Elon Musk reveals latest plans to colonize Mars
He mentioned that the next chance to get to Mars is late next year. According to SpaceX's founder, the odds of success are currently 50-50. Musk thinks humans need a backup plan.
He said, 'Even if you don't want to do it, maybe you have a son or daughter who wants to do it or a friend who wants to do it. And I think it would be the best adventure that one could possibly do to help build a new civilization on a new planet.'
But there are some challenges ahead, like perfecting orbital refueling for Starship.
Musk said, 'Orbital propellant transfer, so you can no think of this similar to aerial refueling for airplanes but in this case its orbital refilling of rockets, which has never been done before.'
'We've had what, nine test launches, still experiencing a string of what I would call sort of related issues that have to be addressed before this thing is even a viable operational orbital vehicle, let alone a Mars vehicle," said Dr. Don Platt an Associate Professor of Space Systems at Florida Tech.
Platt continues, 'So, a ton of things happened before this thing was ready to go to Mars. Now, of course, SpaceX has had a You know, in the past, the reputation deservedly so of being able to get a lot of things done in a short amount of time. Still, the Starship has, I'm sure that they have been scratching our heads that we're there at SpaceX about sort of these continued problems they're having.'
The FAA is currently requiring a mishap investigation for Starship Flight 9.
Musk has a Mars timeline: 2026 prove we can get to Mars, 2028-2029 land initial infrastructure and prep landing areas, 2030-31 habitat construction, and 2033 increase independence from Earth.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk's xAI empire is leaning into NSFW content. It's a risky move that could pay off.
Elon Musk's xAI feels more like xxxAI recently. XAI's products have taken a decidedly NSFW turn this summer, which could prove lucrative for the company — and challenging. In June, xAI released a female AI anime companion that can be instructed to strip down to lingerie and describe sexual situations. Grok Imagine, the company's AI video generator, launched a "spicy" mode capable of borderline pornographic imagery — with some users finding it quick to generate Taylor Swift deepfakes that showed the singer's AI likeness topless. It's a notable embrace of the idea that sex sells and an example of Musk choosing to zig where other AI companies are zagging. And with Grok closely integrated into the X platform, the NSFW content it produces is the latest evolution of the social media company's relationship with steamy content, as Twitter allowed adult content long before Musk purchased it. Grok has limits. It doesn't appear that users can create fully nude videos or AI companions — the content must cover genitalia. But the NSFW shift puts xAI in sharp contrast to OpenAI and Google, which bar their AI models from generating much erotic content. And while xAI is tapping into the multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry, it could open the door to legal fights and advertiser skittishness. Steamy content could prove a moneymaker The adult entertainment market is massive. In the mid-2010s, estimates ranged from $10 billion to $97 billion, and the industry has likely grown significantly since then. "There's essentially free entry to the market. There's not a lot of barriers; anybody with an iPhone can create porn," said Marina Adshade, a sex economist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. "The real money is being made in the distribution." Adshade referenced the popular adult website Pornhub's market dominance. The company is privately held and does not report annual revenue; its parent company MindGeek reported $460 million in revenue in 2018 before its acquisition by Ethical Capital Partners. OnlyFans, another major player in the adult entertainment market, reported $6.6 billion in gross payments to creators in 2023, of which the company takes a 20% cut. Its owner, Fenix International Limited, reported net revenue of $1.31 billion for the year. (Twitter, before Musk acquired it, reportedly explored monetizing adult content before nixing the idea after its Red Team concluded in April 2022 that the platform "cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale.") Customizability could prove to be xAI's edge. Adshade said that AI-generated porn can cheaply serve any user's specific preferences, giving it a market advantage. "That's where the money is," she said. There's plenty of existing demand for AI-generated sexual images, much of which has funneled to gray-market tools. Analysis from Indicator estimates that AI "nudifier" tools make around $36 million a year. Henry Ajder watched these tools grow. He advises companies like Meta, Adobe, and EY on deepfakes and their impact. He described a network of tools that masquerade on the App Store as "fun, meme-ifying apps," but advertise themselves as deepfake tools on other platforms. Now, xAI is one of the first big players to tap into that demand, Ajder said, though the company's offerings remain "softcore." "It is something that a lot of the other models don't allow you to generate," Ajder said. "I guess it's trying to cater to an audience, and seeing a gap in the market." OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently acknowledged that NSFW AI may cause users to spend more time on platforms that offer it. On Cleo Abram's YouTube show, he said that adding a sex-bot could "juice growth or revenue," but that he has abstained because it doesn't align with OpenAI's mission. App download data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower suggests some of the new Grok features may have boosted downloads. The week xAI added companions — a week after the new Grok-4 model debuted — global downloads increased an estimated 41%. The week it added "spicy" video generation, global downloads fell an estimated 9% — but US downloads increased by 33%, per Sensor Tower. Those looking to chat with the AI companion Ani or generate an NSFW video with Grok Imagine will have to pay. For premium access, xAI charges $30/month. XAI did not respond to a request for comment. NSFW chatbots pose brand risks For all the money that xAI's adult turn could bring in, it comes with risks and moderation challenges. Like other AI companies, xAI will need to ensure its AI models are properly trained to prevent outputting illegal content. Grok's "spicy" video generation is only available for AI-generated images. When a user uploads their own image to the video generator, the only options are "fun," "normal," and "custom." I tried to test the limits of the "custom" button to see how it compared to "spicy" mode. While it was willing to comply with my prompt to "take off shirt" on a photo of myself I had uploaded, I was unable to convince the AI to remove my pants. I also tried multiple times to have the bot create NSFW videos of celebrities. While my attempts to make "spicy" videos of Taylor Swift were shut down by Grok, the tool easily allowed me to create NSFW videos of other celebrities. That could lead to PR headaches. Celebrities could publicly criticize xAI over deepfakes with their likeness, especially any containing nudity, and they command large fan bases. Legal recourse around deepfakes isn't cut-and-dried and continues to evolve. The recently enacted Take It Down Act protects victims of deepfakes, but images of non-minors must include specific sexual body parts to be subject to the legislation. Some states have more stringent laws on AI-generated deepfakes, and those affected could also file civil claims. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 largely protects online platforms from liability for content shared by users. Allison Mahoney, a lawyer who represents people who have experienced technology-facilitated abuse, questioned whether considering the platforms as creators due to their AI-generating tools would "remove their immunity." "There needs to be clear legal avenues to be able to hold platforms accountable for misconduct," Mahoney said. Where xAI could more directly feel the burn is in advertising revenue. It acquired X in March, and many of Grok's capabilities are integrated into the social platform. The Grok app makes it easy to share content, including its "spicy" output, directly to X. X has allowed pornographic content on its feed for years. In 2024, X put that rule into writing, officially allowing consensual NSFW content. Kelsey Chickering, a principal analyst at Forrester, said that AI-generated sexual content could push buyers of X's ad space away. "When you layer on this whole not-safe-for-work feature and add suggestive new things to the mix, that just further degrades their credibility," Chickering said. "It gives advertisers just one more reason to walk away."
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
Elon Musk called on corporations to leave Delaware. Delaware says it's doing just fine.
Elon Musk has a Rolodex of feuds: US President Donald Trump, "212" rapper Azealia Banks, and even a British diver who helped save a Thai soccer team stuck in a flooded cave. In 2024, he set his sights on Delaware. Although Delaware is generally considered a business-friendly state with a robust corporate legal system, Musk tried to shatter that reputation after a judge at Delaware's Court of Chancery denied his multi-billion-dollar pay package, which was approved by Tesla's board. In typical Musk fashion, he used his X account as a megaphone to blast the court and urged others to incorporate their business elsewhere. "Companies should get the hell out of Delaware," Musk wrote last August. Musk moved SpaceX and Tesla from Delaware to Texas in 2024. Some prominent companies have since followed Musk out of the state. VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is the most recent high-profile company to exit Delaware because, the company said in a blog post, recent rulings by the Court of Chancery had undermined its "reputation for unbiased expertise." Companies like Roblox, Dropbox, and Trump Media have also left the state. Texas, Nevada, Florida, and Wyoming have become preferred destinations for some business leaders in a shift that some have dubbed "Dexit," a reference to the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, known as Brexit. The state's historical dominance as a destination for companies to incorporate is rooted in the Delaware General Corporation Law, a business-friendly statute that acts as the bedrock of its corporate law. Companies leaving Delaware might do so for various reasons, including privacy or tax preferences, but for Musk, it's about finding greener legal pastures. For its part, Delaware isn't overly worried. Dexit? Not according to Delaware. Attorneys and state officials still consider Delaware the premier destination for corporations, despite Musk's criticism. "Yes, there has been some political rhetoric about leaving Delaware," Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez told Business Insider. "What our data is showing is that Delaware is still the preeminent place to incorporate your business." Patibanda-Sanchez's office oversees the Division of Corporations, which says the state was home to over 2.1 million corporations and two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies in 2024. Still, the number of business entities formed in Delaware has slowed slightly, falling from about 313,000 in 2022 to about 289,000 in 2024. Joshua Margolin, a partner at Selendy Gay who is familiar with corporate governance in Delaware, told Business Insider that the state's decadeslong experience navigating corporate disputes is a big reason the state remains a top destination. "You've got judges who sit on the Court of Chancery who have spent their entire careers litigating corporate disputes," Margolin said. "That is invaluable to have that experience on the bench when you're bringing a dispute, whether you're the plaintiff or the defendant." Margolin added that Delaware has a "breadth and depth of case law and precedent that I don't think other states can rival." "I think if you went back over time, you'd see various states creating business courts that are in one way or another meant to try to mirror the expertise of the Court of Chancery," he said. Lindsey Mignano, founding partner of SSM Law PC, which represents emerging tech companies, said Delaware remains the "simplest, most cost-effective choice" for business founders. Mignano said many of the documents related to governing financing for startups are based on Delaware corporate law, meaning attorneys would need to adopt those templates to fit the requirements of other states. "This is an expensive lift from a practical perspective," Mignano said. Patibanda-Sanchez said, for now, the state isn't sweating. "We don't believe that Delaware's position as the corporate leader and corporate capital of the world is being threatened in any significant way," Patibanda-Sanchez said. "We always come under threat, though, because states are always trying to get a piece of the action." In February, Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer told Business Insider that things may "need to change" as companies considered leaving the state. Meyers approved changes to Delaware's corporate law in March. This month, Delaware's Court of Chancery said it would automate its process for case assignment, which could address concerns of bias.
News24
3 hours ago
- News24
Elon Musk's SpaceX set to score big from new Trump executive order
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches, a move that could benefit Elon Musk's SpaceX and other private space ventures. Trump's order, among other things, directs the US transportation secretary to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch licenses administered by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said in a statement. The declaration also calls on the secretary to do away with 'outdated, redundant or overly restrictive rules for launch and re-entry vehicles'. 'Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of US companies to lead in global space markets,' the executive order states. While Musk and Trump had a high-profile falling out months ago, the billionaire entrepreneur's SpaceX rocket and satellite venture potentially stands to be the single biggest immediate beneficiary of Trump's order on Wednesday. SpaceX, though not mentioned by name in Trump's order, easily leads all US space industry entities, including NASA, in the sheer number of launches it routinely conducts for its own satellite network, the US space agency, the Pentagon, and other enterprises. Jeff Bezos' private rocket company Blue Origin and its space tourism business could also gain from a more relaxed regulatory regime. Musk has repeatedly complained that environmental impact studies, post-flight mishap investigations and licensing reviews required by the FAA have needlessly slowed testing of SpaceX's Starship rocket, under development at the company's South Texas launch facility. Starship is the centrepiece of Musk's long-term SpaceX business model, as well as a core component of NASA's ambitions for returning astronauts to the moon's surface, establishing a permanent human lunar presence and ultimately sending crewed missions to Mars. Musk has viewed FAA oversight as a hindrance to his company's engineering culture, considered more risk-tolerant than many of the aerospace industry's more established players. SpaceX's flight-test strategy is known for pushing spacecraft prototypes to the point of failure, then fine-tuning improvements through frequent repetition. The first grid fin for the next generation Super Heavy booster. The redesigned grid fins are 50% larger and higher strength, moving from four fins to three for vehicle control while enabling the booster to descend at higher angles of attack. — SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 13, 2025 This has appeared to run afoul at times with the FAA's mission of safeguarding the public and the environment as it exercises its regulatory jurisdiction over commercial spaceflight. Earlier this year, the FAA grounded Starship test flights for nearly two months after back-to-back post-launch explosions rained debris over Caribbean islands and forced dozens of airliners to change course. The FAA ended up expanding the aircraft hazard zone along Starship's launch trajectories before licensing future flights.
