"SpaceX starts selling trips to Mars"

[speak easy]

Rocket Report: Firefly lights the markets up; SpaceX starts selling trips to Mars

"Get on board! We are going to Mars!"
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/08/rocket-report-firefly-lights-the-markets-up-spacex-starts-selling-ships-to-mars/

[FalloutShelter]

1. LOLOL

Another grift. No one is going to Mars.

[Submariner]

4. But the Netflix Series using internal Musk corporate info

of colossal screw ups released by disgruntled fired former employees will be epic.

[Prairie Gates]

2. You can bundle with the "Submarine to Titanic" package

Bon Voyage!

[tanyev]

3. You'd think the super-rich would be harder to grift, but apparently not.

[Chasstev365]

5. Like the Nazis taking people's $ for the Volkswagen that they never delivered

[dalton99a]

6. +1

[lame54]

7. He really wants that trillion dollars

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. Meh - clickbait headline from Ars Technica (and SpaceX). The tweet said "offering Starship services"

and clarified that meant carrying a scientific payload to Mars for the Italian Space Agency. Ars Technica says in its actual article:

SpaceX begins offering Starship services to Mars. On Thursday, Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, announced that the company has begun selling rides to Mars. "Get on board! We are going to Mars! SpaceX is now offering Starship services to the red planet," Shotwell said on X. As part of the announcement, Shotwell said SpaceX has signed a "first of its kind" agreement with the Italian Space Agency.

Racing the Giro d'Mars ... The president of the Italian Space Agency, Teodoro Valente, confirmed the news, saying the first Starship flights to Mars (which will, of course, be uncrewed) will carry Italian experiments. "The payloads will gather scientific data during the missions. Italy continues to lead in space exploration!" Valente wrote on X. Left unsaid, of course, is when such flights will take place. It is difficult to see Starship now being ready for a late 2026 window, but early 2029 seems plausible.

"Trips" makes it sound like humans, but it's not.

[quaker bill]

9. The dust on Mars

is reported to contain perchlorates, most of the observed water is a perchlorate brine. Now, you can sit some perchlorate crystals on a paper towel in a lab, under a fume hood is best, because it is likely to catch fire.

Perchlorates are extremely toxic and powerful oxidizers. This stuff is not moon dust, which had its problems as well, being sharp enough to abrade through seals in space suits. Mars dust is considerably more hazardous.

The trips will be one way,

[ananda]

10. Go for it rich doods. It should be a "blast"!

Literally