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As Coachella raged on in the Palm desert, the L.A. tech world made plans to live on Mars.
This party had everything: - Lasers - NASA guys - SpaceX engineers - GMO hangover cures - Plans to colonize space - Lamb roast - DJ in shipping container - Access to vast pools of capital - Man dressed like Spock - Scientists and fire stuff!
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The sun begins to set, over the Mojave Desert, where the BetaSpace encampment is seen from a helicopter.
One hundred miles to the southeast, masses of festival heads were gathering in the desert for Coachella’s first April weekend. But this small crew of space scientists, synthetic biologists, investors, entrepreneurs and one partygoer with flamethrower had higher ambitions.
By jet, bus and more than a few Teslas, they came to this desolate valley for Betaspace: a one-night, invite-only confab for the not-quite-yet-burgeoning space settlement industry.- Image load failed!
BetaSpace attendees wait for a turn to ride a helicopter over the desert.
Image load failed!The sun begins to set over the Mojave Desert.
Through sheer force of festive networking, its organizers hoped to spawn the companies and concepts that could allow humanity to establish bases on Mars (or maybe the moon), or “terraform,” as they say, our nearest neighbors into habitable worlds and spin off technologies for us earthbound humans in the process.
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Attendees line up for a turn to ride a helicopter over the Mojave Desert.
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A Star Trek Spock Impersonator, Paul Forest, also known as Spock Vegas, walks about the BetaSpace encampment.
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Shadows creep across the desert as the sun sets over the Mojave desert.
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Attendees listen to Synbiobeta CEO John Cumbers' presentation.
Image load failed!An attendee is backlit by a laser show, projected on the mountains
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The words BetaSpace is projected on a mountain range in the Mojave Desert.
All text images © Los Angeles Times.