To the editor: Columnist Michael Hiltzik rightly dismantles Elon Musk’s fixation on sending people to Mars, however he might have been extra thorough.
Musk claims to need to save humankind from extinction by making a colony of 1 million earthlings on the pink planet. His plan hastens the destruction of a livable Earth by way of accelerated international warming, one of many threats for which, Musk believes, we want a Martian escape hatch.
In line with Area.com, every launch of his firm SpaceX’s Starship rocket burns super-cooled methane, producing the equal of greater than 76,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s like driving greater than 15,000 gas-powered sedans 12,000 miles — the very kind of auto Tesla is supposedly attempting to get off our roads and out of the environment.
Whereas applauding the cost-saving reusable SpaceX rockets, advances in engine design and the Dragon capsule, we should always acknowledge the costly however much less seen mitigation prices from frequent launches of Starship, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Carl Selkin, Pasadena
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To the editor: Hiltzik writes that Musk’s need to colonize Mars is a “whim” as a result of Musk hasn’t “soberly contemplated the obstacles.” In reality, Musk has spent the final 20 years pondering these obstacles and overcoming them, making him the richest particular person on this planet.
NASA pioneered area flight, but it surely by no means gave thought to creating it worthwhile. As missions grew in expense and complexity, public help for the Apollo and area shuttle applications waned.
From the founding of SpaceX, Musk understood he wanted to make the economics work in addition to the engineering. His dedication to recycle boosters slashed payload prices dramatically and improved the carbon footprints of his rockets.
His engineering and monetary successes have by no means prompted Musk to lose sight of his Mars dream. From the founding of SpaceX, Musk insisted on methane gasoline quite than the business commonplace of kerosene, as a result of methane could possibly be constructed from hydrogen on Mars and thus harnessed to gasoline return journeys.
Robert Helbing, Monrovia
