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Virgin Galactic CEO and Space Flight Tycoon Richard Branson (not the other one whom we usually cover) really wants to get our asses to Mahs. While there’s obviously a few more pressing concerns our senators and politicians are haggling each other about, his intentions seem to have paid off — according to The Huffington Post, Branson believes that getting a population of humans Mars in his lifetime (he’s 62 now) is more than possible. “It will happen,” he says. Gotta admire that infallible confidence he at least seems to project.
Although Branson is only one of a small handful of burgeoning space tour entrepreneurs, his Virgin Galactic spaceline has acquired more publicity than all the other combined. It may also play a significant part in helping secure the future of humankind.
Thus far, Branson and his associates have declined to comment on exactly when the tourist flights will start, but by all accounts test flights have been successful. The point is: is it really necessary? Especially now, in the midst of an ever-widening global economy in crisis?
NASA doesn’t seem to be discussing the colonization issue much– despite their successful foray onto The Red Planet with the Curiosity Rover — largely because of bureaucratic bullshit, and various politicians putting it on the back burner.
This lack of funds, combined with Branson’s relentless confidence and childlike enthusiasm for space travel, might be our best hope. Several customers have already paid to make the venture, and while it’s both insanely expensive (the cheapest flights start at $200,000 for 2 hours), as well as a far cry from the hypersleep chambers of sci-fi like Aliens and Avatar, it is undeniably a step in the right direction (this is space travel!). Branson himself meanwhile has said that it’s nothing short of ‘absolutely realistic’ and that “it will happen.” Despite Obama having cut funding to space travel, he’s also optimistic: “You’ve got a Democratic party who have decided, ‘Let’s now let private enterprises take this forward — I think they’re absolutely right,” he said in an interview with CBS last week. “The private companies can do it at a fraction of the price.”
And despite the media and public attention hangups on capitalism gone awry as of late, here’s one instance when capitalism and that 1% may be just what we need — despite public outcry claiming otherwise. Five or six years ago and before the Great Recession, when Bush was hyping travel to Mars as a certainty, it didn’t seem unthinkable. Now with an ever-widening gap between the middle class and the wealthiest in our country, there’s a bit of a silver lining: sure, it’s just tourism — but the more that do it, the more lucrative an industry it becomes, the closer the human race gets to Martian soil.
After all, Carl Sagan believed that space travel and getting to other planets was an absolute necessity for humankind – largely because of the omnipresent threat of nuclear war. Several scientists and astrophysicists, including Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, are inclined to agree.
And while scientists project that making Martian air breathable is looking logically a good long way away — and that a human colony on the Red Planet isn’t that much closer, it’s somewhat of a relief to know that as of this past weekend NASA is supposedly dead serious about getting a moonbase on Mars. With the ongoing threat of an uncooperative Tehran — whom respected international scholars like Chritsopher Hitchens believed are a nuclear threat to the world — as well as a Middle East in constant unrest, and the world population of course ballooning more and more out of control, it’s also imperative.
Let’s not leave out, also, the various doomsday scenarios projected by scientists — the most generous of which project radiation poisoning/global greenhouse effect on Earth within the next several million years from the expansion of the sun. While the end of the Earth may be far off, the end of the Human race seems a great deal closer. Here’s one area where the 1% could be a key to helping secure our future in their own way, and maybe even a chance to make turn the words ‘venture capitalism’ into a truly meaningful term.
Branson’s expectations of seeing the Martian colony of his dreams seem admittedly far-fetched, but maybe not as much as we think. For a more detailed treatise on what he hopes to achieve with his spaceline and Mars, check out this article he wrote for his website recently. RedColony is another website dedicated to logistically exploring the benefits and consequences of a terraformed Mars, as well as how soon we can expect it.
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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