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NASA, in collaboration with other leading space agencies, aims to send its first human missions to Mars in the early 2030s, while companies like SpaceX may do so even earlier. Astronauts on Mars will need oxygen, water, food, and other consumables. These will need to be sourced from Mars, because importing them from Earth would be impractical in the long term. In Frontiers in Microbiology, scientists show for the first time that Anabaena cyanobacteria can be grown with only local gases, water, and other nutrients and at low pressure. This makes it much easier to develop sustainable biological life support systems.

If it was any other plutocrat I’d be disgusted. But Musk is pumping HIS OWN MONEY into SpaceX (and the space sector in general).

After SO MANY YEARS of INEXCUSABLY low levels of funding for human space flight — and for the creation of absolutely critical space infrastructure — I am EXTACTIC at the news!

I don’t always agree with the guy, but I DO deeply believe in what he’s trying to accomplish. I believe in his aspirations for our species. MOST IMPORTANTLY, unlike most of his peers with vaguely similar aims, I believe he can ACTUALLY ACOMPLISH his goals.

Which is WHY this is such great news. The more resources he has, the sooner we become what we are meant to be (or at least what we NEED to be) — a multi planet spacefaring civilization that doesn’t have all it’s eggs in one basket.


WASHINGTON — NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX Feb. 9 for the launch of the first two elements of its lunar Gateway on a Falcon Heavy in 2024.

NASA will use a Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Power and Propulsion Element (PPE) and Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) modules of the Gateway, destined for the near-rectilinear halo orbit around moon. The contract with SpaceX is valued at $331.8 million for the launch and “other mission-related costs.”