Category Archives: Mars Colonization

In the atmosphere of our moon, there is not enough oxygen to breathe. But researchers believe that the top layer of the satellites surface, made up of the famous regolith, could contain enough of this element necessary for human life to allow colonization. As long as you can extract it!

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[EN VIDO] Space colonization: natural shelters hiding under the surface of Mars and the Moon A recent study reinforces the idea that lava tunnels beneath the surface of Mars and the Moon will provide excellent shelter for future space explorers.

A big step forward. Then a small step back. This is the cadence given several months ago to the reverberation of the waltz on our return to the moon. Even if the main goal remains: to build a long-term manned base on our natural satellite. While NASA just postponed the deadline for its file Artemis program until 2025China and Russia plan to start lunar station construction from 2026. Before that, it will be necessary to ensure the availability of some vital resources. Water of course. but alsoOxygen.

I remember thatAtmosphere weve got moon weak. Mainly composed ofhydrogen, from neon Andargon. Whereas, what man needs is above all else.. oxygen. And indeed, some are thinking of solutions for its on-site production. European Space Agency (ESA)This is amazing), for example, but also the Australian Space Agency and NASA are developing technologies capable of extracting Contrition The moon, that layer of rocks, pebbles, stones or fine dust that covers the surface of the moon.

Because on our satellite, we find a lot of metal containing oxygen: silica or iron oxides or magnesium, for example. Found in intact original form. It has not been changed, as it is on our earth, by living things which, in a few million years, would have transformed it into suitable soil.

So there will be, on the Moon, a huge reserve of oxygen. How wonderful? Ok, According to the researchersThe regolith will consist of about 45% oxygen. But if we look only at the surface because its still hard to tell whats in the deep rocks each cubic meter of regolith contains on average 1.4 tons of minerals. or the equivalent of 630 kilograms oxygen. It is enough to allow a person to breathe for about two years.

Assuming a regolith depth of ten metres, the Moon could provide eight billion human settlers with enough oxygen to live about 100,000 years. A number that can be tempered by the efficiency with which our engineers can extract oxygen from the regolith. Because to recover this precious item, it will be necessary to muster a lot ofenergy To break the close relationships he tends to form. via electrolysis, for example.

On Earth, enough oxygen plentiful in the air that we breathe, as a byproduct of electrolysis. On the moon, it will become its main product. The researchers plan to make the process sustainable by relying onsolar energy, especially. However, it does not seem so simple. Because before conducting electrolysis, it found metal oxides on the moon in the form solid It can be converted to liquid form. Starting from the heat, among other things. This is done on the ground. But getting all the useful equipment to the moon and getting it to work there is still a challenge today.

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The Moon contains enough oxygen to allow 8 billion people to breathe for 100,000 years - Vaughan Today

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musks SpaceX on Wednesday docked space agency NASAs Crew-3 mission astronauts with the International Space Station nearly a day after the mission was launched.

What Happened: SpaceXs Falcon 9 capsule autonomously docked with the ISS at 06:32 p.m. ET, uniting the four Crew-3 astronauts with the three crew members aboard the space station that orbits on, average, 248 miles above earth.

See Also: Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches 4 Crew-3 Astronauts To Space

The space agency shared a short clip of the moment when the Crew-3 astronauts passed through the hatch to the orbiting laboratory.

After a six-month stay, Dragon and the Crew-3 astronauts would leave the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth.

Crew-3 is SpaceXs third operational crewed flight for NASA and the fifth human spaceflight mission that SpaceX has launched since May 2020.

The Big Picture:SpaceX and NASA are working on multiple projects including a $2.9 billion lunar landing contract. Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and has in the past said he remains highly confident that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceX

2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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SpaceX Docks Crew-3 Astronauts With International Space Station Nearly A Day After Taking Flight - Benzinga

SponsorGoalsRewardInternational Mars MissionHave 30 Colonists on Mars 1 Basic Dome prefabHave a Martianborn Colonist 5 free supply podsBuild a Machine Parts Factory, a Polymer Factory and an Electronics Factory 30 Engineer ApplicantsGenerate 3,000 Research points per Sol 30 Scientist ApplicantsHave 10 Martianborn Specialists 1 Mega Dome prefabUSAAnalyze 5 map Anomalies 100 Sponsor ResearchResearch 10 technologies 5 free supply podsGenerate 2,000 Research points per Sol 1 Mega Trigon Dome prefabResearch 5 Breakthrough technologies 3 Genius ApplicantsDeep scan 30 Sectors 2 Hawking Institute prefabsBlue Sun CorporationSpend $5,000 M Funding 2 Stirling Generator prefabsExport $2,000 M worth of Rare Metals 1,000MHave 5 Smart Complexes 5 Celebrity ApplicantsHave 20 Colonists with the Tourist Trait 60 Tourist ApplicantsGenerate $10,000 M within 5 Sols 10,000 Research pointsChinaProduce 100 Food 100 ApplicantsHave 50 specialists 30 Drone prefabsHave 300 Colonists on Mars 2,000MHave 40 Colonists with all needs about 70 1 Medium Dome prefabHave 8 operational Domes 10,000 Research pointsIndiaConstruct a Dome by the end of Sol 5 4 Moisture Vaporator prefabsProduce 50 Polymers 25 Drone prefabsHave a total of 200 Buildings 1,000MHave 4 Domes with Spires 8,000 Research pointsConvert 1,000 Waste Rock to useful materials 2,000MEuropeResearch 5 Physics technologies 1 Triboelectric Scrubber prefabHave 20 Scientists 3 Genius ApplicantsHave 2 Hawking Institutes 1 Network Node prefabHave 50 Martianborn Scientists New RocketGenerate 10,000 Research points per Sol 3,000MSpaceYGenerate 100 Energy 1 Atomic Accumulator prefabRefuel a rocket the same Sol it lands 15 Drone prefabsResearch 8 Engineering technologies 20 Workaholic Engineer ApplicantsAnalyze 7 Planetary Anomalies 2,000MHave 3 Biorobotics Workshops 10,000 Research pointsChurch of the New ArkProduce 50 Food 1,000MHave 10 Founders at 90 Comfort 100 Sponsor ResearchHave 20 Martianborn Colonists by the end of Sol 50 3 Saint ApplicantsProduce 40 Electronics New RocketHave 120 Colonists with all needs above 80 3,000MRussiaDiscover 8 underground deposits 8 free supply podsProduce 50 Concrete in a single Sol 4 Apartment prefabsExtract 200 Metals from an underground deposits 2,000MHave 3 extractors working at 160 Performance +40% price for Rare MetalsDeep scan 50 Sectors 10,000 Research pointsParadox InteractiveResearch 2 Breakthrough technologies 5 free supply podsLand a Colonist on Mars by Sol 15 1 Jumper Shuttle Hub prefabAnalyze 30 map Anomalies New RocketConstruct a Mega Dome 10,000 Research pointsResearch 9 Breakthrough technologies 3,000MBrazilLand a Colonist on Mars by Sol 15 4,000 Research pointsExport 60 Rare Metals by the end of Sol 30 10 free supply podsHave 4 Domes with Spires 1 Fusion Reactor prefabHave a Dome connected to 3 other Domes 3 Celebrity ApplicantsHave a Dome with more than 200 Colonists 3,000MJapanHave 6 Sensor Towers 15 Drone prefabsBuild a Machine Parts Factory, a Polymer Factory and an Electronics Factory 1 Martian University prefabHave 40 Martianborn specialists 200 Sponsor ResearchDeep scan 100 Sectors 1 Mega Trigon Dome prefabProduce 2,000 advanced resources 2,000MTerraforming InitiativeResearch 8 Terraforming technologies 100 Sponsor Research25% Temperature terraforming progress2 Small Lake prefabs35% overall terraforming progress 10,000 Research points60% Water terraforming progress New RocketConstruct a Capital City 200 Enthusiast Applicants

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Elon Musk is the worlds richest man and the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Hes also one more thing: Mars colonization enthusiast. Elon Musk will not stop tweeting about Mars and how humanity should move from Earth to the Red planet. Elon Musk has mentioned his plans of taking humans to Mars for a while, and it appears his agenda isnt stopping anytime soon. Musk has always been very vocal about his Martian ambitions - Elon Musk had mentioned his plans of taking humans to Mars for a while and has even set a timeline for it. Musk who had mentioned colonizing Mars several times, also announced that he wants to make his own laws on the red planet. But what do we really know about Musks plans on a self-sustaining civilization on the planet?

In February this year, for the first time ever, Musk specifically mentioned a time-line to get humans on the red planet. Five and a half years," Musk had said. While thats not a hard deadline, Musk listed a number of caveats theres a raft of technological advances that must be made in the intervening years. The important thing is that we establish Mars as a self-sustaining civilization," he had said. The strange thing is the deadline may be a little ambitious, as even USAs leading space agency, NASA, had a much more different date, one which is seven years after Musks time. The first humans arent due to arrive on a NASA funded rocket until at least 2033.

Is Musks plan of getting humans to Mars by 2026 too ambitious?

Humans could make the journey if technology allows, and - if they physically survive it. Some of the known risks of space travel arent simple or minor: Along with space sickness, there is radiation high-energy subatomic particles that will pass through an astronauts skin, damaging cells inside and out. Space travellers bones and muscles also can weaken as those body parts no longer have to constantly work against gravity. Blood and other fluids from the lower parts of the body can accumulate in upper body parts, including around the brain. Another side effect: Astronauts may suffer hearing loss.

The question on why Mars specifically, and not another planet has been the centre of many compelling arguments by scientists over the years. A 2017 report in Astronomy explored how, The atmosphere of Mars is mostly carbon dioxide, the surface of the planet is too cold to sustain human life, and the planets gravity is a mere 38% of Earths. Plus, the atmosphere on Mars is equivalent to about 1% of the Earths atmosphere at sea level." Thats not all. Mars temperatures may not be suited for humans either. The average temperatures of Mars oscillate sbetween 35 C to -143 C. The average temperature on the planet surface too is -63 C. How do you warm the planet up? Musk has suggested - terraforming or in his own terms, nuking Mars.

Terraforming or terraformation, which literally means Earth-shaping is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable by Earth-like life. How does Musk plan on terraforming it though? In 2015, Musk had suggested nuking the poles.

Elon Musk explained that we could terraform Mars by exploding nuclear bombs over its polar caps. He had said that the radiation wouldnt be an issue since the explosion would be in space over the poles, but the heat release would vaporize the frozen carbon dioxide to greenhouse warm the planet and melt the water ice. In the follow-up comments to explain his stance, he added other things he had in mind. Musk said his idea was to create two tiny pulsing suns" over the regions. Theyre really above the planet, theyre not on the planet," Musk said at an event for Solar City in New York Citys Times Square this morning. Every few moments, he wants to send a large fusion bomb over the poles, to create small blinking suns. A lot of people dont appreciate that our Sun is a large fusion explosion," he had said, reported The Verge in 2015.

Musks Nuke Mars agenda also had t-shirts. Musk had designed T-shirts to promote his idea to drop nuclear weapons on Mars. Musk revealed the theory of nuking Mars recently which, according to him, will transform the exterior of the planet liveable for human beings. The billionaire CEO was also spotted wearing the T-shirt in his appearance on Saturday Night Live in May this year.

The short answer - no. The more complicated answer hes going, but maybe not first. In an interview with Kara Swisher at the Code Conference 2021 Elon Musk described his space plans, which included a self-sustaining city on Mars, and a base on the Moon for those who want to go there." While Musk, doesnt have immediate plans, and at the interview mentioned, My goal is not to send myself up. My goal is to open up space to humanity and become a multiplanet species," he did add, that Ill go up at some point."

In the February interview where he mentioned a dateline, he was also asked if he would allow his children to go to Mars on a future rocket trip. He had responded if were talking about the third or fourth set of landings on Mars Id be ok with that, adding that so far none of them are jumping to go to Mars.

A November 2020 report in The Independent had found that SpaceX will not be recognising any international law on Mars and will instead follow a set of self-governing principles that will be laid down during the Martian settlement. Elon Musk appears to have very subtly slipped in a clause into the terms of agreement of Starlink satellite broadband services that SpaceX will make its own set of rules on Mars. The Starlink terms of the agreement reads: For services provided on Mars, or in transit to Mars via Starship, or other colonisation spacecraft, the parties recognise Mars as a free planet and that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities. Accordingly, disputes will be settled through self-governing principles, established in good faith, at the time of Martian settlement. The Independent report also added that this future colony created by SpaceX would likely use constellations of Starlink satellites orbiting the planet to provide internet connection. Elon Musks SpaceX has already launched more than 800 satellites with the aim of offering broadband internet globally. The Declaration of the Rights and Responsibilities of Humanity in the Universe, however, mentions that space would be considered free, by all, for all, and to all.

SpaceXs website Mission to Mars explains it with a quote by Musk. You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great - and thats what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. Its about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I cant think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars."

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What Do We Really Know About Elon Musk's Plans of Mars 'Self-Sustaining Civilization'? - News18

Two years ago, the UKs Inmarsat disappeared from public scrutiny, rather like one of its satellites off the launch pad, when it was taken private in a $6.1 billion deal, including debt. Now its private equity owners have agreed a $7.3 billion sale to Viasat, a publicly traded US equivalent whose shares immediately sank a tenth on news of the deal.

Only $850 million of the transaction fee is in cash, it should be noted. For the rest, Viasat is stumping up $3.1 billion in shares and assuming $3.4 billion in net debt. This bumps up Viasats net debt to about five times its annual earnings, although Viasat reckons it can dial the ratio back to a slightly more respectable four within two years of closing the deal.

After a couple of decades spent lost in the communications cosmos, satellites appear to be exciting investors once again thanks in no small part to Elon Musk and the Starlink project he hopes will somehow pay for the colonization of Mars. Viasat and Inmarsat are about as old time as satellite gets, though. The former was founded when Ronald Reagan sat in the White House and the latter before he was even elected president. Both have outlived his Star Wars program.

The big attraction for Viasat seems to be Inmarsats L-band service, which the UK operator has been upgrading to support faster connections with lower-cost devices. These are not the devices you would find in the hands of the average British consumer, but terminals used in shipping, aviation and parts of the government sector. Maritime is probably Inmarsats most important market.

The skys the limit

Viasat believes these L-band assets would handily complement its own Ka-band technology and footprint. Besides supporting some connectivity services for government bodies, and providing broadband in rural communities, it is a big name in in-flight connectivity ensuring not even commercial aircraft are a safe refuge from the Internet. The combination of the two companies and their assets will make it easier to serve their various markets with new and more advanced applications, reckons Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg.

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Viasat sucks Inmarsat into its orbit with $7.3 billion offer Urgent Comms - Urgent Communications

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said on Monday SpaceXs Starship is designed to deliver 1,000 times more payload than all rockets on earth combined.

What Happened: Musk was responding to a Twitter post that shared a Bryce Space Tech report listing the global orbital launches by different operators in the third quarter.

The report ranks SpaceX second in the total payload mass of orbital rocket launches in the third quarter, just below China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The report says CASC deployed about 45,010 kilograms payload in the third quarter, while SpaceX deployed 32,634 kgs with the Falcon 9 rocket fleet.

"Actually, 41 tons for SpaceX in Q3 & aiming for 80 tons in Q4. That said, Chinas launch mass to orbit is extremely impressive," Musk tweeted.

He later said the Starship fleet is capable of delivering 1,000 times more payload than all rockets combined and that almost no one understands this.

Why It Matters: Musk had in July said SpaceX is developing a fully-reusable Starship that can deliver a payload of around 150 tonnes to low Earth Orbit and about 250 tonnes when expendable.

The fully reusable Starship launch system would eventually replace the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX aims to build a fleet of 1,000 reusable Starships over the next two decades.

Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and founded SpaceX with the mission to make humanity multiplanetary. He has in the past said he remains highly confident that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

See Also: Elon Musk Says Will Do His 'Best' To Give Long-Term Tesla Shareholders Preference In Starlink IPO

Photo: Courtesy of SpaceX via Flickr

2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Elon Musk Says SpaceX's Starship Fleet Can Deliver 1000 Times More Payload Than All Rockets On Earth Combined - Benzinga

Elon Musks SpaceX was supposed to revolutionize space travel, reduce the price of interstellar transportation, even lead to the colonization of Mars. Perhaps one day all that will be true. But right now, a SpaceX flight due soon for re-entry on Earth has a little problem: The toilet is broken, and it wont be fixed until after its return. So everyone put their heads together, just like in Apollo 13, and this is the best solution they came up with: Those on board will just have to pee themselves.

As per CNN, SpaceXs Crew Dragon ship which is currently docked at ISIS, the International Space Station, having deposited them there back in April is fine save a leak in the toilet. That will force the four NASA astronauts who will soon be onboard to use their undergarments instead.

Thats not as bad as it may sound. First, the undergarments are essentially diapers anyway, and have long been used as backups on flights. Second, its unknown how long the four will be in flight, though the last such trip took only six hours, though the one before that took 19 hours. Perhaps they can hold it.

This isnt the first toilet leak on the Crew Dragon capsule. On the Inspiration4 mission in September, crew found a tube, that was used to funnel urine into a storage tank, had become unglued, leading to a hidden mess beneath the capsule floor. In fact, all three SpaceX spacecraft have had similar issues, which is probably in no way symbolic of a larger issue.

Musk is one of at least three billionaires whove caught space fever, leading to rivalries, even razzing. But only Musk is the one whos enticed the likes of Tom Cruise and Channing Tatum to potentially join him in the heavens. If they go, however, theyd do well to not chug Big Gulps prior to takeoff.

(Via CNN)

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SpaceX Shuttle Has Broken Toilet, Crew Have To Pee Selves - UPROXX

What a boost

SO much for the scaremongers who demanded crippling Covid curbs for Christmas.

So much for the hysterical mob who screamed: Plan B now!

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The jabs miracle has reduced our R rate to the lowest in Western Europe.

It is below one, so the disease is in retreat.

Cases are falling rapidly, even with kids back at school and life near normal.

Double-jabbed Brits finally entered the US yesterday as the 20-month ban ended.

The tearful reunions at New York airport were magnificent to see.

The vaccines have set us free.

Which makes a mockery of those anti-vax types holding out like flat-Earthers.

And it clinches the argument for urgent mandatory shots for all care sector staff.

Given how vulnerable care homes were last year, what excuse is there for refusing to maximise protection of the old and frail?

THE one way Boris Johnson could worsen his situation over the Owen Paterson fiasco was to dodge yesterdays Commons showdown.

Instead of facing the music, defending himself and his Government, maybe eating humble pie before his angry back-benchers, he went to Northumberland.

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An underling was ordered to take his place as Keir Starmer and others scored again and again into an open goal.

Boris may be calculating that almost no one watched this battering on daytime TV.

He may have thought he had nothing to gain from facing it himself.

But voters WILL notice he ducked it.

Starmer remains woefully poor.

His own much-trumpeted integrity is pure hype. Labours record on sleaze is grim.

But Boris cannot be surprised that his ratings, and the Tory partys, are suffering.

LIKE his fascist and racist father, Max Mosley was a revolting individual.

And we sympathise with Jewish students repulsed by Oxford and other universities taking millions in donations from the familys fortune.

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Given Oxfords normal zeal to disown ancient benefactors over centuries-old offences against modern morality, the hypocrisy is self-evident.

There is arguably more reason to cancel the Mosleys.

Why not ditch ALL woke purges and continue putting the cash to far better use than the bigot Mosley ever would have?

ITS hard to quantify how much a lack of ketchup would hold back mankinds colonisation of Mars.

It wouldnt help, though.

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So it is stratospherically good news that Heinz have figured out how to grow the right tomatoes in dusty Martian soil.

If we can also grow spuds for chips, all the major food groups are covered off.

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The tearful reunions as Brits finally entered the US were magnificent to see... - The Sun

DUE TO inclement weather conditions, Elon Musk's space transportation company had to delay their launch to the International Space Station.

The SpaceX Crew-3 launch was originally scheduled for Halloween morning.

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The original SpaceX Crew-3 launch date was October 31, 2021, but because of current weather conditions, the team had to push the date of the launch.

On November 3, 2021, at 1.10am ET, Crew-3 is set to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Around 11pm the same day, they should arrive in space at the International Space Station.

The delay comes following reports of a storm set to travel across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast this weekend, resulting in elevated winds and waves in the Atlantic Ocean. This directly interferes with the flight path.

Live Blog

According to SpaceX, good weather is required up the Eastern Seaboard and across the North Atlantic for crew launches.

If something should go wrong, the crew might need to make an emergency splashdown.

SpaceX Crew-3 consists of NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron and ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer.

The astronauts will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center on the SpaceX Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket.

While in space, the crew is set for a long-duration science mission. They are scheduled to return to Earth in April of 2022.

Currently, in space, SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Akihiko Hoshide, and Thomas Pesquet are set to return sometime in November.

On Twitter, Pesquet wrote:

"Mixed emotions Im sure but hey you get a few more days to soak in the sun , the wind on your face , showers , and normal food . Were waiting for you up here: the skies are always clear in orbit!"

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Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer, space transportation services, and communications corporation.

Located in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX strives to reduce space-traveling costs to one day enable the colonization of Mars.

In 2001, Musk announced a project known as Mars Oasis, in which he hoped to grow plants on Mars.

Following a trip to Russia to buy cheap rockets for the project, Musk left empty-handed.

It was then he realized he could create his own company to build the affordable rockets he was looking for.

His main goal for the company is reportedly to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of travel into space.

SpaceX has earned several achievements throughout the years, including being the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station in 2012.

The company is currently developing Starship, a reusable launch system for spaceflight.

Starship is set to debut sometime in the early 2020s.

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When is the SpaceX Crew-3 launch?... - The Sun

Flick through a news feed on your phone and you are likely to scroll across an article discussing the heated rivalries of the new space race. Forget the geopolitical struggles of a cold war. This time, its Tesla CEO Elon Musk versus Amazon founder Jeff Bezos: the two richest men in the world duking it out over whether SpaceX or Blue Origin, their respective companies, will be the dominant force in the new industry of private space flight.

Occasionally, Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic gets a mention too, but the Brit being a relative pauper, and his space plane lacking the phallic majesty of his fellow billionaires rockets, he has received diminishing attention in recent weeks.

The Musk v Bezos rivalry makes for good press and is stoked occasionally in tweets by both parties, but is it real? Probably not, according to our research, published in the book The New Patriarchs of Digital Patriarchy: Celebrity Tech Founders and Networks of Power, which analyses 95 popular books about the technology industry.

It is easy to see that, at a basic level, Musks and Bezoss stated plans for space domination are complementary, rather than competitive. Bezos dismisses Musks plan to colonize Mars as unrealistic, while Musk thinks it will take too long to build the infrastructure for the giant orbiting space stations that Bezos proposes. Read between the lines and you can see how they had been rhetorically dividing up the space industry into separate monopolies even before their rockets broke the Karman line one definition of where outer space begins.

The reality is that, as with other technology billionaires, such as Alphabets Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg or even Palantirs Peter Thiel, their interests align more often than they diverge. This new space race is partly a celebrity publicity stunt to generate clickbait headlines that build public awareness of, and popular support for, a new commercial frontier. If we focus on the rivalry and keep asking whos winning, perhaps we wont ask the big whys of commercial space colonization.

In general, there is little in the tech barons interest to actually work against one another. Writing in his 2014 book Zero to One, Thiel has claimed that competition is a relic of history, and because a competitive market is seen as fundamental to capitalism, monopolists lie to protect themselves. These billionaires, all monopolists, may indeed use their celebrity profiles to create the illusion of competition where there is none. Google co-founder Larry Page also stated in a speech that Silicon Valleys billionaires travel as if they are pack dogs and stick to each other like glue.

We learned through our research that the west coast billionaires that dominate the tech industry do indeed support each other financially and strategically. We carried out a digital search of a 10 million word database, containing the books we investigated, which is known as a broad context collocation. The algorithm searched for instances in which the entrepreneurs were listed together, and sorted it by context such as collaboration, rivalry, friendship, political lobbying and philanthropy. This helped us identity a dense network, which you can see in the diagram.

So while Bezos and Musk havent directly financially supported each other, they are part of a wider system that has. Bezos was an early funder of Google, and in turn Googles founders put money into Musks ventures from as early as 2006. As Ashlee Vance writes in his biography of Musk, Google underwrote Tesla to the tune of $5 billion (3.6 billion) in 2013 when it looked as if it was about to go under, as well as investing large sums in SpaceX at critical moments.

There are plenty of good reasons to be exploring space, but we just dont know if these billionaires will prioritize profit or science, benefits to humanity or a much narrower substratum of the wealthy. The signs dont look good, as Musk launches thousands of Starlink satellites that risk turning low earth orbit into a junk yard. Meanwhile, the ten minutes of weightlessness offered by Bezos are a luxury affordable only to the 0.01% not to mention being damaging for our planet.

As a group, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs present a shared belief in using technological solutions to social problems. Social media platforms are designed to better connect us by fostering divisions, and spaceships offer a way to escape a planet that may no longer be able to comfortably support us. These solutions and the problems they purport to solve have been presented to us, since the days of Steve Jobs, the late chairman of Apple, as the result of the vision of the genius founder an awkward, but dazzling leader: a mythic figure who expands the frontiers of human endeavor. It started with home computers, then went online and now it is soaring into space.

Instead of dividends (another relic, like competition), these businesses are valued in headlines, tweets and vision. Tesla is the most valuable car company in the world based almost entirely on Musks celebrity inspiring a legion of fans to invest in the company. Amazon is a ruthless monopoly that secured its early market lead after aggressive tax avoidance and punishing hours for its staff. But because Bezos is framed as an inspirational CEO, a culture of overwork has been transformed into the can-do spirit of the American frontier.

These entrepreneurs tell us compelling stories about their lives, their businesses and their vision. We will never know if they are true, manicured and coiffured as they are through one of the most successful publicity machines in history. So if we find ourselves swimming in clickbait about these men, its not incidental that we find them alongside celebrity news: its absolutely fundamental to their business strategies and thus a key source of their wealth and power.

Written by Ben Little, Lecturer in Media and Cultural Politics, University of East Anglia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Why the Musk vs. Bezos space feud is probably fake - The Next Web