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Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
131–140 of 259 posts
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything SpaceX is successfully launching today was similarly delayed during development. It's too early to write off Blue Origin, especially since Bezos just got involved in it full time.
Bezos was never a scientist, engineer or dreamer. He is an entrepreneur, business savvy guy. Its about the dollar for him (which I'm not saying is a bad thing), versus for Elon it is a dream/passion to get to Mars.
If that was true, Bezos would have sent someone else on the test of manned flight rather than risk his own ass.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
Starlink? But these companies (well, at least SpaceX) have their focus on making orbit cheap and sustainable, and pushing towards Mars colonization and asteroid mining. Those are engineering and logistics problems more than science problems, but I think they're very important.
Those are all ways to squander the Earth's limited resources while sounding forward thinking. Colonizing Mars will likely never happen, there is simply no upside: huge challenges, with no interesting resources. The Earth has plenty of space, we're limited by resources, and there are no interesting resources on Mars. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that we'll have a colony outside the solar system before a colony…
Musk's motivation, which he has expressed repeatedly, is to make humanity resilient to an event that makes Earth uninhabitable.
Whatever that event might be (asteroid impact, nuclear war, environmental catastrophe, plague, whatever), I think the idea of having a second site of human habitation is not an unreasonable goal.
Which is not, as has sometimes been stated, "giving up on Earth and the rich moving to Mars" -- it's just an insurance policy.
The resources expended to achieve this are tiny. It's not a lot of money, and the consumables are ... literally drops in the ocean.
That's not to say that there aren't other problems that could be addressed using that money, but it's not really a question of either/or: humanity could very easily do both, should it choose to do so. It's just that Musk chooses to focus on this problem, and its solution. We're all certainly free to make a different choice ...
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
What advancements have its current flagship program (SLS) produced? Maybe they do produce some but congress clearly wants them to produce jobs not anything else.
You know congress funds a lot more for space than SLS, right?
but sls is the program with the most funding currently right?
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Congress would be dumb to pick a new horse now. You're not optimizing for the same outcomes as Congress. NASA is a jobs agency.
A 'jobs agency' that has produced a whole lot of technical advancements, maybe.
I'm not talking about that; I'm talking about Congress, the guys with the checkbook. For them, it's a jobs program.
They're the next stop for Bezos, btw. This ain't over.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
> New Shepard was the first to land vertically Apollo LM was the first to land vertically. > if it were looking like a failure, ULA would have dropped them a long time ago That seems to be assuming that they have a choice. Given the fuel difference between AR-1 and BE-4, they've been committed to BE-4 for quite some time, no matter how much progress BO is doing (or not doing) on BE-4.
The first soft landing on the moon occurred in 1966. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9 Many rockets did soft landing on earth before that point, but none of them had been in space.
Sure, if that probe's rather crude landing system is enough for you, suit yourself with Luna 9. However, the LM landed on its legs in one piece, just like DC-X, New Shepard, Grasshopper, and F9 first stage did later.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#137Maybe BO will one day actually do something noteworthy on their own, rather than trying to prevent SpaceX from moving ahead because they actually do things. Bezos also recently tried to block Starlink's modified expansion plans[1] saying it was unfair to his conceptual Project Kuiper (conceptual because it doesn't yet physically exist vs Starlink which is in beta service and expanding). Amazon isn't even using BO to launch their own Project Kuipers first satellites (they're going to use ULA)[2]. That says a lot.
> Amazon did not say when the first launch will occur, but the company said it had contracted with United Launch Alliance for nine launches to begin building out its constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit.
[1]https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/27/fcc-approves-spacex-starlink...
[2]https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/amazons-first-intern...
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's one thing to disagree, another to call them sociopaths. If what they're doing is debatable - let's debate then. With respect for each other and with civility.
So it's civil to engage in anti-competitive behavior which arguably sets back the progress of humanity ("pushing the world forward"), but not civil to use the word 'sociopath' in reference to such actions? I was always taught that actions speak louder than words.
I mean sociopath has a real definition you can't just call everyone you don't like sociopaths.
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
The definition of vapoware is things that are delayed continously after they should have been released. The BE-4 fits into that.
A project is not vaporware until it gets canceled without delivering.
Wikipedia: "announced to the general public but is late or never actually manufactured nor officially cancelled"
Is official cancellation necessary?
Re: Jeff Bezos loses attempt to block the Moon-landing contract NASA gave to SpaceX
#140Why can't they cooperate instead of compete? It's not like they don't already have all the money they'd ever need or could use, and wouldn't the world be better off if they worked together than against each other?
Having some competition is probably the best way to make space companies work efficiently, cheaply, and reliably, so these two egomaniacs fighting it out in a space race might be the best possible thing for progress in the industry.
They're no more egomaniacs than, say, whoever wins a gold medal at the Olympics. You've got to be an egomaniac to think one deserves to be the fastest runner in the world, a completely pointless honor, but we celebrate them anyway.
Pointless as in I, an old man and an uncoordinated complete failure at athletics, can ride my bike faster than any of them can run.