I am so glad /r/spacex had the chance to host the AMA. Even this thread shows a pretty depressing lack of understanding (so far) of what Elon has claimed and what SpaceX has actually demonstrated. A bunch of tilting at windmills, virtue signalling and strawman construction efforts while the people who have a clue have a real discussion elsewhere.
Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
31–40 of 98 posts
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#32I am so glad /r/spacex had the chance to host the AMA. Even this thread shows a pretty depressing lack of understanding (so far) of what Elon has claimed and what SpaceX has actually demonstrated. A bunch of tilting at windmills, virtue signalling and strawman construction efforts while the people who have a clue have a real discussion elsewhere.
I personally don't think that I have a lack of understanding of what Musk has claimed or SpaceX has demonstrated, and I'm incredibly skeptical of their ability to safely deliver on their promises within his proposed timeline.
I'd quite like to be proven wrong, spaceflight is an area very near and dear to my heart, but from my point of view Musk's reach appears to vastly exceed his grasp.
EDIT: I did enjoy the AMA though, as it provided some interesting insight into their plans for all of this.
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#33I am sure Elon Musk won't get the chance to answer my reddit question, since apparently the reddit mob downvoted me to death, so I am asking here, perhaps anyone knows. 1) What RTOS does SpaceX use for the embedded hardware on board? I know they use a lot of Linux, but not for hard real time stuff. What are they running on their microcontrollers? 2) Is it programmed in C, or some other language? 3) Is the embedded eq…
I didn't personally downvote (or see this question), but it probably get downvoted for not being laser-focused on ITS/Mars.
Anyway, you might find some of your answers in this AMA that the SpaceX software devs did a while back.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1853ap/we_are_spacex_...
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#34The leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth are barely starting to talk about some small human missions to Mars and then there is Elon, casually discussing glass domes and tunneling drones creating underground networks on Mars. Truly incredible.
I would say that the leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth are a little more grounded in reality than Musk in this regard. Glass domes and underground Martian tunnels make for some very interesting science fiction, but I'm concerned about the engineering challenges that he seems to be ignoring in favor of his grand statements of intent. To pick a specific example, he seems to have very little concern for radi…
> he seems to have very little concern for radiation shielding both during the trip to Mars or on the Martian surface.
I find it hard to believe his team have not considered something so obvious. This seems like one of those statements that assumed the experts are a bit stupid. Just because he hasn't specifically mentioned it doesn't mean it is not considered. And sure somethings are probably not considered, but something as obvious as this...
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say that the leaders of the most powerful nations on Earth are a little more grounded in reality than Musk in this regard. Glass domes and underground Martian tunnels make for some very interesting science fiction, but I'm concerned about the engineering challenges that he seems to be ignoring in favor of his grand statements of intent. To pick a specific example, he seems to have very little concern for radi…
> he seems to have very little concern for radiation shielding both during the trip to Mars or on the Martian surface. I find it hard to believe his team have not considered something so obvious. This seems like one of those statements that assumed the experts are a bit stupid. Just because he hasn't specifically mentioned it doesn't mean it is not considered. And sure somethings are probably not considered, but some…
> "The radiation thing is often brought up, but I think it’s not too big of a deal"
AFAIK no one else within the community would think of saying that.
I'm sure that there are people within SpaceX studying this and taking it into consideration, but my concern is mostly with Musk's cavalier attitude towards individual safety.
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> he seems to have very little concern for radiation shielding both during the trip to Mars or on the Martian surface. I find it hard to believe his team have not considered something so obvious. This seems like one of those statements that assumed the experts are a bit stupid. Just because he hasn't specifically mentioned it doesn't mean it is not considered. And sure somethings are probably not considered, but some…
> "The radiation thing is often brought up, but I think it’s not too big of a deal" AFAIK no one else within the community would think of saying that. I'm sure that there are people within SpaceX studying this and taking it into consideration, but my concern is mostly with Musk's cavalier attitude towards individual safety.
I don't think you have looked very hard then. Here's Zubrin on the topic:
>However, we already have data that shows that the accumulation of slow rates of cosmic ray radiation received during long duration spaceflight is not a showstopper for human Mars exploration. GCR dose rates in low Earth orbit are about half those in interplanetary space. Thus, there is a growing number of cosmonauts and astronauts who have already received Mars mission equivalent GCR doses during extended space missions without any radiological casualties.
~http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2749/1
He mentions in a recent speech that the most deleterious effect of time spent in space is related to zero gravity, not radiation - and that can be fixed with resistance training.
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#37I am sure Elon Musk won't get the chance to answer my reddit question, since apparently the reddit mob downvoted me to death, so I am asking here, perhaps anyone knows. 1) What RTOS does SpaceX use for the embedded hardware on board? I know they use a lot of Linux, but not for hard real time stuff. What are they running on their microcontrollers? 2) Is it programmed in C, or some other language? 3) Is the embedded eq…
As far as the RTOS, it sounds like they use Linux:
> Linux is used for everything at SpaceX. The Falcon, Dragon, and Grasshopper vehicles use it for flight control, the ground stations run Linux, as do the developers' desktops. SpaceX is "Linux, Linux, Linux", he said.
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#38I am so glad /r/spacex had the chance to host the AMA. Even this thread shows a pretty depressing lack of understanding (so far) of what Elon has claimed and what SpaceX has actually demonstrated. A bunch of tilting at windmills, virtue signalling and strawman construction efforts while the people who have a clue have a real discussion elsewhere.
I personally don't think that I have a lack of understanding of what Musk has claimed or SpaceX has demonstrated, and I'm incredibly skeptical of their ability to safely deliver on their promises within his proposed timeline. I'd quite like to be proven wrong, spaceflight is an area very near and dear to my heart, but from my point of view Musk's reach appears to vastly exceed his grasp. EDIT: I did enjoy the AMA tho…
Totally fair to be skeptical; not very impressive though unless you have detailed cause. Not quite as fair, or impressive to make comments like these with no effort or backing:
>Glass domes and underground Martian tunnels make for some very interesting science fiction, but I'm concerned about the engineering challenges that he seems to be ignoring in favor of his grand statements of intent.
The AMA, and even that specific question was all about the engineering challenges...
>but the amount of press and attention that they get just by saying "we are going to mars" are crazy! Nothing practical to show, i would be more interested in a mission to build up a base at moon first. But hey! This is show business, what we losers can possible know!?
He literally showed images and video of fuel tank and rocket tech that represent novel advances. He has also spilled gallons of ink justifying why Mars is the place to go next.
EDIT: To be clear, I don't think I am quoting lambentonion here, just giving examples of the stuff that made me comment initially
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#39I'd encourage everyone reading the AMA to take a lot of what Musk is saying with a grain of salt. The Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) is a wildly ambitious project that is attempting to accomplish more things in a shorter period of time than the Apollo program (and on a substantially smaller budget to boot). Check out Robert Zubrin's article, which presents a much more salient critique of SpaceX's current plans…
It's good to see that the initial nearly religious fervor has worn off, and comments like yours can survive the voting process here. There are a number of issues with the "colony" concept, even beyond that excellent article, but until recently such a point was met with some version of fury. The general theme seems to have been that getting people excited, even with empty promises, was somehow virtuous and might lead…
I think people getting excited about space and space travel again is a good thing. It's the first step to getting people involved again, even if only to remember what we're capable of as a species, despite all our flaws and all the other problems we've yet to solve. Whether you agree with Musk's methods or not, I enjoy living in a time where we dream about the possibilities of new worlds, rather than reminiscing about a golden age of space travel long past.
Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA
#40I'd encourage everyone reading the AMA to take a lot of what Musk is saying with a grain of salt. The Interplanetary Transport System (ITS) is a wildly ambitious project that is attempting to accomplish more things in a shorter period of time than the Apollo program (and on a substantially smaller budget to boot). Check out Robert Zubrin's article, which presents a much more salient critique of SpaceX's current plans…
Zubrin thinks we can get to Mars with current tech. He has thought that for decades, and his outreach efforts was one of the things that inspired Musk in the first place. He disagrees with the timespan for colonization, yes, but his post here is mainly around optimizations for Musk's proposal, not an outright rejection:
>Still, with some corrections, a system using the core concepts Musk laid out could be made attractive — not just as an imaginative concept for the colonization of Mars, but as a means of meeting the nearer-at-hand challenge of enabling human expeditions to the planet.