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Yeah, so the lore goes, Musk just wanted to send humans to Mars, and had no intention, originally, to build his own rockets. The first tactic was to retool an I
by they4kman 4y ago
Yeah, so the lore goes, Musk just wanted to send humans to Mars, and had no intention, originally, to build his own rockets. The first tactic was to retool an ICBM for spacier spaceflight, but the Russians laughed them out of the country.
- paranoidrobot 4y agoIt was a simpler goal than that. From the first paragraph or two of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_SpaceX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_SpaceX > In August 2001, Musk shared a plenary talk with Mike Griffin at the fourth Mars Society convention where he announced his plans to send his greenhouse to Mars.[6] In October 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished Dnepr ICBMs that could send the envisioned payloads into space.[7]
- georgeg23 4y agoElon got the Mars idea from Griffin.
- m4rtink 4y agoIIRC originally Elon wanted to land a greenhouse on Mars, not people from the very start.
- Nevermark 4y agoEstablishing a massive functioning greenhouse on Mars, before sending people, still seems like a smart idea to me. In fact, setting up as much automation as possible, pre-people, would be a good way to establish the human safety of Mars flights. As well as supercharging the productivity and quality of life of the first Marsers when they finally do arrive.
- m4rtink 4y agoIIRC the very original plan was a small glasshouse with a camera. But your idea sounds good as well. :)
- wkat4242 4y agoWhy would the Russians laugh at that? They did this themselves. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepr_(rocket) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dnepr_(rocket)
- krisoft 4y agoThey were not laughing because it was an impossible idea. They were laughing because they have seen an opportunity to part a rich person from his money.
- georgeg23 4y agoOr laughing because it was absurd, Griffin was CIA. The US had just left the Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty, and so it was obvious to everyone they wanted to develop low cost launch for a Brilliant Pebbles reboot. Now it's finally happening.