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Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

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Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#111

Post by chasd00 »

raven393 wrote: post #22

If you really want to bootstrap it, start with toy/hobby rockets and drones and slowly work up. Alter the services you offer as you go eg: aerial photography, weather monitoring, engines etc etc till eventually you're launching small sattelites and stuff It's the kind of thing that'd probably take decades before you were realistically even beginning to look at space though

the amateur rocketry crowd has had large solid rocket motors for a while now but bi-propellent motors (event the most simple designs) are very very rare. If you could design one in the N impulse range and price it at There's a group on youtube working on nitrous oxide/methanol engine for hobbyists now. I think they're headed in the right direction although I would have done the combustion chamber differently. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEkE_gf1VxBngLugexHz2KQ

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#113

Post by ryanmercer »

redis_mlc wrote: post #18

I've worked in aerospace and have been reading HN for over a decade. Here's some adult advice, for both the OP and HN in general. Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire. Objects are too far, and lift is now a commodity. (SpaceX will probably end up shutting down due to lack of lift demand, hence their polluting the sky with micro satellites now.) So if you really want a career in s…

>Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire.

Unless you are 100% self sufficient, you rely on space to live. Freight logistics are reliant on space (GPS), farming (GPS optimized planting and harvesting), air travel (GPS), using your phone to get directions somewhere (GPS). Then all of the weather satellites, satellites are rapdily gaining use in archaeology revealing unknown sites far faster than boots on the ground can, etc etc so on and so forth.

Gobs and gobs of money are waiting to be made in space with current and future technology. Some quick near-future possibilities:

- Space tourism

- Seed vaults on the moon for companies and countries

- Archival data storage on the moon

- All matter of material sciences research and possibly production of materials with qualities that we can not replicate in an Earth-based production facility (think crystals and crystalline structures)

- Extremely isolated biological related experiments, such as genetic engineering, which could be be done in complete safety in a self-contained habitat remotely, with no chance of any of the material spreading outside of the lab unlike on earth

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#114

Post by larrydag »

de_watcher wrote: post #91
DennisP wrote: post #63

Start by assuming SpaceX will be successful with Starship and Starlink. That means they drop launch costs to $20/kg at scale, find themselves with NASA-level funding from Starlink subscriptions, and start building permanent installations on Mars and the Moon. Figure out something they're going to need for those. Musk has said they're relying on other companies to provide the infrastructure to actually live on Mars. B…

Put a Raspberry Pi into a heavy shielding box, use air horn for a thruster.

Somehow I don't think the delta-v quite works with that setup

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#115

Post by Symmetry »

redis_mlc wrote: post #18

I've worked in aerospace and have been reading HN for over a decade. Here's some adult advice, for both the OP and HN in general. Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire. Objects are too far, and lift is now a commodity. (SpaceX will probably end up shutting down due to lack of lift demand, hence their polluting the sky with micro satellites now.) So if you really want a career in s…

Companies don't stop operations because they're too successful. It might be that demand for launch services won't rise with falling prices the way that SpaceX expects. That might mean they won't recoup the costs of developing the Starship and they go bankrupt. But space launch is still a $100s of billions a year industry and whoever is running SpaceX will still be making that, even if it's Elon's creditors after a bankruptcy.

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#116

Post by jbms »

Move to Glasgow (like Spire did). It's got a bunch of companies making cube sats & cube sat software & satellite data analysis.

Clyde Space will sell the bits to make a cubesat or even build it for you. https://www.aac-clyde.space/

Alba Orbital do the same thing at a smaller (& cheaper form factor): http://www.albaorbital.com/

Add a sensor that you can sell the data from. Make a deal to sell the data. Use the money / guarantee of the deal to raise money to fund the satellite development and launch.

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#117

Post by 55555 »

Not all companies can be bootstrapped, and even more shouldnt be. How would you bootstrap an oil refinery or a floating casino? I mean, maybe you could, but why not just become a person capable of taking the shortest route to your goal?

Often, the reason you cant bootstrap companies is because opportunities are time-sensitive and your competition isnt bootstrapping. Imagine trying to bootstrap an Uber competitor in Uber's market at the same time as Uber. Even if somehow you could in the absence of Uber, Uber would destroy you.

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#118

Post by jfk13 »

ryanmercer wrote: post #113
redis_mlc wrote: post #18

I've worked in aerospace and have been reading HN for over a decade. Here's some adult advice, for both the OP and HN in general. Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire. Objects are too far, and lift is now a commodity. (SpaceX will probably end up shutting down due to lack of lift demand, hence their polluting the sky with micro satellites now.) So if you really want a career in s…

>Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire. Unless you are 100% self sufficient, you rely on space to live. Freight logistics are reliant on space (GPS), farming (GPS optimized planting and harvesting), air travel (GPS), using your phone to get directions somewhere (GPS). Then all of the weather satellites, satellites are rapdily gaining use in archaeology revealing unknown sites far…

> Unless you are 100% self sufficient, you rely on space to live. Freight logistics are reliant on space (GPS), farming (GPS optimized planting and harvesting), air travel (GPS), using your phone to get directions somewhere (GPS).

Perhaps you don't recall, but we somehow managed to deliver freight, grow crops, fly planes and find our way to places long before GPS satellites were a thing.

Space-based systems may be a great convenience at times, but they're hardly essential to my life.

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#119

Post by DannyB2 »

catacombs wrote: post #92

1. Find life outside the solar system. 2. Send message to them via the Sun. 3. Aliens receive message, determine Earth's location and send invading fleet to conquer the planet. 4. Discover the fleet via Hubble telescope and warn humanity. 5. World focuses attention on humanity's survival and diverts funds to spaceship manufacturing and jump starts the next phase of technological innovations. ... 450. Profit.

> World focuses attention on humanity's survival

We can't focus on global warming. Would we actually focus on an impending asteroid collision, or an incoming alien invasion?

Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?

#120

Post by ryanmercer »

jfk13 wrote: post #118
ryanmercer wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Space is a waste of time unless you're a government or a bored billionaire. Unless you are 100% self sufficient, you rely on space to live. Freight logistics are reliant on space (GPS), farming (GPS optimized planting and harvesting), air travel (GPS), using your phone to get directions somewhere (GPS). Then all of the weather satellites, satellites are rapdily gaining use in archaeology revealing unknown sites far…

> Unless you are 100% self sufficient, you rely on space to live. Freight logistics are reliant on space (GPS), farming (GPS optimized planting and harvesting), air travel (GPS), using your phone to get directions somewhere (GPS). Perhaps you don't recall, but we somehow managed to deliver freight, grow crops, fly planes and find our way to places long before GPS satellites were a thing. Space-based systems may be a…

>Perhaps you don't recall, but we somehow managed to deliver freight, grow crops, fly planes and find our way to places long before GPS satellites were a thing.

Yes and if you are older than 30 you likely remember when everything said "4-6 weeks delivery" not "same day" or even "2-3 day delivery'. That's right, even in the 1990s if you ordered something 4-6 weeks was a perfectly acceptable (and realistic) delivery time frame.

You also had a fraction of the flights that you do now. GPS for aviation right out of the gate increases fuel efficiency of any given flight as well as safety.

GPS went fully operational in 1995, with 2 billion less mouths to feed as well. Take GPS away from farming and you'll plant less efficiently and crop losses will increase both of which will drive prices up. A lot of the larger farms actually heavily rely on automation, assisted by GPS, for both planting and harvesting.

This is a single technology using 24 satellites that is space-based, that has affected virtually every industry in the world.

Imagine what other space-based or space-derived technologies might one day exist. Imagine what amount of change they might make on civilization. Imagine what sort of profits they might generate.

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