From the goals, to the plans, to the rivals,
and more, join me as we ask the question of
whether SpaceX can send their starship to
the moon!
When you look at space, there are a lot of
things out there that we as humans want to
reach.
And the first thing that we truly reached
and could grasp was the moon itself.
On July 20th 1969, after many years of trials,
tribulations, setbacks, delays, fears and
more, we sent three men into space, and two
of them landed on the moon (the third stayed
in the craft just for the record, someone
had to watch their ride!).
It was a triumphant moment in human history.
But it was also something that afterwards...lost
its luster in terms of repeating the feat.
We did go back to the moon multiple times,
but each time it got more and more costly,
more and more questioned, until eventually
the Apollo program (which was the program
to get people to the moon) was outright canceled.
Only recently did things start to look better
for the program as both NASA and Elon Musk
via SpaceX decided to go and inspire the human
race to try and get back to the moon in a
good amount of time.
In fact, it could be that we get to the moon
again very soon, even before we reach the
long-awaited Mars.
Or at least, that's what Elon Musk thinks:
"Well, this is gonna sound pretty crazy, but
I think we could land on the moon in less
than two years," Musk told Time.
"Certainly with an uncrewed vehicle I believe
we could land on the moon in two years.
So then maybe within a year or two of that
we could be sending crew.
I would say four years at the outside."
In other words, Musk is saying his conservative
estimate for sending people back to the moon
aboard a SpaceX vehicle is 2023, the year
before NASA hopes to send a crew -- including
the first female astronaut to visit the moon
-- as part of its new Artemis program.
You might think that this is a friendly competition
thing going on, but it's a little more complicated
than that.
You see, Elon Must started SpaceX with others
to try and restore humanities faith in reaching
out to the stars, and it's worked.
But more importantly than that, he wanted
to make an independent space company that
didn't rely on government funding (like NASA)
and thus be able to make spaceships, satellites,
and more at a much cheaper cost.
Which, again, he succeeded in.
This has actually put NASA and SpaceX on great
terms, and the two are working together in
various ways.
Including sending certain SpaceX ships up
to the International Space Station, and working
together on plans to help get humanity to
Mars.
However, NASA has noted recently that they
desire to go the moon on their own craft,
which of course prompted a response from Elon:
"If it were to take longer to convince NASA
and the authorities that we can do it versus
just doing it, then we might just do it.
It may literally be easier to just land Starship
on the moon than try to convince NASA that
we can."
And that right there is one of the cruxes
of Elon Musk's belief in his team and his
spaceships.
If he thinks he can do something, he'll push
to do it, and he's been more right than wrong
in recent months and years with his programs.
His communications satellite system Starlink
has started launching and is getting closer
to its first minor test in North America.
The various starships that he's making is
getting more and more tests, and so on and
so forth.
That being said, we all know that Elon Musk
can talk more than he can produce at times.
A lot of his spaceships in recent months have
had issues, including one of his ships trying
to launch and creating a massive fireball
instead.
The ship was fine and it was revealed that
a leak in a system caused a fireball, but
still, it delayed future plans by a significant
margin.
Which is why many aren't exactly believing
that Elon Musk is going to reach the moon
in the next few years because of the uncertainty
of space travel and all the dangers that can
go along with it.
But, that doesn't mean that NO ONE may be
able to reach the moon in the next few years...
Before we dive more into what we mean by that
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Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, you know
the major website where you likely have bought
more things than you care to admit?
And throughout his life, he's had a fascination
with space.
So much so that it was him who found the Apollo
11 Engines that were jettisoned during the
launch of the legendary mission.
But unlike many, he's not looking to Mars
(unlike NASA and SpaceX among others), he
feels that humanity has a lot to get from
the moon itself.
Not to mention he feels it'd be better and
cheaper to try and launch a colony mission
there versus one to Mars.
And technically, he is right.
The problem for a moon colony mission has
always been whether we could work with the
limited survival resources there.
But for Bezos and others, they're looking
at the more financial reasoning to go there.
Because what the moon lakes in atmosphere
and water, it makes up for in: cobalt, gold,
helium, iron, palladium, platinum, tungsten
and other resources.
However, just because he thinks the moon is
better doesn't mean it's any easier to get
there.
Except, that he has a way to possible do it
better, cheaper, and of course, put him and
Amazon on the map once again in a big way.
He calls it...Blue Origin.
What is Blue Origin?
Well, that would be Jeff Bezos' personal space
company (not unlike what Elon Musk has with
SpaceX), and what he is working on is a reusable
engine that wouldn't just send astronauts
to the moon, but also send tourists into space.
All of which would help make Bezos billions
of dollars in contracts from various space
agencies since his rockets are currently very
advanced.
Plus, having reusable rockets saves time from
having to build individual ones for each mission.
Which obviously can be very costly as well.
Has he actually proven that his rockets work?
Yes, actually he has, he has two rockets that
he has both in the works and is also testing.
One of them is the 59-foot New Shepherd Model.
This is the one that he aims to use to put
people into space.
In May of 2019 he launched and landed one
of these powerful rockets without any issue.
Early speculation states that he could go
and put people into space very soon.
Possibly even during 2020 should things work
out.
However, he's not stopping there, he's also
working on a model known as New Glenn, which
is 310-feet-tall, and can go much farther
than the New Shepherd Model.
If this was to be launched, it would be the
biggest space vehicle every put into space
(the International Space Station doesn't count
for the record).
Should it work, it could be the definitive
vehicle to take man back to the moon, and
the vehicle that we start putting our hopes
of moon colonization on.
it's still early to say it'll go that far,
but Bezos is most definitely banking on that.
If you think that Bezos is stopping with two
different kinds of rockets that could land
man on the moon...you clearly don't understand
just how determined this man is to get into
the space race in his own way.
During a presentation in Washington DC he
went into detail on some of the things that
Blue Origin is working on to help get man
back to the moon.
One of those things was a new Lunar Lander
that could help get materials from the spaceships
they make to the surface without much difficulty.
So why does that matter?
Simple, NASA is wanting to get back to the
moon by 2024, and so if Bezos is able to make
his lander say by...2021?
Prove it could work on the moon and more?
That saves NASA a TON of time and money trying
to make their own to take care of their astronauts.
As they say, many hands make light work.
And Bezos is going all out to try and make
sure that enough work is done so they can
launch with his stuff as soon as possible.
This is the kind of collaboration that Elon
Musk is actually trying to push for.
Why have all of these space agencies working
against each other in a race to places when
we can take bits of technology from each and
cover the distance in half the time?
That's honestly what's going on with the Mars
missions right now in many ways, so imagine
what could happen if Musk, Bezos and NASA
worked together on the moon mission?
Which of course begs the question of, what
would it take to make a colony on the moon
in some capacity, right?
Let's start with the basics, we would need
to get supplies to the moon for construction.
We kind of have that taken care of via the
shuttles, engines, and more.
Not to mention Elon Musk is working on "space
cranes" right now that can help with construction
on other planets.
No, seriously, he's working on that.
But that's just the first hurdle of the lot.
Once we get the materials on the moon, we'd
need to start building everything.
Which as people on the International Space
Station will tell you is not easy.
If you lose a tool, you can't just pick it
up.
Gravity is 6 times lighter on the moon than
on the Earth, so that'll put a stress on construction.
This says nothing of the scale of the production
itself.
We'd need to make sure it was big enough to
fill a whole colony worth of people.
That means having it stand a great height,
as well as a great width and length.
Obviously it wouldn't need to fit a whole
city for the first one, but that would be
the goal eventually.
Even a town of a colony with like 100 people
would need to be big enough to fit that amount
of people comfortably.
That's not easy.
Is it doable?
Sure, why not?
But it's about time effort, money, and more,
and that adds up in the long-term.
Speaking of long-term, to survive on the moon
long-term we'd need a power source.
It'd need to be some kind of generator, maybe
one powered by solar energy.
After all, we couldn't possibly do gas or
oil because that would not only be limiting,
if something went wrong it'd be hard to fix.
Or if there is a shortage of oil/gas, we'd
be screwed.
There's also the problem of food and water.
Neither of those happen on the moon naturally
(in the case of water the amount is so small
that it's said that one ton of moon dirt would
have 32 ounces of water at most), so humanity
would need to find a way to make it so we
can have water and food consistently.
Likely by recycling what we have to make water
(which is what astronauts do in space), and
growing food ourselves...somehow.
And at this point, you might be thinking,
"with all of the risks, with all the dangers,
with all the testing and hoping that everything
will work...why do we want to go to the moon
again?"
Simple, because we can, and because we need
to in all the ways that matter.
Right now, the Earth is in a place where we
could use some inspiration and some hope.
Especially with a certain epidemic going on.
But more than that, we need to expand to other
worlds.
That's why people like Musk and the teams
at NASA are trying to get us to Mars.
But, as Bezos has noted time and time again,
the moon is just as valuable a resource if
we do it right.
And that's why we need to get there.
Not only because it'd be easier to colonize
the moon than Mars, but because having ANY
kind of colony on ANY place outside of Earth
is a huge achievement for mankind!
Sure, it won't have immediate benefits as
we're trying to construct everything.
But, if we play it the right way, make things
work, and more, we can go and help get ourselves
to a place where people can honestly live
on the moon.
And isn't that worth it?
Many people believe that it is, and that's
one of the biggest things here, we're trying
to inspire belief again.
Belief in what we can do, and belief in what
the human race can achieve if we push hard
enough.
Love him or hate him, Elon Musk has belief,
and he's pushing things hard and trying to
set these perceived "crazy" things because
he knows that if he accomplishes them, he's
going to inspire people.
And that's what Elon Musk loves to do, inspire.
Now, who is going to get to the moon first?
Who knows.
And honestly, who cares?
It shouldn't be a race, it should be that
we get there, and we advance ourselves WHEN
we get there.
We have a chance to get back to the place
that we dreamed about for so long and then
took for granted.
It's time to fix that mistake and turn the
moon into our next proving ground for life
beyond Earth.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these missions to the
Moon that are in the works right now?
Who do YOU think will get there first, Elon,
Bezos, or NASA?
Do you hope that we'll get a moon colony one
day?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure
to like or Dislike the video, and I'll see
you next time !
