The jet lag must be pretty significant then :)
Nah, in half an hour you can always come back to sleep at home.
SpaceX BFR [video]
81–90 of 277 posts
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#82wait and what's the energy usage of that thing? Carbon footprint?
Musk said that the fuel (methane and oxygen) for Mars expeditions has to be produced on Mars, using solar panels, water and capturing carbon dioxide available in the atmosphere, and he also stated that the very same procedure could be used on Earth.
That doesn't mean it's anywhere close to being economical. It's just one of the few options they have there, or it's perhaps a little cheaper/more practical than carrying everything from Earth. Perhaps capturing it from Mars instead of bringing it from Earth means the project can cost "only" $5 billion per trip rather than $20 billion.
But that says absolutely nothing about doing that on Earth vs all the other much cheaper alternatives.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#83Marketing of that product is awesome. But does it scale? Very unlikely! That's great to have impossible goals to make people dream, but stop bullshitting people saying it will replace commercial airplanes and everybody will be an astronaut for the same price. Why is the Concorde not in service anymore? Simple: it was a very little market, over-polluting for over-privileged and we do not need that to enhance traveling…
The Concorde was one airplane. Its not like we have tried every possible way of increasing travel speed. They will build this rocket anyway, the will have to make it reusable anyway. All they did is consider using it as a transporter for people on earth. Its just one way the can potentially make money with this technology. Does not hurt to try. No reason to shit on the idea and claim its some absurd fantasy.
Well my bad, all I did was clicking on the link, I made a lot of assumptions on what they intended to do with that.
Indeed it doesn't hurt to try!
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#84Interesting. Two little issues: safety and ticket costs. Also, your average overweight tourist isn't going to be very happy at several G's.
Extrapolating very naively from SpaceX prices[1] for Falcon Heavy to low earth orbit suggests a ticket price of about $150,000, at $1500 per kg That is ignoring safety, and other pros and cons such as Falcon Heavy didn't fly yet, Space-X doesn't have a passenger module, frequency and economic scale of passenger operation, different flight profile from LEO, lack of regulatory framework, and so on [1] http://www.spacex…
Elon mentioned on stagram that cost would be about the same as an economy ticket on a current airliner.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#85I know people have valid reasons to be skeptical about such projects. But maybe after 50 years or so when this kind of transport will be very common we will remember this day as one of the most historic events in the course of humanity.
And if it becomes that common, in 150 years time, New York will be under water. I remember reading that the instantaneous power output of one Apollo rocket taking off is roughly the equivalent of the entire average electricity load of the UK. Surely burning a country's worth of rocket fuel every time you want to travel long distance is not sustainable?
Fusion power can't come soon enough. Maybe it's time for Musk to start working on that. He actually said in an older interview that he would like to tackle it eventually.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#86Marketing of that product is awesome. But does it scale? Very unlikely! That's great to have impossible goals to make people dream, but stop bullshitting people saying it will replace commercial airplanes and everybody will be an astronaut for the same price. Why is the Concorde not in service anymore? Simple: it was a very little market, over-polluting for over-privileged and we do not need that to enhance traveling…
Musk didn't say it would replace regular planes nor we would all be astronauts, that's just you saying it. Also, his talk was about 43min long and only the very last "slide" and couple of minutes discussed the why-nots of reusing BFR for local transportation, because technically it is possible.
Well I just watched the video, it clearly imagine a world where you could fly BFR like airplanes... I don't see how it would be accessible to the mass, therefore it's a niche product for the very rich, no big deal!
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#87I know people have valid reasons to be skeptical about such projects. But maybe after 50 years or so when this kind of transport will be very common we will remember this day as one of the most historic events in the course of humanity.
It won't make sense for most people for the first 30-50 years. That much is clear. However, it still has to make business sense from day one for some people. Otherwise the project is dead and forgotten, just like it happened to the Concorde.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#88I am sure mil would love this tech
Absolutely. 200+ paratroopers, anywhere in the world in under an hour?
Land anywhere flat after the troops have jumped, refuel and recover later.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Are laptops allowed? No idea. But the fastest flight (non stop) from NYC to Shanghai right now is almost 15 hours. This promises 39 minutes. Would you rather fly 15 hours with a laptop than 39 minutes without?
I think that depends on whether or not the ticket is something like 50x more expensive. If Musk is proposing this idea then I assume it won't be too expensive, even for rich people. So it should cost significantly less than what private jet trip costs them (because the BFR is not so private after all). Of course, the faster time to destination should also balance things out, but I have a feeling a trip would be more…
You can't fly NYC to Shanghai on a private jet (unless it's a 777 or equivalent, which 99.9% of private jets aren't). This is a real game changer in aviation terms.
Re: SpaceX BFR [video]
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
"About the same as full fare economy" So in the low thousands. Incredible if true. https://www.instagram.com/p/BZnVfWxgdLe/
Impressive if they achieve that. The price point they need to reach though for this to be feasible is business class. As suggested by the NY Shanghai route in the video, the major use for this would be distant business meetings that either have to be week long trips or video conferences. Instead they could be overnight or even day trips. Businesses have more buying power as well compared to consumers.
If they can maintain all ticket prices below $10,000 that would probably work. It would still be 2-3x what businesses normally pay, but they would arrive 10x faster, so it may be worth it at least for some. Musk just needs enough customers to make the business sustainable and so he can afford to build more such rockets and then keep dropping the price.