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Welp, then I am going to say it: it looks underwhelming, both in capability and looks. 6.5t of soft-landed payload to surface of moon and 2.5kW of power via fuel cells if Twitter can be trusted. A grand vision of O'Neill cylinders and whatever in space is nice but how? How? Less gradatim and more ferociter would be nice.
I'll take soft-serve over a soft landing any day: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/blue-moon-ice-cream-midwe...
Astronauts train for years before going to space. Do these space tourism companies pretend that anyone with enough cash can do it?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's Amazon's way of working. Starting from PR/FAQ and working backwards.
Err well publishing the PR while it's still vaporware is not the Amazon way.
As for proving my point: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Amazons-approach-to-product-de...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Elon's stated goal re: astronauts and training is that the technology should be sufficiently simplified to let anyone go up with minimal training. The idea of a heavily-trained astronaut is old, and the new thinking is that the people going to space should be able to spend their time up their doing whatever it is they are good at - even if just vacationing - rather than learning how to fly spacecraft etc. I know this…
I imagine that's the end goal but I have a hard time believing we will be there in just a few years. Time will tell.
First up is lowering the cost of escape velocity such that "casual" flights are financially feasible. This includes reusable components, a very low failure rate, and an ecosystem of employees, engineers, and culture that supports it.
If M/B achieves their stated goals in this domain, then the next steps can be practically executed.
I'm all for anything that gets us back to the Moon, but this clearly feels underwhelming versus Starship. It'd also be good if they got to orbit prior to marketing these grand plans. Gradatim Ferociter indeed.
I’m glad to see a different approach. SpaceX has the “outrageously audacious” space well covered. It’s good to have a competitor working on something more incremental in case it turns out that the giant leap isn’t viable.
Yes, Waymo is the market leader in self-driving technology (unlike Blue Origin). And there's currently no analogue to SpaceX in the self-driving car market. The incredible, complementary leadership duo that Musk and Shotwell present is unparalleled in both markets.
Astronauts train for years before going to space. Do these space tourism companies pretend that anyone with enough cash can do it?
No pretend required.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Tito