Remember when rich people built thousands of public libraries and giant public learning institutions to create their legacy instead of taking glorified joyrides to the edge of space and patting themselves on the back?
Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
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Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
He's said he plans to sell 1 billion of Amazon stock a year to fund Blue Origin. That seems like enough to keep it going, and as long as Amazon continues at or above its current share price, Bezos does appear to be wealthy enough to keep this going as a hobby project for at least a few decades.
One billion is not a lot for rocket R&D.
Per year? According to SpaceX, they burned through a billion dollars in funding over their first decade.
The development costs for the Falcon 1 were ~100 million, for Falcon 9 about 300 million.
So a billion/year seems adequate.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say the quote is probably a poor choice of words. It's not saying the flight itself advances anything. It's saying that having another group of people working on space tech is competitive, and competition drives advancement.
> competition drives advancement Is this always true though? Space tech is highly specialized, if you can't hire enough people already, more competition just spreads the available talent thinner. I'd be curious if it's currently the case that SpaceX/NASA/BO's development is personnel constrained. I've definitely heard of projects at FAANG companies being cancelled because they couldn't hire enough people for them, so…
If we are personnel constrained right now (we might not be) surely this competition for talent will result in it being a more attractive area for graduates.
One of the smartest things the UK power companies did was create very generous sponsorship programmes for students. For a tiny fraction of a yearly salary they could encourage someone to specialize in their niche. Now the UK has a great pipeline of engineers and they're saving on costs in the long-term because they don't need to compete amongst themselves on salary because there's plenty of talent.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#114"projects in the works to support moving heavy industry from the surface of our planet into space. ... To set humanity on this environmentally sustainable path" How is moving - literally - heavy industry into space environmentally friendly?
There's no environment in space, so displacing heavy industry on Earth (which does have an environment) with industry in space would theoretically be a good thing. This depends on exactly where in space you do this, though, and the number of rocket launches on Earth required to support heavy industry in space could have a significant impact on the environment.
>There's no environment in space
So that explains how the ship was towed "beyond the environment" in the classic "Front fell off" sketch. They just took it to space.
[Interviewer:] So what do you do to protect the environment in cases like this?
[Senator Collins:] Well, the ship was towed outside the environment.
[Interviewer:] Into another environment….
[Senator Collins:] No, no, no. it’s been towed beyond the environment, it’s not in the environment
[Interviewer:] Yeah, but from one environment to another environment.
[Senator Collins:] No, it’s beyond the environment, it’s not in an environment. It has been towed beyond the environment.
[Interviewer:] Well, what’s out there?
[Senator Collins:] Nothing’s out there…
...
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
> competition drives advancement Is this always true though? Space tech is highly specialized, if you can't hire enough people already, more competition just spreads the available talent thinner. I'd be curious if it's currently the case that SpaceX/NASA/BO's development is personnel constrained. I've definitely heard of projects at FAANG companies being cancelled because they couldn't hire enough people for them, so…
> "Space tech is highly specialized, if you can't hire enough people already, more competition just spreads the available talent thinner." Try to avoid 0 sum thinking, its often wrong. increased competition for talent in space will drive up wages which will result in more people going into said fields.
That's true, but in these very specialized fields it can take a decade or two for that to happen.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Musk was closely involved with the design of the Roadster and is officially a co-founder of Tesla. Do you have sources regarding who did develope the Roadster-buzz business model?
Here the founders describe how their Roadster concept was integral to their pitch to Musk to become a Series A investor. https://youtu.be/eblPwXFb7TE
It sounds like Musk was already looking at investing in a different electric sports car company and thus it was more a case of a bunch of people having similar ideas amd working together. They also say that the buzz business model was something they sort of fell into.
Edit: The other side of the story is here. I am sure both sides have bias, but given that a judge dismissed Eberhard's claim that there were only two co-founders, it the five co-founder settlement seems reasonable.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here the founders describe how their Roadster concept was integral to their pitch to Musk to become a Series A investor. https://youtu.be/eblPwXFb7TE
It sounds like Musk was already looking at investing in a different electric sports car company and thus it was more a case of a bunch of people having similar ideas amd working together. They also say that the buzz business model was something they sort of fell into. Edit: The other side of the story is here. I am sure both sides have bias, but given that a judge dismissed Eberhard's claim that there were only two c…
The link was left off my edit:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090624221445/http://www.teslam...
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Equity in Amazon is not the same as cash.
Come on, cut it out ... I've heard this time and time and again in relation to billionaires. It might as well be. It doesn't take a genius to leverage equity ... and Bezos will have effective financial genius working for him.
I disagree. This is worth saying because:
1) time and time again, particularly in the media, I hear net worth bandied about as though it's the same as cash. Bezos is worth X billion - think what that cash would pay for!
2) billions in equity can't be translated into billions in cash. Millions, for sure. But not billions.
3) any statements that talk about taxing the rich inevitably seem to come down to transferring equity to the state over time based on a current stock market valuation.
All of the above seem misinformed and/or a bad idea, and worth trying to establish fundamental understanding in this area. If you already have that understanding then that's fantastic.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
ULA has contracted Blue Origin for their BE-4 engine to power their Vulcan. Future heavy lift launches will fund Blue Origin for a bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BE-4
Except the Vulcan hasn't had a single launch yet, will have half the payload capacity of the Falcon Heavy and is being built by a company with no experience in rocket landing/re-use. I don't really see how the Vulcan will be competitive with the existing launch capabilities of SpaceX, even if it does launch successfully before Starship. I don't see how Blue Origin producing the engines for an also ran rocket is going…
It is weird that they went with a brand new company to provide the lift for their NSO launches. Especially when they haven't executed on a heavy lift engine yet. It feels like New Glenn especially is a pipe dream.
Re: Despite Tuesday’s flight, Jeff Bezos is running out of time to save Blue Origin
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
ULA has contracted Blue Origin for their BE-4 engine to power their Vulcan. Future heavy lift launches will fund Blue Origin for a bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BE-4
And Blue Origin has forced ULA to fall back to using Russian rockets engines because their engine hasn’t been finished yet. ULA probably regrets using BE now.
I get the natsec hesitancy to go with the RD-180 over a domestic model, but at least the RD-180 exists.