Science
Elon Musk's Mars plan rocked as SpaceX CEO fears humans will 'self-extinguish' before 2050 – Daily Express
Elon Musk explains ‘risks’ of moving to Mars
The tech mogul previously detailed plans to colonise the Red Planet by building a one-million-strong city before 2050, but received a blow to that when the Starship SN9 prototype crashed and exploded after its first high-altitude test flight last week. Mr Musk said he hoped to one day produce 1,000 spaceships over 10 years and launch three a day. The rockets would blast off from Earth, each carrying roughly 100 tonnes of equipment, as well as 100 people in the hope of building a permanent settlement on Mars.
And the SpaceX CEO gave an insight into the rollercoaster ride he’d already experienced during the 2020 Mars Society Virtual Convention.
He said: “We’ve gone through many iterations, starting from not really knowing how to build rockets at all, with Falcon One and having three failures before reaching orbit.
“We only barely survived, I was at zero cash basically when we got this fourth one to orbit – if that didn’t work it would have been curtains.
“I think it’s helpful to have as the objective the creation of a self-sustaining city on Mars.
Elon Musk fears a crisis could prevent the colonisation of Mars (Image: GETTY)
Starship crashed last week (Image: SpaceX)
“This has to be the objective, not simply a few people or a base, but a self-sustaining city.
“The acid test really is if the ships from Earth stop coming for any reason, does Mars die out?”
Mr Musk made reference to the Great Filter theory – the idea that somewhere along the trajectory of life’s development, there is a massive and common challenge that ends life before it becomes intelligent enough and widespread enough in the universe.
He said: “If the ships stop coming for any reason does the city on Mars die out?
“If it does we’re not in a secure place, I mean I think this really might come down to the great filter front.
READ MORE: Elon Musk’s plan to send one million people to Mars boosted with colonisation ‘solution’
Mr Musk plans to colonise the Red Planet (Image: GETTY)
“Are we going to be able to create a self-sustaining city on Mars before or after World War 3?
“Hopefully there is never a World War 3, but the probability of launching after World War 3 are low.
“We should try to make this city self-sustaining before any possible World War 3.”
Mr Musk said the success of his project hinges on this, but he does not think the outlook is great.
He continued: “Really we just face a series of probabilities. There’s some chance we could have a giant war, a supervolcano, or a comet-strike – or we might just self-extinguish.
“Quite frankly, right now, civilisation’s not looking super strong, you know, we’re looking a little rickety right now.
Mr Musk fears humanity could spoil its only chance of survival (Image: GETTY)
SpaceX hopes to transport humans to space (Image: GETTY)
“It’s not an escape vehicle unless Mars is made self-sustaining, which will probably not happen in my lifetime.
“It’s meaningless to have an escape lifeboat if you’re simply moving to another place where you will soon die out. That doesn’t count.
“This is really about minimising existential risk for civilisation as a whole and having a future where we are a spacefaring civilisation and a multi-planet species.”
Global catastrophic risks also include anthropogenic risks caused by humans, such as through technology, governance and climate change.
Express.co.uk has today launched a revolutionary campaign to help save Britain’s environment and give a £21billion boost to the economy.
SpaceX Starship facts and figures (Image: GETTY/DX)
Along with green entrepreneur Dale Vince, we are calling on the Government to scrap VAT on green products and to make more space for nature.
An exclusive poll commissioned by the Daily Express revealed 66 percent of adults are worried by the state of the planet, climate change and the decline of wildlife and nature.
The majority are also in favour of changing the tax laws to encourage a greener approach and to make polluters pay.
Express.co.uk is calling on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to show world leadership on the issue in the run-up to the G7 summit in Cornwall in June and the crunch Cop 26 climate change summit in Glasgow in November.
Science
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover digging in with BC-made part – Chilliwack Progress – Chilliwack Progress
Greater Victoria’s Kennametal Inc. facility is used to making custom products for industry spanning every corner of the globe.
However, it’s the piece the plant made for a jobsite that’s currently over 200 million kilometres away that’s bringing the company an out-of-this-world amount of pride.
The site made a tungsten carbide tooth blank that’s currently mounted to a core drill on NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars last month. The blank is involved in one of the six-wheeled rover’s key tasks; cutting chalk-sized, intact rock cores that will hopefully be sent back to Earth and give a greater understanding into ancient microbial life on Mars.
“The team is just super enthusiastic and super excited,” said Ron Sivorot, business director at the Kennametal site in the Greater Victoria suburb of Langford. “Having it in use millions of miles away is actually pretty crazy.”
But even though they’re making a component used in space exploration, nothing really changed at the Langford site. Had nobody told the plant’s employees about the company’s involvement in the mission, they might’ve never known.
“The team on the shop floor didn’t even really know that there was anything going on, that it was anything different from anything else they make,” Sivorot said. “We make millions of pieces of carbide a year and to have these ones go to Mars, it’s obviously, definitely the farthest we’ve gone.”
Excitement started to grow in 2018 after Kennametal found out the blanks —which the Langford site has been supplying to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2014 —would be aboard the interplanetary mission.
“It just kind of fit right into our work flow, so to be honest, we didn’t go above and beyond, this is basically the service we’re used to giving anyway, it just fit to serve NASA and JPL,” Sivorot said.
The Langford site employees watched from their work computers as the rover touched down on the red planet. Images of NASA’s control room engineers erupting with elation upon the six-wheeled rover’s interstellar landing matched the scene at the local Kennametal site. Sivorot said some of the plant’s space-loving employees were caught geeking out with celebratory air punches as they watched the landing back here on Earth.
READ: LIVE: You can watch NASA’s Rover landing on Mars today
The k92-grade tooth blank Kennametal makes for NASA looks like a small metal cube that’s smaller than a fingernail. To make the blank, Kennametal reforms powdered tungsten carbide by pressing, shaping and centring it and giving the piece a semi-finished grind. Once NASA gets the blank, they finish grinding the piece to their specific and high-tech requirements.
The k92-grade tooth blank is also used in industries like construction, oil and gas, agriculture and forestry. The Kennametal director said tungsten carbide is used because its strength and durability can perform in hostile scenarios.
“We have a variety of other customers that use it in similar applications, other than being on another planet,” Sivorot said. “We have a lot of confidence in this grade. It’s a very tough grade, fracture resistant, wear resistant, it’s an ideal grade for this solution, so we’re confident that it’ll do what it needs to do on Mars.”
NASA says Mars was 205 million kilometres form Earth when Perseverance landed, but the rover equipped with the Kennametal product travelled 471 million kilometres in total since last summer’s launch.
“Which is super wild,” Sivorot said, “it’s actually one of those fun stories you go home and tell your kids about.”
For more news from Vancouver Island and beyond delivered daily into your inbox, please click here.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:jake.romphf@blackpress.ca. Follow us on Instagram.
Science
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover digging in with BC-made part – Nanaimo News Bulletin – Nanaimo News Bulletin
Greater Victoria’s Kennametal Inc. facility is used to making custom products for industry spanning every corner of the globe.
However, it’s the piece the plant made for a jobsite that’s currently over 200 million kilometres away that’s bringing the company an out-of-this-world amount of pride.
The site made a tungsten carbide tooth blank that’s currently mounted to a core drill on NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars last month. The blank is involved in one of the six-wheeled rover’s key tasks; cutting chalk-sized, intact rock cores that will hopefully be sent back to Earth and give a greater understanding into ancient microbial life on Mars.
“The team is just super enthusiastic and super excited,” said Ron Sivorot, business director at the Kennametal site in the Greater Victoria suburb of Langford. “Having it in use millions of miles away is actually pretty crazy.”
But even though they’re making a component used in space exploration, nothing really changed at the Langford site. Had nobody told the plant’s employees about the company’s involvement in the mission, they might’ve never known.
“The team on the shop floor didn’t even really know that there was anything going on, that it was anything different from anything else they make,” Sivorot said. “We make millions of pieces of carbide a year and to have these ones go to Mars, it’s obviously, definitely the farthest we’ve gone.”
Excitement started to grow in 2018 after Kennametal found out the blanks —which the Langford site has been supplying to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2014 —would be aboard the interplanetary mission.
“It just kind of fit right into our work flow, so to be honest, we didn’t go above and beyond, this is basically the service we’re used to giving anyway, it just fit to serve NASA and JPL,” Sivorot said.
The Langford site employees watched from their work computers as the rover touched down on the red planet. Images of NASA’s control room engineers erupting with elation upon the six-wheeled rover’s interstellar landing matched the scene at the local Kennametal site. Sivorot said some of the plant’s space-loving employees were caught geeking out with celebratory air punches as they watched the landing back here on Earth.
READ: LIVE: You can watch NASA’s Rover landing on Mars today
The k92-grade tooth blank Kennametal makes for NASA looks like a small metal cube that’s smaller than a fingernail. To make the blank, Kennametal reforms powdered tungsten carbide by pressing, shaping and centring it and giving the piece a semi-finished grind. Once NASA gets the blank, they finish grinding the piece to their specific and high-tech requirements.
The k92-grade tooth blank is also used in industries like construction, oil and gas, agriculture and forestry. The Kennametal director said tungsten carbide is used because its strength and durability can perform in hostile scenarios.
“We have a variety of other customers that use it in similar applications, other than being on another planet,” Sivorot said. “We have a lot of confidence in this grade. It’s a very tough grade, fracture resistant, wear resistant, it’s an ideal grade for this solution, so we’re confident that it’ll do what it needs to do on Mars.”
NASA says Mars was 205 million kilometres form Earth when Perseverance landed, but the rover equipped with the Kennametal product travelled 471 million kilometres in total since last summer’s launch.
“Which is super wild,” Sivorot said, “it’s actually one of those fun stories you go home and tell your kids about.”
For more news from Vancouver Island and beyond delivered daily into your inbox, please click here.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:jake.romphf@blackpress.ca. Follow us on Instagram.
Science
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover using piece made right here on Vancouver Island – vancouverislandfreedaily.com
The Langford Kennametal Inc. facility is used to making custom products for industry spanning every corner of the globe.
However, it’s the piece the plant made for a jobsite that’s currently over 200 million kilometres away that’s bringing the company an out-of-this-world amount of pride.
The site made a tungsten carbide tooth blank that’s currently mounted to a core drill on NASA’s Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars last month. The blank is involved in one of the six-wheeled rover’s key tasks; cutting chalk-sized, intact rock cores that will hopefully be sent back to Earth and give a greater understanding into ancient microbial life on Mars.
“The team is just super enthusiastic and super excited,” said Ron Sivorot, business director at the the Greater Victoria Kennametal site. “Having it in use millions of miles away is actually pretty crazy.”
But even though they’re making a component used in space exploration, nothing really changed at the Langford site. Had nobody told the plant’s employees about the company’s involvement in the mission, they might’ve never known.
“The team on the shop floor didn’t even really know that there was anything going on, that it was anything different from anything else they make,” Sivorot said. “We make millions of pieces of carbide a year and to have these ones go to Mars, it’s obviously, definitely the farthest we’ve gone.”
Excitement started to grow in 2018 after Kennametal found out the blanks —which the Langford site has been supplying to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2014 —would be aboard the interplanetary mission.
“It just kind of fit right into our work flow, so to be honest, we didn’t go above and beyond, this is basically the service we’re used to giving anyway, it just fit to serve NASA and JPL,” Sivorot said.
The Langford site employees watched from their work computers as the rover touched down on the red planet. Images of NASA’s control room engineers erupting with elation upon the six-wheeled rover’s interstellar landing matched the scene at the local Kennametal site. Sivorot said some of the plant’s space-loving employees were caught geeking out with celebratory air punches as they watched the landing back here on Earth.
READ: LIVE: You can watch NASA’s Rover landing on Mars today
The k92-grade tooth blank Kennametal makes for NASA looks like a small metal cube that’s smaller than a fingernail. To make the blank, Kennametal reforms powdered tungsten carbide by pressing, shaping and centring it and giving the piece a semi-finished grind. Once NASA gets the blank, they finish grinding the piece to their specific and high-tech requirements.
The k92-grade tooth blank is also used in industries like construction, oil and gas, agriculture and forestry. The Kennametal director said tungsten carbide is used because its strength and durability can perform in hostile scenarios.
“We have a variety of other customers that use it in similar applications, other than being on another planet,” Sivorot said. “We have a lot of confidence in this grade. It’s a very tough grade, fracture resistant, wear resistant, it’s an ideal grade for this solution, so we’re confident that it’ll do what it needs to do on Mars.”
NASA says Mars was 205 million kilometres form Earth when Perseverance landed, but the rover equipped with the Kennametal product travelled 471 million kilometres in total since last summer’s launch.
“Which is super wild,” Sivorot said, “it’s actually one of those fun stories you go home and tell your kids about.”
For more news from Vancouver Island and beyond delivered daily into your inbox, please click here.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:jake.romphf@blackpress.ca. Follow us on Instagram.
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