So You Want to Go to Mars

There are a lot of billionaires, major corporations, resources and technologies aligning right now to make Mars colonization possible within our lifetime. The opportunity is becoming real. The risk is still very great, but the rewards are unimaginable. The Martians colonists will be the start of a completely new human society based on sustainable principles. All of the estimates are that significant steps will be made and a human may step foot on Mars in the next 20 years. Now that is exciting!

SpaceX

SpaceX founder unveils plan to send 80,000 people to Mars

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, has announced an ambitious plan to colonize Mars by shuttling 80,000 pioneers to the Red Planet at a cost of $500,000 a trip. The first phase of the program, which is contingent on the development of reusable rocket that can take off and land vertically, would start off modestly with only a handful of explorers leaving Earth at a time. But in short order, the self-sustaining population could grow into something far greater.

• "At Mars, you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big," - Elon Musk
  

The announcement was made by the billionaire Musk to an audience at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on November 16, 2012. He was there to talk about his business plans and to receive the Society's gold medal for helping to advance the commercial space industry.

SpaceX is the world's fastest-growing provider of launch services. With nearly 50 launches on its manifest, representing more than $4 billion in contracts, SpaceX continues to push the boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft.

At 9:34 a.m. PDT on March 26, 2013, SpaceX's Dragon returned safely from its second official resupply mission to the International Space Station, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean about 200 miles off the coast of southern California. The spacecraft brought back nearly 3,200 lbs of station cargo and packaging, including space station hardware, supplies and scientific samples. Dragon is the only spacecraft capable of returning a payload of this size to Earth.

SpaceX founder looking for 'colonists', must love space travel. 

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/337983#ixzz2ZMsO4oxu

MARS ONE

The mission, a private venture by the Dutch non-profit organization Mars One, aims to send a crew to the Red Planet in 2022

• More than 78,000 people want to go to Mars -- forever.
• The non-profit group "Mars One" says it is getting flooded with applications to help them set-up a colony on the red planet.
• Only four people will actually get to go.
• You have to send in a one-minute video if you'd like to be considered.
• Take a look at some of the applicants so far at Mars-One.com.
  

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Link: http://amzn.com/0452011876

Atlas Shrugged explores a dystopian United States where many of society's most productive citizens refuse to be exploited by increasing taxation and government regulations and disappear, shutting down their vital industries. The disappearances evoke the imagery of what would happen if the mythological Atlas refused to continue to hold up the sky.

The theme of Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is "the role of man's mind in existence". The book explores a number of philosophical themes from which Rand would subsequently develop Objectivism. In doing so, it expresses the advocacy of reason, individualism, capitalism, and the failures of governmental coercion.

• My question, "WHAT IF SOCIETY'S MOST PRODUCTIVE CITIZENS LEFT EARTH AND STARTED A COLONY ON MARS?"

Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin 

Link: http://amzn.com/1426210175

Sixty-six years after the Wright Brothers made history at Kitty Hawk, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the moon. From that pivotal moment on, Aldrin has advocated for continued and expanded space exploration. Now, he argues that 66 years after the Eagle landed at Tranquility Base, Americans should establish a presence on Mars.

And not just for a single trip or a moment in history. In Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration, Aldrin calls for systematic investment to establish a cycle of transportation and sustained, permanent settlements on the Red Planet.

PLANETARY RESOURCES

http://www.planetaryresources.com/mission/

What if the greatest discovery of natural resources didn't take place on Earth?

There are near-limitless numbers of asteroids and more being discovered every year. More than 1,500 are as easy to reach as the Moon and are in similar orbits as Earth. Asteroids are filled with precious resources, everything from water to platinum. Harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity's prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space.  Check out the YouTube video: http://youtu.be/7fYYPN0BdBw 

ONE ASTEROID MAY CONTAIN MORE PLATINUM THAN HAS BEEN MINED IN ALL OF HISTORY.

WATER SOURCED FROM ASTEROIDS WILL GREATLY ENABLE THE LARGE-SCALE EXPLORATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

Peter H. Diamandis, M.D.

Planetary Resources Co-Founder, Co-Chairman

Dr. Diamandis is an international pioneer in the commercial space arena, having founded and run many of the leading entrepreneurial companies in the sector. He is Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, best known for its $10 million Ansari X PRIZE for private spaceflight. He is also the Executive Chairman of Singularity University based in Silicon Valley.

Ayn Rand on Art and Creativity

A tenent that I particularly appreciate in Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism is that the stated role of art in human life is to transform man's widest metaphysical ideas, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form—a work of art—that he can comprehend and to which he can respond emotionally.


Ayn Rand said, “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”

Some Notable Ayn Rand Quotes

I heard the following quote on a recent episode of Criminal Minds television show. I am a big fan of this TV show and a much bigger fan of Ayn Rand. I read Ayn Rands' The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged in college; both books had a big impact on me. It has been a while since I thought about Ayn Rand and so I felt a compulsion to record this excellent quote.

“Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.”

The last two sentences of the quote were not mentioned in the Criminal Minds episode. Of course, the FBI agents would not have much to do if they followed the last bit of advice.
My challenge is to "leave them alone" as Ayn Rand says. Definitely a tough one for me. I am a student of reason and find it frustrating when I encounter someone who denies reason. It is almost a feeling of religious zealotry that grips me. I feel the need to convert the person to a belief in reason. This is especially difficult for me in dealing with my father who I feel often denies reason for the sole purpose of winnning an argument.

“The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”

Then we come to this quote about truth and the persons who seek it. This tempers my need to convert people to the belief in reason because it is also the path of the truth seeker. Who am I to force someone on the path to seek truth? Truth can only be found by following reason. Therefore, someone who denies reason has no interest in the truth. Do you agree?

What about religious truth? Can this be found using reason? The Buddhists believe this. The seeker applies intellect, logic and reason to the path of truth in order to test all assumptions and relative truths. It is only after exhausting these tools that we come to the end of the path and find the absolute truth which is beyond logic and reason.

Teyata Om Gate Gate Para Gate Para Sohm Gate Bodhi Swaha

This is the great mantra from the "Heart Sutra" also known as the Prajnaparamita Sutra. It means Beyond, Beyond, The Great Beyond, Beyond That Beyond, Awaken, Rejoice!

Ayn Rand reminds us that reason is the source of all great creative acts. Can we include the "highest religious abstraction" among the artifacts of our reason as she states? Some may have a problem with this. I believe this is true, because language itself is a product of reason.

“From the smallest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from one attribute of man -- the function of his reasoning mind.”

The Buddha says that words [religious abstraction] are but fingers pointing at the moon. They are not the moon itself. The intent is to look at the moon and not focus on the fingers. In this way, the religious abstraction, an artifact of reason, can point to the absolute truth beyond the reasoning mind.

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others”

Which brings us to creative compassion, or compassionate creativity. This is the foundation of Ayn Rand's philosophy. The reasoning mind, with its tremendous power to create is motivated by compassion. A wonderful, beautiful and hopeful thought indeed. Something that is needed especially in troubling times when world finance is controlled not by compassionate creative people, but by destructive, anti-creative scammers (anti-truth seekers) motivated by greed.