Millionaires play golf. Billionaires play space. Step 1. Make billions in something (not space) Step 2. Turn billions into millions with space
Isn’t spacex profitable? Starlink sounds like how someone would go about becoming a multi billionaire.
Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
31–40 of 155 posts
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#32Develop useful tech for cubesats. Build a demo/prototype hardware box and go to a space conference after contacting people in the industry beforehand. Get an "in" with a small startup and work with them to build it on a satellite. Through a partnership with them find others, become a satellite builder. Get experience using the launch market and begin to learn about rockets. At that point, my knowledge runs out - but I think you'll need a few hundred million if you want to have a go at developing a rocket yourself, so that's how big your cubesat / satellite company will have to be.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#331. Use Deep RL to predict stable 3D protein structures that would not normally occur in Nature 2. Simulate gravitational dynamics to winnow down candidate crystals that cannot be synthesized in terrestrial conditions because they would collapse under their own weight 3. Find novel applications for those proteins such as DNA data storage and computation 4. Design a prototype microgravity factory that operates at scale…
Each one of those steps is a billion dollar company.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#34How do you make money with Satellites?
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#35How do you make money with Satellites?
All of the data that you sell. E.g. Planet provides complete Earth coverage approx every 24h.
Hyperspectral imagery, tracking ships/planes with specialised receivers, monitoring other space assets, running weather services, etc. That data is all worth HUGE amounts of money to the right people.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#361. Use Deep RL to predict stable 3D protein structures that would not normally occur in Nature 2. Simulate gravitational dynamics to winnow down candidate crystals that cannot be synthesized in terrestrial conditions because they would collapse under their own weight 3. Find novel applications for those proteins such as DNA data storage and computation 4. Design a prototype microgravity factory that operates at scale…
I always wonder if hackernews knows the difference between research and development. When it comes to biology, I feel like there is a real hubris fuled by fantasy headlines.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
In short, infrastructure. Where would you start?
Infrastructure doesn't cover it. Without a way to defend it, there will be no investment, so crypto and directed energy defences. Payments, identity, etc. Same as earth.
It's space. Kinetic weapons will be just enough; one needs to make the shooting mechanism reliable in space.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#38Millionaires play golf. Billionaires play space. Step 1. Make billions in something (not space) Step 2. Turn billions into millions with space
Isn’t spacex profitable? Starlink sounds like how someone would go about becoming a multi billionaire.
It may be profitable now, but don't forget that SpaceX has been going for 17 years, has raised well over a billion in VC funding to date, and Elon has put more than $100m of his own money in.
SpaceX is in absolutely no way whatsoever a company that Elon bootstrapped.
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#391. Use Deep RL to predict stable 3D protein structures that would not normally occur in Nature 2. Simulate gravitational dynamics to winnow down candidate crystals that cannot be synthesized in terrestrial conditions because they would collapse under their own weight 3. Find novel applications for those proteins such as DNA data storage and computation 4. Design a prototype microgravity factory that operates at scale…
Wait, which step is profit? Or is that step 0?
Re: Ask HN: How would you bootstrap a space company?
#40I'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…
Don't we need a bunch of "bad" investments to get the space tech to move forward faster?
Like, maybe this guy will convince a bunch of "fools" to invest, and in his path to failure, he'll find some more efficient way to... something.
Or are you saying, even if everything was efficient, there are things you can't fix, like how far away valuable stuff is, that makes it all pretty pointless?