[ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7]

> I can imagine

That probably does require some imagination. Starting with any incentive to do so.

[testing22321]

Elon just said starship will do the entire moon mission:

“Starship will end up doing the whole Moon mission. Mark my words.”

To address your question, what is the incentive for going to Mars

[hermitcrab]

And he is super well known for making accurate predictions of the future.

[Levitating]

I do mark his words. He also said he would revolutionize travel in LA (by reinventing the metro). He also said rocket travel would replace air travel. He also said we'd have a martian colony by now.

There's a website dedicated to the empty promises Elon has made. Can't find it though, anyone remember?

Edit: https://elonmusk.today/

[dylan604]

>To address your question, what is the incentive for going to Mars

To occupy it. Just look at Musk's t-shirt. Isn't the entire point of SpaceX to go to Mars? Everything else they do is just steps in achieving the occupation of Mars.

[jbmchuck]

He's also said we'd have humans on Mars in 2022...

[nitwit005]

Look into the history of Elon's promises around Mars. While I wish his promises meant something, they do not.

[rurp]

The incentive to talk about going to Mars is that it's great propaganda for nerds. It gets people interested in the company and willing to work hard for below market pay. Actually going to Mars doesn't make any sense in the foreseeable future. The idea that we're going to setup a colony on the planet in a few years is a fun fantasy, not a serious plan.

[bdangubic]

if I had a dollar for every time Elon said mark my words and nothing was “marked” I’d be richer than him

[Laremere]

SpaceX's lander bid was in large part so competitive because they were already planning on developing 90% of the technology anyways. Low earth orbit service was developed for NASA, but has found other paying customers. The moon has to have more people who would be interested in paying. Also the moon remains a good stepping stone for technological development for getting people to Mars, the stated main goal of the company. Also it's almost certainly not happening in the next few years anyways so they may only need to wait for the next administration.

[inglor_cz]

Now recall what the incentive to put the first man on the Moon was...

[TriangleEdge]

SpaceX advert on the moon, giant and bright for the world to see every night for the next 50 years.

[bsenftner]

This reminds me of in The Tick series. A villain named Chairface Chippendale, a sophisticated criminal mastermind with a distinctive chair for a head. Chairface decided to leave his mark on history - literally - by carving his entire name into the surface of the moon. Using incredibly powerful Geissman Lenses that could focus candlelight into an intense heat ray, he managed to carve out "CHA" before being stopped by The Tick and his allies. Musk is a comic book personality.

[nialse]

Imagine hurt egos with deep pockets and it ain’t that hard.

[CursedSilicon]

Cheaper for them to just whine to the orange painted king, at least right now