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The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

wsj.com

11–20 of 89 posts

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#12
post #11

I have the privilege of being the space startup founder. If you have any specific questions - I am happy to answer them. P.S. Going offline now, but send questions anyway - I'll to reply them later.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear.

Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#13
post #11

I have the privilege of being the space startup founder. If you have any specific questions - I am happy to answer them. P.S. Going offline now, but send questions anyway - I'll to reply them later.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear. Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

It's all fine and good until the orbital computer rehabilitates a disgraced ex-console jockey currently selling drugs in chiba city to retrieve the hardware crypto key required for a wintermute/neuromancer merger.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#14
post #11

I have the privilege of being the space startup founder. If you have any specific questions - I am happy to answer them. P.S. Going offline now, but send questions anyway - I'll to reply them later.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear. Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

Yes, that's correct. We'll revamp the website to make business model more clear.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear. Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

It's all fine and good until the orbital computer rehabilitates a disgraced ex-console jockey currently selling drugs in chiba city to retrieve the hardware crypto key required for a wintermute/neuromancer merger.

Just what was the colour of the sky above Chiba, anyway? I used to think a stormy grey turmoil, and now people seem to think it was a uniform brilliant blue.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your business model, your website does not make it clear. Do you plan on selling time on orbital computers?

Yes, that's correct. We'll revamp the website to make business model more clear.

Can I have the MicroNOVA placed into orbit for me? I can't seem to do that from your site.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#17
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Gold and diamonds are common enough on earth, we have as much as we need for industry. Articles often talk about rare-earth minerals but don't specify exactly what is desperately needed that can't be found or made on earth cheaper.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's all fine and good until the orbital computer rehabilitates a disgraced ex-console jockey currently selling drugs in chiba city to retrieve the hardware crypto key required for a wintermute/neuromancer merger.

Just what was the colour of the sky above Chiba, anyway? I used to think a stormy grey turmoil, and now people seem to think it was a uniform brilliant blue.

I think Gibson was trying to describe an overcast gray with a lot of reflected city light on its underside. Sort of like VHF/UHF analog TV snow. He literally wrote Neuromancer on a typewriter, despite the subject matter, in the late 70s and early 80s Gibson lived a quite low tech lifestyle.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#19
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Planetary Resources. They’ve now pivoted into an ethereum-based blockchain startup. No joke. (They were Washington State based, not Silicon Valley, however.)

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#20
This article is mostly fluff. It doesn't get into any interesting technical details. The core bits are:

> Mr. Kokorich, 44, is one such entrepreneur. In 2017 he founded Momentus, a California-based company that seeks to revolutionize transport in space by developing in-space transfer vehicles that use water as a propellant. These would “complement low-cost gigantic rockets, like Starship from SpaceX and New Glenn from Blue Origin,” he says. Craft built by Momentus would enable the outer-space equivalent of the connecting flight. A satellite would reach orbit by “ride-sharing on a big rocket,” then transfer to a Momentus vehicle for the next leg farther out.

> The choice of water as a propellant, Mr. Kokorich says, would “not only enable extremely low-cost in-space vehicles—built in a ‘Mad Max’ steampunk style—but eventually allow the use of water mined from the moon and from asteroids.”

It would be nice if journalists did some actual investigating and reporting instead of just regurgitating non-technical PR.

I think there's some info at https://momentus.space/ but no interesting technical details.

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