# Now that Elon Musk has bought Twitter - now the Pit edition (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** elon-musk\ **Created:** [August 13, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634 "2024-08-13T00:48:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 154
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3082 "2026-02-10T12:47:19Z")
The fact that Musk’s plan for Mars colonisation has never got any further than “build Starship“ should have been the first clue that SpaceX is nowhere near able to achieve his ambitions. Does SpaceX have a space galley system that can gaurantee food preservation and preparation for the duration of a Mars mission, has it been built and tested. Same goes for water and other life support systems. They will have to be both foolproof and redundent in an environment that we understand but have never operated in. An effective Mars travel system, not safe just effective, requires tremendous development in multiple areas and disciplines and there is no evidence that SpaceX is close to achieving any of it other than having a big reusable rocket. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3083 "2026-02-10T12:56:32Z")
> [@yendis](#): > > The fact that Musk’s plan for Mars colonisation has never got any further than “build Starship“ should have been the first clue that SpaceX is nowhere near able to achieve his ambitions. The fact that, after a quarter century of talking about going to Mars, Elon has only just now realized that due to planetary alignments you can only send a rocket to Mars every two years but one to the Moon about every few weeks should have been the umpteenth clue that this is never happening. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3084 "2026-02-10T12:59:12Z")
I’m reasonably sure the ‘concepts’ of the eventual plan Musk envisioned involved sacrificing volunteer lives until they figured out the engineering challenges through sufficient trial and error I wish that was a joke ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3085 "2026-02-10T13:42:08Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Elon has only just now realized that due to planetary alignments you can only send a rocket to Mars every two years but one to the Moon about every few weeks I’m pretty sure that Elon’s push for data centres in space is because of, “cooling is a big problem for data centres on Earth, but according to TV and movies from the 1990s and earlier space is super cold, so let’s put them in space where cooling is free!”. So his understanding of the pragmatic realities of space travel and operations is quite limited. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3086 "2026-02-10T14:51:11Z")
> [@yendis](#): > > The fact that Musk’s plan for Mars colonisation has never got any further than “build Starship“ should have been the first clue that SpaceX is nowhere near able to achieve his ambitions. If you **can’t** build Starship (and get it to work), isn’t every later step pointless? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3087 "2026-02-10T15:04:22Z")
Well yes, trivially. But if the plan was to get to Mars (or wherever), “build Starship” should have come much earlier and faster to achieve any ambitious plans. If you were to tell me you had a plan to run a marathon next month and 3 weeks later, you haven’t yet run more than a single mile at a time in your life, telling me “well, you’ve got to be able to run one mile to be able to run 26 miles” isn’t the flex you seem to think it is. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3088 "2026-02-10T15:15:02Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > I’m pretty sure that Elon’s push for data centres in space is because of, “cooling is a big problem for data centres on Earth, but according to TV and movies from the 1990s and earlier space is super cold, so let’s put them in space where cooling is free!”. > > So his understanding of the pragmatic realities of space travel and operations is quite limited. He sounds like the [corrupted Space core from _Portal 2_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZUpggRKOms). ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3089 "2026-02-10T21:54:21Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > musk probably has read Heinlein. Not that he seemed to understand much of it, judging by his use of grok and, well, everything else about him. As for the self-growing city, I assumed he was referring to some sort of self-replicating robotics technology, but who knows what the ketamine is telling him these days. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3090 "2026-02-10T22:11:58Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > As for the self-growing city, I assumed he was referring to some sort of self-replicating robotics technology, but who knows what the ketamine is telling him these days. Nanoville! (Actually, he’s just name it “X” because he’s a fucking moron in love with a letter.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3091 "2026-02-10T22:12:00Z")
To me “self-growing” is pretty obvious. He’s referring to a place where they are making the essentials for increasing the size of the colony _in situ_, not relying on shipments of prefab habitat modules or food or … from Earth. The _Mars_ trilogy first book _Red Mars_ did a pretty good job of pointing out how hard that would be. IIRC … Even with their nascent self-replicating tech, it wasn’t that hard to make crude materials like metal girders and sheet plastic and … But making high tech stuff was a bunch harder and they were dependent on shipments of that kind of stuff from Earth quite aways into the book. Only after the total Mars population was pretty big, and had been there a long time with far higher tech than we have today, did Mars become self-supporting enough to tell Earth to go F\*\*\* itself. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3092 "2026-02-10T22:24:03Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The _Mars_ trilogy first book _Red Mars_ did a pretty good job of pointing out how hard that would be. IIRC … One of the few things I remember from the books is a plot point of a supply of some sort of essential vitamin pills being rendered ineffective by radiation. One of the unanticipated dangers. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3093 "2026-02-10T22:25:25Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > So his understanding of the pragmatic realities of space travel and operations is quite limited. I’m pretty sure that’s true. Such achievements as have been made at SpaceX – and for that matter, at Tesla – have been due to competent engineers who Elmo has often abused, and who are at their best when Elmo is distracted by something else and leaves them the hell alone. When Elmo gets closely involved you get things like non-opening Model S door handles, doors that are impossible to open from the inside in emergencies, and, of course, the fabulous Cybertruck! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3094 "2026-02-10T23:58:15Z")
I just ran into this, but haven’t seen it in a real news source. Anyone heard anything? > **[BREAKING: France Just Raided Elon Musk’s X Offices In Paris — And It’s Not...](https://open.substack.com/pub/deanblundell/p/breaking-france-just-raided-elon?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=zgvzt)** > > This is about power. Influence. And what happens when one billionaire decides the rules don’t apply to him anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3095 "2026-02-11T00:00:27Z")
It happened last week. > **[Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation over child abuse...](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/paris-prosecutors-raid-x-offices-as-part-of-investigation-over-child-abuse-images-deepfakes)** > > French prosecutors raided the offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. They have also summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for... ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3096 "2026-02-11T00:21:14Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > It happened last week. Yeah, and you posted it about then, in this thread, with a good cite. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3097 "2026-02-11T04:44:21Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > I wonder which Heinlein character he fancies himself. Manuel “Mannie” Garcia O’Kelly-Davis. Only insofar as he gets to dominate the Earth by flinging rocks down on it from his Moon colony. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3098 "2026-02-11T05:02:20Z")
Anyone else seeing an ad for Elon Musk xAi 2.0. Also seems to show the merger of Musk’s companies. The guy in the ad looks remarkably humanoid, not at all like a creepy cultist. Something we shouldn’t miss. Perhaps he’ll address the co-founders abandoning ship. (Oops, soon to be scrubbed from the co-founding history). I can see him now in a SUPER K outfit complete with cape. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3099 "2026-02-11T08:54:37Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > To me “self-growing” is pretty obvious. > > He’s referring to a place where they are making the essentials for increasing the size of the colony _in situ_, not relying on shipments of prefab habitat modules or food or … from Earth. Yeah, I’m fairly sure he meant to say “self-sustaining”. To give him a wee bit of credit, establishing a colony on the Moon would be orders of magnitude easier than establishing one on Mars… but it’s _still_ pretty much unfeasible with current technology. Conventional agriculture is impossible on the Moon. Hydroponic farming might be possible with enough space, but there’s no way you’re raising livestock on the Moon, and lab-grown meat isn’t practical yet. We haven’t addressed the problem of how to deal with the increased cosmic radiation people living on the Moon would be exposed to in the long-term. Living at one-sixth of Earth’s gravity for extended periods of time is going to have a major impact on people’s health. We don’t even _know_ how sex, pregnancy, and childbirth would work in low gravity. We don’t even have self-sustaining colonies in Antarctica, and Antarctica is a _lot_ less hostile to human life than the Moon is. It’s going to take a major technological leap for interplanetary colonization to be feasible, and I unfortunately don’t see it happening in my lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3100 "2026-02-11T09:02:08Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Hydroponic farming might be possible with enough space, but there’s no way you’re raising livestock on the Moon, and lab-grown meat isn’t practical yet. That, at least, is not a problem. If you need protein, grow beans. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2026, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634/3101 "2026-02-11T09:14:39Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > If you need protein, grow beans. I doubt Elon’s outer space fantasies involve living off of beans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=153) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition-part-2/1005634.md?page=155)