Elon Musk Trying to Scrap NASA's Moon Program
Elon Musk Trying to Scrap NASA's Moon Program
Elon Musk is calling for NASA to ditch its Moon program, arguing that the "Moon is a distraction" and that "we're going straight to Mars.
Consequently, the South African billionaire has been put in charge of a so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" to excise $2 trillion from the national budget. Whether this advisory group will be able to take aim at the Artemis program remains to be seen.
"Government efficiency" is code for tax cuts for the rich.
It means that any social programs that we benefit from will suffer or disappear altogether.
What a world we live in. Stop having faith in government and start taking matters into our own hands.
The fact that such clear conflict of interest exists between spacex/NASA and putting musk in the MF whitehouse... I cannot say I'm surprised, anyway.
American voters decided that conflicts of interest don't matter. NASA will be lucky to survive this administration at all .
He knows SpaceX can't deliver what they promised for the Moon program, so he needs to change the goalposts. Obviously NASA isn't suddenly going to request less of SpaceX, not without demanding back all the funding awarded. So he needs to have the Moon program replaced with a Mars program, where they don't need to deliver anything for the next 10-15 years and can delay time and time again.
Yeap, starship looks cool but is entirely impractical for lunar missions.
Just to get to LEO its fuel is pretty much completely depleted. So to get it fueled up to attempt a trans lunar injection you're going to need an additional 8 launches, which all have to link up in orbit.
Not only is this going to be adding an incredible amount of additional cost, it's going to be much more dangerous.
SpaceX is no further behind than any of the other contractors for artemis, everyone who knows anything about space and space policy knows that no contractor will meet the deadline trump set specifically because he wanted to be on the moon before the end of his second term (he thought he was gonna get reelected last time). Its common knowledge in the space community artemis will not be on time, and has already been delayed.
I fucking hate musk but you don't know what you're talking about, the new head of nasa is gonna be Elons freind Jared Isaacman anyway so it doesnt matter if they're late at all.
Buy you are sorta right on the tail end of your comment, I think musk wants to scrap artemis specifically so a new mission that is almost exclusively done by SpaceX can take its place. Primarily I think he wants SLS to die and starship to replace it.
Also Elon claims SpaceX is going to launch a starship demo to Mars during the next transfer orbit which is in 2026, and I really hope they do because as much as I hate that bitch space exploration is cool AF.
I always love the debate about fantasizing about anyone going to colonize Mars ..... we're having a hard time sustaining life here.
Musk is a bigoted lying piece of shit and also a Mars colony could lead to useful discovery, even ones we never could have anticipated. Science should never need to prove itself as useful 100% of the time. Many important discoveries were made by accident.
I would never ever want Musk to be anywhere near decisions about a Mars mission, or anything else of consequence though. Among many other reasons , he likely would prevent such unanticipated discoveries by being a stubborn narcissist...
Did SpaceX promise anything with the moon? I thought their goal was, and had always been, just Mars?
Spacex is fairly central to the current Artemis moon missions. They are building the lander from the Lunar Gateway (Moon orbiting station) to the surface and back. SLS will take people from Earth to the Lunar Gateway.
Gee wouldn't have anything to do with sabotaging his competition so he can corruptly profit? Sounds like someone needs to drain the swamp of this scum.
He is not even sabotaging his competition. Starship is supposed to be part of the program and despite the spin will not be ready.
So he wants to cancel the program that has real deadlines so he can keep promising he will colonize Mars in the next 5 years, which he has been claiming for some time now.
Yeah, but Biden's aides had 4 years to toss him out....
And instead they didn't, and we all know by know from those same aides and other elected Dems that Biden wasn't competent on day 1, so if his aides didn't think something was important, it didn't get done.
We fucked around electing Biden, his admin fucked around in office, and now we're in the find out stage just like trump voters.
Edit:
To clarify I meant Biden's admin had four years to cancel Musk's contracts for any of the shit ton of reasons musk shouldn't have government contracts, and then they could have drastically increased NASA funding.
I get how my comment could have looked like I was criticizing Biden's admin for not invoking the 25th. I still think they should have, but that wasn't what I meant in the original comment.
But if you drain a swamp, scum is all that remains.
The primary reason NASA still exists is as a way to funnel federal tax dollars to the states in a way that doesn't look too much like socialism. They also spin it as a way to keep rocket engineers skilled up and in-industry in case they're needed for war.
The stuff that we care about, the science, and the inspiring future generations, is all just a sideshow to the politicians signing the bills.
Straight out of the movie "Don't Look Up". A proper life initiating art imitating life moment.
Such a shame that Musk will tarnish all the amazing achievements of SpaceX engineers... What they achieved is absolutely incredible...
Tax the rich and suddenly there will be enough money to go to both.
This isn't necessarily true and making this argument gives people an easy way to refute the idea of raising taxes.
Kropotkin conveyed it best:
It is told of Rothschild that, seeing his fortune threatened by the Revolution of 1848, he hit upon the following stratagem: “I am quite willing to admit,” said he, “that my fortune has been accumulated at the expense of others, but if it were divided to-morrow among the millions of Europe, the share of each would only amount to five shillings. Very well, then, I undertake to render to each his five shillings if he asks me for it.”
Having given due publicity to his promise, our millionaire proceeded as usual to stroll quietly through the streets of Frankfort. Three or four passers-by asked for their five shillings, which he disbursed with a sardonic smile. His stratagem succeeded, and the family of the millionaire is still in possession of its wealth.
We need more systemic change. Granted, a tax policy could be permanent systemic change, but without corresponding political and economic change it's just as likely to be undone immediately.
Guy who promised he'd be to the Moon by now try to destroy Moon program to cover up his massive failure.
hello Kind person my name is elon and i am south african prince and have big fortune . i am asking help for please send me tax fee of $5 000 for retrieval of funds . then i receive $5 000 000 fortune and give you $2 000 000 . thank elon musk south afrika pricneAdrian Dittmann is that you again dagnabit you and your internet scams
You want to excise the national budget, do you? Well, start with the fucking national defense budget spending. There you go.
Touch the MIC get the flick.
In Russia it's a trip out window, in US it's a sudden suicide.
Im so annoyed we don't do more with the moon. we should have machines building structures there and trying out anything we would attempt to do elsewhere to see how well it works.
The Moon seems more strategic than Mars on the short term, and it's easier to get there, so it make perfect sense to get to the moon.
Exploring Mars sounds exciting, but having a permanent Mars colony or city is a waste of resources. Mars is a cold, toxic desert with an extremely thin unbreathable atmosphere. So let's visit and study Mars, but let's not bother trying to live there.
Mars is so underrated, it really needs a hype man. The beaches there are amazing, the climate is great, what else do you need? I think Elmo should lead the expedition there and scope out the best places to live. In fact, let’s call it Project Watney.
Okay let's send him, but with fuel for a one way trip only.
