SpaceX Wins Environmental Approval for Launch of Mars Rocket - Slashdot

Posted by msmash

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  No approval for launch should be given if either he can't guarantee compliance with Planetary Protection Rules, or if he doesn't give up that "starting a new nation" crap.

  • 1 hidden comment

  • Re:

    "Planetary Protection"?

    That's a laugh, have you seen the state of the Earth?

    • Re:

      Planetary Protection Rules don't apply to Earth, silly!

    • Re:

      ""Planetary Protection"? That's a laugh, have you seen the state of the Earth?"

      Have you seen South-Texas?
      There's no environment to ruin.

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    Until someone else demonstrates they can get mankind to Mars, Musk should be mandated by the United Nations to continue work his Starting A New Nation On Mars, the insurance policy for intelligent life in the universe.

  • Re:

    Don't worry. 10 years ago Musk said he would have a man on Mars in 10 years. There is plenty of time to sort this out.

  • Re:

    or if he doesn't give up that "starting a new nation" crap.
    And why should he give up that?

    If I would join a mars colony - with no way of return obviously I want to be in my own new nation - or do you think German in a Space-X colony on Mars falls under German law?

    • Re:

      How would a Mars nation function? All the plans thus far are reliant on supplies being delivered from Earth.

      It would need some kind of economy to buy supplies from Earth, at great cost. Given the cost of getting anything back from Mars, it's unlikely it could sustain itself financially. Meaning it would need to be funded from Earth, and therefore be covered by Earth law at least in part.

      There is also the issue of the very small population size. Democracy doesn't tend to work well with very small island nati

      • Re:

        There is also the issue of the very small population size. Democracy doesn't tend to work well with very small island nations, and I don't see why it would be better on Mars.
        I think it is the opposite around.
        Democracy only works in small nations.

        All the plans thus far are reliant on supplies being delivered from Earth.
        Supplies and trade has nothing to do with the way how a colony would govern itself.

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          All the best democracies are medium sized. A few million people. Too small or too large and they seem to have issues. There are exceptions, the EU isn't a government as such but it is democratic and it mostly works quite well.

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        How would a colony generate any income? Tourism and providing facilities for scientists, for one. Maybe they can sell some television rights but that's not going to last. Not sure if there's anything to be mined or produced on Mars that can't be had on Earth. If there's ever some sort of Expanse thing going to happen, maybe food, fuel and transport could be profitable services, but it'll be a good while before we'll see anything like that (if ever). Seems like almost all of the funding would have to co

        • Re:

          Given that inhabiting Mars is going to involve sending a lot of smart people to a challenging environment, I'd expect they're going to be inventing a lot of new technologies to cope with it. So expect the major export of Mars to be intellectual property.

          That's probably the only major export you'll get from Mars. Nothing else can be produced economically enough to make it worth transporting to Earth. A license for a patent doesn't need to be flown back to Earth on a rocket.

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      Kim Stanley Robinson managed to take this question/argument and turn it into a 3 novel series. First book is ‘Red Mars’. They can be a bit of a slog, but are interesting enough reading.

  • Re:

    This makes zero sense. LEO launches have absolutely nothing to do with planetary protection.

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    What do (sub)orbital test launches have to do with the Planetary Protection rules? Those rules apply to actual missions; not vague future plans, even if those test launches may eventually make those plans a real possibility.
    
    As for "starting a new nation", you can be sure that those Planetary Protection rules will be revisited, when founding a permanent colony on Mars becomes viable. I wouldn't worry about that too much; while I am glad of Musk's drive to push space exploration, I doubt we'll see a prac

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    Fuck those rules. I don't remember being asked when they made the decision for everyone.

• does any one have a link to the document i can not find it. on the Faa site i checked last night

  • Re:

    Download it here [faa.gov] you lazy bastard.
• The Federal Aviation Administration can stipulate how often a road can be closed? Thats quite an overstretch.

  • The Federal Aviation Administration can stipulate how often a road can be closed? Thats quite an overstretch.

    I'm not entirely sure what your criticism here is? Do you think it's an overstretch that roads are able to be closed by the authority of the FAA at all, and that for this reason SpaceX shouldn't be allowed to launch from there at all? Or are you complaining that the FAA shouldn't be able to dictate towards SpaceX how often a road should be closed? If it's the latter your criticism doesn't make sense at all, because the road is only closed by the authority of the FAA, so it is in their purview to decide about limitations, while taking into consideration any existing other laws and regulations. And if it's the former, take it up with Congress, because roads being closed by the authority of the FAA related to space launches is nothing new.

• Yes, we need to protect the environment.
  No, requiring progress to wait on government bureacrat drones slowly filling in forms is not a good way to do that.

  And letting them slow down progress by adding jobs the local government can't be bothered to do is simply disgusting corruption.

  • Re:

    You did not even read the report summary, did you?
    Boca Chica is not like some missile range in the remote desert. It is in a sensitive coastal location, so there will be care needed. They knew it when they built there.

• Honestly I just want to see if this thing can actually work. A fully re-usable low cost orbital heavy launch platform? Amazing! I support the environmental protection laws too, and glad they're taking mitigation steps, but I'm excited to see this thing launch.