Great video. Is the plan really a one-way trip?
No, the spaceships will be coming back. If somebody wants to come back they can hop in any of the returning spaceships. Elon doesn't want Mars to be graveyard of spaceships.
Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
691–700 of 1001 posts
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#692Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which immediately suggests a way to help with the Mars plan - in the time SpaceX and (hopefully) others are building the transportation architecture, someone should go out there and try to set up a self-sustaining colony on the pole or in the middle of a desert. Data and experience collected will be invaluable and directly useful for the Mars mission.
>someone should go out there and try to set up a self-sustaining colony on the pole or in the middle of a desert. That's already been done. It was called "Biosphere II", set up in the Arizona desert. It failed.
An experiment is only a failure if you don't learn anything from it.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#693Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…
As of right now, the top comment is complaining about the negative comments, the next 75% of the comments or so are positive comments (even calling Musk a hero and saying that this is a historical moment), and there's about 25% or so that are skeptical (many of those offering valid criticisms and not simply complaining about it). Yes, excessive negativity can be a bad thing. But when a small minority of the comments…
I don't see the complainers taking a good, hard look at the challenges. I see them taking a superficial glance and then basically complaining that people shouldn't like different things.
Maybe you're right that the numbers don't justify my complaint, but this isn't about silencing dissent or being hostile to criticism, I just want intelligent criticism.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#694Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, probably it's the blender videos pushing the wider internet audience into it (so it's not all his fault). While he's going good, and is launching rockets, but right now he's behind OldSpace in doing what he's actually doing - launching rockets.
Behind OldSpace? Im sorry that is an absurd claim. OldSpace has not devloped a new rocket or rocket engine or rocket in a while. OldSpace has almost completely been pushed out of the international launch market. OldSpace launches cost at least 2x more, and for a number of missions more like 4x more. SpaceX is flying a young rocket that is seeing huge amounts of improvement still, while Old Space is flying Old Rockets…
> OldSpace has not devloped a new rocket or rocket engine or rocket in a while. OldSpace has almost completely been pushed out of the international launch market. OldSpace launches cost at least 2x more, and for a number of missions more like 4x more. SpaceX is flying a young rocket that is seeing huge amounts of improvement still, while Old Space is flying Old Rockets that don't really improve all that much.
1. I consider Arianespace and Proton "OldSpace" - Old established players who exist to make a buck.
2. What counts is success at your business. If you're good at that, you can take time off to do R&D. If not, you're rightfully seen as a not-focused, unreliable company.
It's like if Firefox Os. If Firefox was a great, secure, light browser and then they want to also came up with an OS, fine. If their browser needs work but instead they write experimental OSs, they got their priorities wrong.
Now it's true that OldSpace has been tremendously lucky with the latest rocket incarnations, but except the three Delta_III launches, they were tremendously successful.
Delta II was 151/153 Delta III was 1/3 Delta IV is 32/33
That's 184/189. That's five mistakes in 17 years.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#695I don't mean to nitpick but is Elon always this bad of a presenter? He sounds sickly and hungover and unpracticed. A strange performance for probably one of the most important ventures in recent human history.
Quote from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12592996
"I think its kind of encouraging to see that you don't have to be a great public speaker to get people to listen to you, as long as you are able to accomplish things off the stage."
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#696Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably the same reason we can't build a space elevator :)
In didnt say it would be easy, but neither is sending 100 people to mars. I'm not engineer, but wouldn't a pipe be easier to build than an elevator?
The problem with space elevators is that the cable (or the pipe, as you propose) needs to be able to hold itself together. Imagine taking a 4000 km long elevator cable and holding it up by one end: it would snap under its own weight instantly. That's about what your cable material needs to be able to take. The weight of the car is trivial in comparison.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#697Some of the comments here make me think of crabs in a pot pulling down the ones who try to climb out. Nobody's making you participate in this venture. If you don't like it, then you're free to go do whatever it is you do like. You might think Musk could better direct his efforts and resources elsewhere, but most other billionaires don't do anything all that interesting, they just invest their money in mundane stuff,…
You're my hero! This attitude is why I quit regularly contributing to this site. Any time any single person does something positive, some armchair "expert" comes out the woodworks to tell you how it won't work or can't work.
Because it's no longer filled with hackers.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#698Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know, probably it's the blender videos pushing the wider internet audience into it (so it's not all his fault). While he's going good, and is launching rockets, but right now he's behind OldSpace in doing what he's actually doing - launching rockets.
Behind OldSpace? Im sorry that is an absurd claim. OldSpace has not devloped a new rocket or rocket engine or rocket in a while. OldSpace has almost completely been pushed out of the international launch market. OldSpace launches cost at least 2x more, and for a number of missions more like 4x more. SpaceX is flying a young rocket that is seeing huge amounts of improvement still, while Old Space is flying Old Rockets…
Here's a rundown on what "OldSpace" is doing right now: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/?type=current
They are in space, orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, driving around the surface of Mars, flying by Pluto and escaping the solar system. And that's just NASA.
While its true that they haven't landed a rocket on a barge, I'd say SpaceX is far, far, far behind.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#699We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocea…
I'm finding this quotations without referencing the source or using quotes a real annoying trend on HN atm.
It's a form of in-joke/group which is very Reddit and is used to get upvotes because everyone loves being in with the cool kids.
But not everyone has read or watched every classic and knows every famous person of countries X speeches, hence why you attribute the source or even just the speaker, fictional or not.
Re: Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species [video]
#700Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's full size they just use 27+ of them on the heavy lift version of their rocket, and 40+ on the proposed rocket for lifting the Mars ships off of Earth.
Falcon Heavy will use 27 Merlin engines, not Raptors. The Merlin is already being flown in Falcon 9, and they're producing dozens per year. The Heavy is basically a Falcon 9 with two more Falcon 9 first stage cores strapped on the side as boosters. Though I think there is talk of moving all Falcon to the Raptors eventually.
You're right. Although Musk did make the point that the Raptor and the Merlin are essentially the same size. The scale is the same.