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Rocketlab acquires Iridium

investors.rocketlabcorp.com

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Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#241

Post by Teever »

stinkbeetle wrote: post #231
brookst wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don’t see how making people pay for their externalities is “gatekeeping”. If your business model relies on spewing litter everywhere, complaining about gatekeeping when someone makes you pay to clean it up isn’t even disingenuous, it’s transparently manipulative. The public is tired of privatized profits, socialized costs. Space seems like a great place to draw that line: if you can’t afford to clean up your…

The problem is regulations like these rarely "pay for externalities". They impose compliance costs or costs to skirt the regulations. CO2 emissions have not been solved despite all the regulations and taxes, quite the opposite they keep increasing and will continue to do so for a long time before even thinking about coming down. In large part because production was moved off shore to countries which have less regulat…

Maybe CO2 emissions haven't been regulated successfully because attempts to regulate the came far too late, and the attempts to regulate similar issues in space are coming right on time?

It's a lot harder to stop a very, very large group of people from doing something that they've been doing for generations. It's much easier to stop a much smaller group of people from starting something new.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#242

Post by hgoel »

lstodd wrote: post #230
hgoel wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That attitude is how you start building up more and more debris until an orbit is basically unusable.

That attitude is how you start building up more and more tech debt until you trap yourself into extinction. If I thought that Musk's effort could benefit from an infusion of cash I would have organized it. As it happens he's limited by other things, so I sit back and enjoy the view of our civilization slowly climbing the Kardashev scale. You can fly by.

Let me guess, you still think the worlds loneliest buffoon still gives a shit about settling Mars?

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#243

Post by nearlyepic »

iamtheworstdev wrote: post #100
Centigonal wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hank Green did a video recently advocating for an "orbit value tax" -- like a Georgist Land Value Tax, but for orbits. This tax would, among other things, help fund orbital cleanup and internalize the externality of polluting orbital shells. It's an idea that deserves more discourse IMO. Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLjW6zuYmos

Ugh. People already trying to find ways to gate keep space by raising the financial barrier to entry before we've even been able to capitalize on cheap space flights. I'm sure SpaceX and others will be against this until suddenly, they're not, when they realize they're one of the few that can even afford to pay it. Like when Amazon finally had warehouses in all fifty states and suddenly quit campaigning against onlin…

> Ugh. People already trying to find ways to gate keep space by raising the financial barrier to entry before we've even been able to capitalize on cheap space flights.

This reads like a parody of libertarians.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#244

Post by vasco »

ericmay wrote: post #205
athrowaway3z wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wish to take up a specific space, and with the right to use it come obligations. There was no tax or toll to consider. People naturally self-assembled under the idea that if you benefited, then you had to contribute. The calculation was: how much land did you have, how valuable was it, how much benefit you'd get from some waterworks (it wasnt just dikes but also rerouting rivers etc). Obligations were denominated…

Ok but that's not what I asked... You're just saying "we should have some system that benefits everyone". Ok sure that sounds nice, but you compared it to a specific framework with an off-hand "we've solved this so long ago" type of comment. Surely if it's so simple and straightforward and the Dutch "already figured it out" you'd have at least some idea of a proposal or implementation details. How will the toll be co…

Those parts aren't the hard ones?

You collect waterworks taxes the same way regular taxes are collected in NL. You get a letter with an amount to pay and you pay it. The waterworks is the entity that sends you the letter and manages the application of those taxes. The system that comment described is still in place today and operates in parallel to "regular" government.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#245

Post by vasco »

Sanzig wrote: post #111
pantalaimon wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In low earth orbit, space debris removes itself after a few years

Eh... no, not really. At low altitudes (<500 km), sure, but much above 600 km you are starting to look at decades for a passive deorbit depending on solar cycle and ballistic coefficient.

Decades is a few years in a trash conversation. Things stay longer in a regular dump.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#246

Post by rogerrogerr »

hgoel wrote: post #242
lstodd wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That attitude is how you start building up more and more tech debt until you trap yourself into extinction. If I thought that Musk's effort could benefit from an infusion of cash I would have organized it. As it happens he's limited by other things, so I sit back and enjoy the view of our civilization slowly climbing the Kardashev scale. You can fly by.

Let me guess, you still think the worlds loneliest buffoon still gives a shit about settling Mars?

He’s been remarkably consistent on the Mars thing for a looooong time.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#248

Post by dreamcompiler »

b112 wrote: post #219
dreamcompiler wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The instant the Soviet Union collapsed, we reduced NASA’s projects and budgets. The instant we beat the Soviet Union to the moon we reduced NASA's projects and budgets. That's why the Space Shuttle was such a ridiculous kludge.

Yes, and you're 100% right, but context is needed here for others even if you know this next bit. The original shuttle designs were much, much better. I remember reading tech specs and looking at schematics in Discover and Popular Science years before the final design. Maybe Omni too. Then it ended up in committee, politicians got involved, and funding was cut in parallel (even before the wall came down, it was clear…

I only recently got rid of my entire collection of Omni. No room to keep stuff like that any more. But I kept v1i1.

Re: Rocketlab acquires Iridium

#249

Post by numpad0 »

pantalaimon wrote: post #94
LunaSea wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any company removing space debris from orbit. Like a carbon capture price to offset your launch.

In low earth orbit, space debris removes itself after a few years

But that's the problem. The debris disperse whatever heavy metals and compounds into the atmosphere. Removing the debris and taking it somewhere, even just landing them protected in a heat shield, could reduce those vaporizing particles, if those are going to be a problem.
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