Elon Musk has published his detailed plans to colonize some parts of the solar system which will include inhabiting Mars, the Jupiter’s moon, Europa, and Saturn’s moon, Enceladus. His intention is to make the humans to be a multi-planetary race just in case the Earth comes to extinction. He also plans to launch the first flight to Mars by 2023, a target that many planetary experts find unbelievable and astonishing.
Elon Musk who invented SpaceX and Tesla has built a spacecraft known as the Dragon that would be offering direct flights to space to the moon and other planets in the space. His paper which was published in the Journal New Space outlines several amazing ways of getting to the Mars and beyond. Musk also plans to construct a ‘self-sustaining city’ on Mars that would make life easier for inhabitants.
Most space fans have enthusiastically embraced Musk’s idea but some space analysts are doubtful and totally uninspired about the whole idea. They regard the plan as a massive waste of resources. For instance, it will cost about $100,000,000 to fly to the Moon if using the Dragon spacecraft.
Asked whether the taxpayer’s money is used to fund the flights, Musk defended himself that his moonshot and SpaceX project is entirely his business. SpaceX’s only noteworthy client has been NASA which is funded by tax-payers funds that use it to deliver cargo to the space station.
Some people claim that SpaceX was partly sponsored by NASA before it started functioning hence it cannot be regarded as Musk’s pure commercial business. Based on Musk arguments, the moonshots will be the first natural process of human race expansion.
However, the planetary experts claim that space travel is more of a social process which involves the domestic politics, international rivalry, marketing of patriotic bravery, and a huge expenditure of state funds.
Furthermore, the ‘space colonization’ is awkward since it implies the potential recurrence of social injustices and environmental degradation that are associated with the previous colonial ventures in the world. The plan is fairly doable that’s if it gets holistic support from all stakeholders including the state governments.
