solar. that changes everything.

Public transport (with acceptable intervals) is only (practically) feasible in densely populated areas, like cities and maybe the immediate surroundings. There’s no chance every tiny village in the middle of bumfuck nowhere is gonna have even a resemblance of acceptable public transport. You’d need a driver to drive around all day where most trips are completely or mostly empty.

people in america don’t want to ride with public transport because they’re incredibly isolationistic and have a fear of other human beings; so they prefer to drive within “their own 4 walls”, in their own chassis. It’s really about psychology much more than practical feasibility.

Evolution took a billion years too, so it’s kinda fair to say “well, vehicles need some training”.

HUMAN RIGHTS ARE A RIGHT WING CONSTRUCT WAKE UP PEOPLE YOU HAVE BEEN BRAINWASHED 🫨🫨🫨🫨🫨🤯😵‍💫