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Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

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Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#61

Post by matt4077 »

javiramos wrote: post #5

Elon has a fantastic image. He is just an amazing PR machine.

He has also, you know, achieved stuff. Actual rockets, actually going up. There's a tendency of people to devalue the successes of others by attributing it to marketing. But for the life of me I can't find a way that would work to sell rockets to governments. Musk has also started at least three somewhat successful businesses, and at this point I don't think either marketing or luck are sufficient explanations.

It reminds me of someone else. I hope Musk gets his pancreas checked often enough.

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#63

Post by Tempest1981 »

Right now, it still feels like the "brainstorming" phase of the project. I guess it's OK to criticize various ideas, but it would be more interesting if alternatives were offered, then have a discussion of pros and cons. That is, assuming the goal is to make it happen, vs. prove it's infeasible.

Since it's such a blue-sky project, I'm hoping more to enjoy the design process -- the discussion of science and ideas. I wonder if that process will bring engineers together... or drive them apart?

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#64

Post by nickpsecurity »

pmoriarty wrote: post #55

One serious danger I haven't heard anyone mention mention in regards to the Mars colonization project (though it was considered to some extent in Carl Sagan's "Contact" and probably some other science fiction) is the possibility of terrorism against either the fragile spacecraft or colony. Musk has said there will be no screening of the Mars colonists, and that anyone could go. That means someone who's mentally unsta…

That's a great comment. This is why I thought the one-way ticket trips to Mars were the most honest. I thought most or all of them were covertly or accidentally doing the same thing just with longer, life expectancy.

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#65

Post by nickpsecurity »

1457389 wrote: post #42
4ad wrote: post #29

I 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'm sorry but dozens, maybe hundreds of other questions were more deserving - this ama is about sending a rocket to mars not about their IT stack... We are all a bit scarred after the IAC debacle, perhaps that explains the downvotes.

The IT stack was the cause of over a billion dollars of lost missions from leaving Earth all the way to Mars missions. It also is what will or won't get the rocket to Mars. So, it was worth an answer given that by itself has killed so many missions with the Moon missions themselves taking a huge team & cost to do right despite failures [which showed up].

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#66

Post by marze »

thelambentonion wrote: post #32
1457389 wrote: post #31

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.

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…

thelambentonion, I can't help but notice your numerous posts expressing skepticism regarding SpaceX in this thread. I see a post in your comment history where you included a disclaimer, saying that you worked for a competitor to SpaceX.

Does the fact that you aren't including any disclaimers in your posts now mean you no longer work for a competitor to SpaceX?

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#67

Post by elihu »

thelambentonion wrote: post #12
0majors wrote: post #9

The 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…

I'm not very knowledgeable of radiation hazards in space, but from some casual wikipedia browsing, it appears that the primary hazard is from protons (and various charged particles) being spewed out from the sun.

How practical is it to use an electrically charged or magnetic object between the sun and the spacecraft to deflect particles? Presumably, the farther away it is the less deflection would be necessary, but at some point it would be too far away to effectively mask the whole disk of the sun.

Similarly, you could just use a physical screen. Apparently, things like aluminum don't work very well as shielding because the undesirable particles react with the aluminum and produce more undesirable particles. However, if it were far enough away from the ship, it wouldn't need to block the radiation, it would only need to deflect most of it in a slightly different direction. (Whether the "screen" is on a long tether or whether it's a separate drone-spaceship would be an implementation detail that's not particularly important.)

I assume there's some reason this is impractical, otherwise it would be a solved problem already...

(As for shielding on Mars itself, I'm okay with the idea that humans will spend most of their time underground.)

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#68

Post by taneq »

matt4077 wrote: post #61
javiramos wrote: post #5

Elon has a fantastic image. He is just an amazing PR machine.

He has also, you know, achieved stuff. Actual rockets, actually going up. There's a tendency of people to devalue the successes of others by attributing it to marketing. But for the life of me I can't find a way that would work to sell rockets to governments. Musk has also started at least three somewhat successful businesses, and at this point I don't think either marketing or luck are sufficient explanations. It re…

Yeah, it does add a certain degree of credibility when you actually own your own spaceships.

Re: Elon Musk SpaceX AMA

#69

Post by Animats »

There's a lot of hand-waving about how a base on Mars would operate. Remember the Biosphere II debacle, an attempt to build a closed ecosystem in a big dome. That was intended partly as a test for a Mars colony. They had a terrible time trying to stabilize their little ecosystem. They had far more resources at start than a Mars mission could carry, and were only trying to support eight people.
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