Documentary | Musk vs. Bezos: Space Megalos

Planting villages on Mars, installing colonies in Earth orbit, and making room for tourists, there are no limits to the space ambitions of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. The documentary Musk vs. Bezos: The New Star Wars It summarizes the business struggle between two of the richest men on the planet for the conquest of space.

We automatically associate Jeff Bezos with e-commerce giant Amazon, the company that made his massive fortune. Elon Musk’s name has long been associated primarily with Tesla electric vehicles – and untimely remarks. This is only the most visible aspect of their activities.

Bezos and Musk have had a passion for space exploration since childhood, in which we learn Musk vs. Bezos: The New Star Warsthe French production presented in the show Great reports Tuesday, on ICI RDI. feed on comic booksAnd serials and science fiction films, the two very rich entrepreneurs cherish wild dreams: one wants to start colonizing Mars by 2030 and the other, to put constructions in orbit where hundreds of thousands of people can live. “Humans …

With a classic narrative, the French documentary traces back to the sources of Blue Origin and Space X. The first film was created in 2000 by Bezos, who sought to keep it a secret. Musk created the other in 2002 and invested more than half of the $180 million in it from selling his PayPal stock. The South African-born businessman is more fond of publicity, and has never hidden his ambitions.

The two men’s goal? They have established themselves as private partners with whom NASA can collaborate on manned missions.

And then a completely unfriendly race begins between the entrepreneurs: who will be the first to develop a habitable rocket capable of vertical landing? So, who will be able to offer the best lunar module to resume manned travel on our own satellite?

Space X eventually culminated in Blue Origin and established itself as the spacecraft of choice for NASA and one that will deliver astronauts to the moon. However, Bezos reigns supreme in another potentially very lucrative field: space tourism. Since the first manned flight of his rocket New Shepherd In July 2021, Bezos sent nearly 30 people to experience brief moments in orbit, including William Shatner, Captain Kirk of Star Trek, a series that celebrated his childhood.

Musk vs. Bezos: The New Star Wars He insists on the technological prowess and ambitions of the two businessmen, but also addresses what their desire for conquest means for humanity, namely the beginning of the privatization of space exploration. A new era is shaking the geopolitical and financial chessboard: the successes of Space X are pulling the rug out from under the feet of the Russian and European space agencies. The export of capitalism to space also raises questions about social inequality. If Mask wants to colonize Mars, the Earth suffers and could become uninhabitable. If the ambitions of the two entrepreneurs come true, who else will be able to afford this life where they both dangle?

Tuesday, 8 p.m., at ICI RDI