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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?

#151

Post by liuhenry »

deepnotderp wrote: post #149
rtkwe wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be hard to get approval for that to launch (at least from the US). In order to be tracked to ensure the safety of future launches objects need to be much larger than a single chip. Smaller than that the tracking techniques used have trouble tracking the vehicles.

Huh, that's interesting, can you elaborate? What are the minimum size requirements? Are they multidimensional?

At least 10cm in any dimension (i.e. a 10cm diameter sphere, or a 10cm x 10cm x 10cm cube).

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-19-81A1.pdf

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

#152

Post by yellowapple »

gnode wrote: post #99
StreamBright wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living on Mars is a pipe dream without figuring out how to re-create Earth's geomagnetic field and extend it around human buildings.

I think more importantly: civilisation on Mars is a pipe dream without figuring out a significant motivation to live on Mars. Mars is an inhospitable place, but technology allows us to live in inhospitable places. In many ways, I expect Mars is like Antarctica. Once the initial romanticism of pioneering fades, it will have only very niche attractiveness for specific scientific causes. It used to be a popular idea tha…

Antarctica's lack of a population and its niche attractiveness has more to do with the fact that all the countries with any sort of territorial claim to it have signed treaties substantially restricting any use of Antarctic resources (including the land thereof) for anything other than science.

On that note, though, if we want to learn how to colonize the Moon and Mars and beyond, Antarctica is closer to home and less extreme; it could be a valuable place for "baby step" colony proofs-of-concept.

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

#153

Post by jvanderbot »

jobigoud wrote: post #124
jvanderbot wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NASA has a few trajectories, IMHO. One they can become the "FCC/FAA of space". The last A is "Administration" of course. This should not be considered depressing, as the scientists and engineers currently on the front line of NASA discoveries are already often associated with other institutions and could easily follow the trend. Two, they can become the science arm or funding agency for space-related science. This is…

The first one would be very weird considering there is also ESA, JAXA, etc. in the game. The world is not regulated by the US. Focusing on research seems to more likely.

This is a little strange to say, given there's things like the FCC in every country as well. There's also corresponding international organizations, but the FCC is the US's version.

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

#154

Post by catacombs »

DannyB2 wrote: post #119
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?

I think anything that is a danger to Earth that is not human caused would receive more attention.
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