SpaceX employees have put their lives on the line to meet the aggressive pace of work that Chief Executive Elon Musk has demanded in pursuit of a Mars mission, according to a Reuters investigation.
The report documented over 600 previously undisclosed workplace injuries at SpaceX facilities since 2014, which Reuters said are only a part of the total number that is not publicly available.
Reuters examined injury logs and public records from the company’s six biggest facilities. SpaceX had not reported much of the injury data previously, in violation of regulatory standards. The investigation also included interviews with dozens of current and former SpaceX employees.
Among the injury data that Reuters gathered, over 100 workers experienced cuts or lacerations, 29 broke or dislocated bones, 17 had their hands and fingers crushed and nine had some form of serious head injury.
Colonizing Mars during this century seems so braindead to me. There are lots of issues, such as:
-Lack of substantial life support resources- it would be difficult to make oxygen or water from the elements on Mars.
-High surface radiation levels mean structures need to be underground
-It takes a very long time to shuttle supplies between Earth and Mars, and it would be unfathomably expensive.
-The tendency for humans to lose their minds in isolation means we need to use robots, develop “hypersleep”, or build an elaborate and expensive base to keep humans entertained.
-The red planet is hostile to electronics. There are miles and miles of dust to clog up devices, and high wind speeds could damage above ground structures. Wind+dust=static, which is the arch nemesis of computer technology.
Let’s start with solving climate change, living on the moon, or mining asteroids and see how it goes.
“ I’ve definitely considered all those things and ruled them out as problems.” -Elon Musk, probably
You forgot radiation in between Earth and Mars. Even if we can address things planet side, there’s a long journey to cover. Also, extended periods in space leave bodies weak when they return to gravity; astronauts are carried out on cushions when they land, but there won’t be anyone to do that on Mars.
We definitely need to get moon operations down first.