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Blue Origin first human flight

blueorigin.com

451–460 of 504 posts

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is indeed a phenomenon that others have experienced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect

Most of the folks who've been up so far are military and science oriented folks; there's a bit of an existing tendency to think in that direction. I'm not sure the personality required to become a billionaire is necessarily going to result in the same feelings looking at Earth from orbit. "It's small, I want to own the others" might be the Bezos response.

Perhaps, but I think that’s speculation based in cynicism. By the same reasoning, wouldn’t a military person look down and say, “I want to subjugate the others by force?”

I’m more inclined to believe that there is something intrinsically profound in seeing all the known life in the universe in one field of view. I also am inclined to believe that billionaires are just the world’s most wealth-atypical people, not the world’s most neuro-atypical people, and thus would respond in the typical way to the overview.

But maybe that’s an optimism bias on my part.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the dream; affordable space tourism for the masses. If Starship manages to hit the price and performance targets Musk has set for it (~$2 million/launch[1], max of 1000 passengers[2]) you could get a ticket to orbit for around $2000. Throw in some extra for profit margin, a stay at an orbital space hotel, and a few additional expenses, and it might well be possible to take a vacation in space for less than $10…

I hope people have better dreams. That is my dream.

where's the steering committee for quality of dreams? I am still waiting on feedback for my dream of a loving family and no more nightmares.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the folks who've been up so far are military and science oriented folks; there's a bit of an existing tendency to think in that direction. I'm not sure the personality required to become a billionaire is necessarily going to result in the same feelings looking at Earth from orbit. "It's small, I want to own the others" might be the Bezos response.

Perhaps, but I think that’s speculation based in cynicism. By the same reasoning, wouldn’t a military person look down and say, “I want to subjugate the others by force?” I’m more inclined to believe that there is something intrinsically profound in seeing all the known life in the universe in one field of view. I also am inclined to believe that billionaires are just the world’s most wealth-atypical people, not the…

There are indications psychopathy is substantially more common in CEOs than the general population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace

I'm inclined to consider the Neil Armstrongs of the world more service-oriented than subjugation-oriented, as a general impression of their careers as astronauts.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#454
post #58

Memo to Bezos/Brandon/Musk: Great , but now can you guys do something about reducing human suffering due to climate change? Like potentially developing technologies for sucking off CO2 and other harmful gases off our atmosphere? Or how about cancer cure or anti aging or something that helps humanity?

https://thesolutionsproject.org/bezos-earth-fund/

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh man, struggling to channel dang here. How to respond constructively. Probably the best thing to do is flag and ignore, but I can't pass this up. If people are interested in going somewhere, who are you to denigrate their ambitions? What is wrong with dreaming of orbiting the planet? How does that dream fall short? Is it a weak dream for a midwestern child, landlocked a thousand miles in every direction, to want to…

Oxfam’s Deepak Xavier vented about the billionaire-hobbies issue early this week. https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/billionaires-blast-s...

[deleted]

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the dream; affordable space tourism for the masses. If Starship manages to hit the price and performance targets Musk has set for it (~$2 million/launch[1], max of 1000 passengers[2]) you could get a ticket to orbit for around $2000. Throw in some extra for profit margin, a stay at an orbital space hotel, and a few additional expenses, and it might well be possible to take a vacation in space for less than $10…

1000 passengers, really? Just imagine the possible loss of life if something goes wrong. We are still counting 100 successful launches in a row as an unprecedented success - whereas in commercial airplane flights airlines with less than 1 incident per 5000000 flights are considered 'poor safety record'.

There aren't many rocket designs in use right now that have had more than 100 flights _total_. It's hard to properly evaluate the safety of a system when it only gets tested once a month.

As the cost of spaceflight comes down and launch frequency goes up, I suspect we'll start seeing reusable launch systems emerge that have had thousands of launches across dozens of rockets. Once that happens I think spaceflight's safety record will improve significantly.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the dream; affordable space tourism for the masses. If Starship manages to hit the price and performance targets Musk has set for it (~$2 million/launch[1], max of 1000 passengers[2]) you could get a ticket to orbit for around $2000. Throw in some extra for profit margin, a stay at an orbital space hotel, and a few additional expenses, and it might well be possible to take a vacation in space for less than $10…

But for a $10k vacation, you get to sleep in a bed, order room service, go outside, go golfing, see a show, etc. 10k in space will get you what? --- Random thought: If they were able to get enough water into space such that one could swim through a sphere of water in a weightless environment, what would the sensation of being encapsulated in water while weightless feel like (clearly needing scuba or some other air co…

>go golfing

lol you would have to pay me to go golfing

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#458
How long before people record it and post it on social media?

Cool experience for the first few people, but once everyone has been there, it is just a vomit comet to nowhere for the price of a car -- sort of like the world's most uncomfortable cruise ship.

As an FYI: the Concorde wasn't actually all that nice inside -- food was excellent, but unless you really needed the extra 3-4 hours, first class conventional was a much nicer trip.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the sub-orbital is a harder sell. When you are the only one or one of a few, the benefit/cost is perceived to be higher. After a dozen or so of these flights much of the cachet will be gone. Can they (Bezos/Branson) bring the cost down fast enough to transition to a sustainable model? In 2000, Dennis Tito paid $20M for 11,400 minutes in space or about $1750/minute ($2765 in 2021 dollars). The Branson and Bezos…

Honestly, I wish Branson and Bezos would have just put their dicks back in their pants and just fully got behind spaceX I absolutely dont care about Bezos or Branson being able to do these stunts - SpaceX already docked with the IIS ffs. It's like McClaren winning the Gran Prix, and then Toyota and Ford showing that their CEOs can finish a few laps in Monaco.

Doesn't blindly ceding to the industry leaders ultimately result in stagnation?

The VG and BO launches were both underwhelming for me - but it's still exciting to see the different engineering approaches, it's like hedging a bet, and I am sure each of them will pay dividends - one way or another.

Re: Blue Origin first human flight

#460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for a $10k vacation, you get to sleep in a bed, order room service, go outside, go golfing, see a show, etc. 10k in space will get you what? --- Random thought: If they were able to get enough water into space such that one could swim through a sphere of water in a weightless environment, what would the sensation of being encapsulated in water while weightless feel like (clearly needing scuba or some other air co…

>go golfing lol you would have to pay me to go golfing

Retarded response... you know what I meant. Go to the pub and wait for this to all blow over.
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