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SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

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Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#151

Post by ChelloYello »

nickik wrote: post #136
namelost wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, the value of someone's life depends on their citizenship, so they can perhaps get around this problem by only crewing their rocket with non-Americans.

Don't Americans die in coal mines? Don't Americans die on construction cites. Don't pilots die in air travel accidents?

Nobody said Americans don't die too, just that the US values American lives much above other human lives. For really obvious illustrations of this fact see for instance the Irak war (pick one), or migrant deaths along the US - Mexico border.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#152

Post by kayoone »

evanlivingston wrote: post #75
Osmium wrote: post #11

Honestly, Elon's presentations are some of the most impressive, inspiring I've ever seen. And the way he just stumbles out words and sentences that are completely revolutionary... casually dropping these absurd, incredible statements. I find it incredible. If anyone else was saying this, was showing these graphics, you'd think it was just wish fulfillment; a fantasy. And I'm sure their timeline is a bit aggressive. B…

I would be really excited about a future where everyone had access to clean water. Going to space is fun and exciting. The future of space travel is going to be interesting, but it essential that when we imagine the future that we do so while recognizing the glaring problems of today.

With this kind of viewpoint you would never advance anything. It can't be black and white like that.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#153

Post by ChelloYello »

nickik wrote: post #129
boznz wrote: post #23

Tell me again, why has NASA budgeted $30 billion for SLS?

Because the goal of government action is not to efficiently achieve a goal, but rather build a political coalition capable of capturing and defending budget requests. The SLS specifically was designed to build a coalition between NASA centers who were involved with the SpaceShuttle, a group of large influential companies who produce the core components for the Shuttle and the SLS and a group of senators who are well…

Look, you can't complain about government inefficiency like you can complain about corporate inefficiency because you are granted real power over the government by way of the constitution.

If you don't want the space agency to be controlled by corporations not owned by Musk you can do something about it via the many channels that exist for that explicit purpose.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#154

Post by internetionals »

The earth-to-earth idea is nice, and whilst it would be an improvement, I expect the travelling time to be the biggest obstacle.

You have to gather the people, check them in and clear them during internation flights. Then you have to load everybody on a boat, ship them to the platform X miles into sea, unload them, take them up the big tower, letting them board and settle and depending on how predicatable this is, wait for clearance to take off.

Now is the short flight.

And afterwards we can do the entire thing in reverse.

Some things might be a bit more optimized, like perform customs, safety instructions etc during the boat trip. But the entire trip from arriving at the sea/space-port until leaving it at the destination would probably be making this a diminishing returns and only really interesting for the extremely long flights.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#155

Post by Asdfbla »

simonh wrote: post #148
Asdfbla wrote: post #142

Making life multiplanetary seems like one of the least important issues of our times to me: either we figure out how to make life on earth sustainable in the medium term (next 50-100 years) or we do not have enough time to become multiplanetary anyway (since that will take centuries, and we will likely never leave the solar system anyway). So it seems a bit premature to concern yourself with interplanetary ambitions…

I don’t understand why this argument gets made particularly concerning space exploration. Somehow it’s ok for humans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year on each one of entertaining movies, going on holidays, playing computer games, sports events, etc but a few tens of billions of dollars spent on space will imperil the long term survival of the human species and leave millions of people starving in Afri…

Yeah, I'm aware of that. That's why I mentioned in the end that Musk is of course free to pursue his ambitions - in the grand scheme of things money is spent on much more pointless things, so him investing in science and space exploration is surely a comparatively good investment of his money.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#156

Post by Asdfbla »

DavidSJ wrote: post #146
Asdfbla wrote: post #142

Making life multiplanetary seems like one of the least important issues of our times to me: either we figure out how to make life on earth sustainable in the medium term (next 50-100 years) or we do not have enough time to become multiplanetary anyway (since that will take centuries, and we will likely never leave the solar system anyway). So it seems a bit premature to concern yourself with interplanetary ambitions…

We may always face existential risks. We now know of some concerning the next 50-100 years, but in 100 years we may know of different ones. Planetary redundancy conceivably aids our chances with those risks as well, so is a project best begun now, whatever the lead time. I don't want us always just solving the present crisis. We should think about the distant future too.

Maybe you're right, but I'm thinking more along the lines of "autonomous life outside of earth is impossible in the foreseeable future, so optimizing for existential crises that threaten life on earth is pointless". The only thing we can avoid is that we ourselves destroy earth. Basically, if an asteroid hits us or something it's over anyway.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#157

Post by nickik »

igravious wrote: post #139
nickik wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the key is that this rocket will replace the F9/FH/Dragon architecture rather then being a separate line of development.

It's key, and it's clever design. Basically space shuttle next edition with the booster on the bottom rather than it being strapped to the side of it and where the booster is reusable. It's a two-part vehicle: booster/shuttle. The original space shuttle had a 40% vehicular failure rate. The SpaceX Shuttle need to have commercial airline rates of failure and reusability. That's a big step up. You know the way we still…

The Shuttle just made the mistake to not be a fully two stage system, it was a strange hybrid.

SpaceX also figured out that vertical landing had many advantages compared to a plane.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#158

Post by TeMPOraL »

internetionals wrote: post #154

The earth-to-earth idea is nice, and whilst it would be an improvement, I expect the travelling time to be the biggest obstacle. You have to gather the people, check them in and clear them during internation flights. Then you have to load everybody on a boat, ship them to the platform X miles into sea, unload them, take them up the big tower, letting them board and settle and depending on how predicatable this is, wa…

That's a good way to explain Amdahl's law to people: no matter if you travel by plane or by rocket, you don't save that much time if you still have to deal with the TSA.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#159

Post by antientropic »

staticelf wrote: post #103
llukas wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Progress is not made by politicians, it is made by engineers. It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. Standing on the shoulders of giants is not only about your predecessors that solved engineering problems so you can dive even deeper - it is also about society which found better ways over time for effective financing that allows science&engi…

> It is very easy to forget that high-tech engineer is a species that only thrives in politically stable countries. I disagree, a lot of nations became stable because of engineering solutions in the first place and also more scientifically literate. There is a ton of examples of this. The first telescope, as an example, thanks to Hans Lippershey and Galileo Galilei showed that the earth wasn't flat and removed some p…

> Galileo Galilei showed that the earth wasn't flat

That the Earth is not flat has been known since ancient times. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth.

Re: SpaceX: Making Life Multiplanetary [video]

#160

Post by ucontrol »

kornish wrote: post #70
Osmium wrote: post #11

Honestly, Elon's presentations are some of the most impressive, inspiring I've ever seen. And the way he just stumbles out words and sentences that are completely revolutionary... casually dropping these absurd, incredible statements. I find it incredible. If anyone else was saying this, was showing these graphics, you'd think it was just wish fulfillment; a fantasy. And I'm sure their timeline is a bit aggressive. B…

There was a thread on HN about Flexport the other day, and about how branding as "unsexy" was actually a selling point because customers appreciated the authenticity – they'd rather you be reliable than sexy as a logistics company. I think a lot of people feel the same way about Elon. He's not overpolished, rehearsed, or manipulative...it's just honest and unapologetic.

This is very well said and accurately describes my impressions of Elon's speeches. I'm sure that I'm not the only one who appreciates his down-to-earth, authentic delivery, and it wouldn't be surprising if Elon and those around him are aware of the attractiveness of this approach themselves.
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