Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are in a movie-like race to Mars. Who will win?
Retirement can be an amazing thing. Picture this: the time has finally come to kick up your heels and enjoy the fruits of your labor. That bliss lasts about a month, and then you realize being alone with your thoughts is a bit much. Suddenly, model rockets seem cool! Now imagine that you have all of that free time, AND endless amounts of money. You become a Rocket Man. Or, I guess, Rocket…Men.
Jeff Bezos may have hung up the black and yellow crown, but it seems he and his fellow billionaires have set their sights on a new frontier. Back in the year 2000, Bezos started Blue Origin, a company that hopes to one day make leisure travel to space a reality. Blue Origin is in direct competition with Elon Musk’s well-known SpaceX, and to a lesser extent Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic. So now we find ourselves in the middle of a good ol’ fashioned space race.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic. Although they could easily pass as names for strip clubs in a Star Wars movie, these are the projects that ‘rich rocket rangers’ believe will usher humanity into the next era of crazy rich white guys.
What exactly does that entail? These companies are trying to create reusable rockets, put permanent settlements on the moon and Mars, and make space travel cheaper. (Note I think their definition of ‘cheaper’ is vastly different than mine, but thanks for thinking of us, fellas!) It’s gotten ugly, too. These grown men are insulting each other like kids on a playground. They might as well be yelling “my rocket’s bigger than yours!” or “Your motherboards so fat” or whatever else rocket scientists usually drop in a roast battle.
The space race and the name calling aren’t slowing down any time soon. Every year, Big Bald Bezos liquidates a BILLION dollars worth of stock to pay for his rocket ship collection, which goes to show that you can be anything you want to be when you grow up! That is, as long as you have a printing machine churning out cash faster than you can spend it. The American dream is still alive!
