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How much of this success is because of Elon?
There is no way to tell accurately when that would happen.
So the 'steamroller' is now up to speed. Does anyone have any ideas if Spacex will actually grow the launch market, rather than just dominate. What new things become possible with lower cost access to space. Spacex are developing communications satellites for internet, what else? Edit: Thanks for all the replies so far, I was thinking more down to earth (di dum ch) things rather than theoretically possible. Eg I know…
In addition to asteroid mining and other industrial activities, once pricing comes down, I think entertainment could be a large market. Space tourism is one possibility, but tourists have to deal with getting sick going up. I think entertainment produced in space but sold on Earth could be big - particularly space sports! You could design sports that are just not possible to play on a planet.
So the 'steamroller' is now up to speed. Does anyone have any ideas if Spacex will actually grow the launch market, rather than just dominate. What new things become possible with lower cost access to space. Spacex are developing communications satellites for internet, what else? Edit: Thanks for all the replies so far, I was thinking more down to earth (di dum ch) things rather than theoretically possible. Eg I know…
Total global launch numbers per year has been trending up since mid '00s, when the market was at an all time low. This upward trend predates Spacex and is larger than Spacex. The record number of annual global launches is 120 in 1967. 2018 has had 98 launches so far. There are 172 planned launches for 2019. [0]
> Does anyone have any ideas if Spacex will actually grow the launch market, rather than just dominate. What new things become possible with lower cost access to space.
Spacex is enabling new space projects in two areas. Having the cheapest launches, and having the largest single launch lift capacity. In the future, before Mars, we can expect to see more enabling from Spacex, such as having the cheapest human launches, and having even more lift capacity.
How much of this success is because of Elon?
They broke four records today: 1. First company booster to fly three times 2. First to launch from all SpaceX pads 3. Now most number of SpaceX launches in a year. 4. Highest number of spacecraft flown on a US rocket 64th Falcon 9 mission. 70th including Falcon 1 and Heavy.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1069679948103847939
The fairings currently cost a total of $6MM for each launch, or at least 10% of the physical rocket cost, so this could lead to significant savings for future launches.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition to asteroid mining and other industrial activities, once pricing comes down, I think entertainment could be a large market. Space tourism is one possibility, but tourists have to deal with getting sick going up. I think entertainment produced in space but sold on Earth could be big - particularly space sports! You could design sports that are just not possible to play on a planet.
More or less you can control Gs going up. The bigger challange will always be Gs when going down thru no atmosphere violently slowing down from 30,000 mph to 150. There is no viable way to slow you down “slowly” when gravity takes over. “No-grav” sports sounds interesting but I think with relatively cheap travel the biggest thing will be building a smaller (financially feasable) version of Elisium.
So the 'steamroller' is now up to speed. Does anyone have any ideas if Spacex will actually grow the launch market, rather than just dominate. What new things become possible with lower cost access to space. Spacex are developing communications satellites for internet, what else? Edit: Thanks for all the replies so far, I was thinking more down to earth (di dum ch) things rather than theoretically possible. Eg I know…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In addition to asteroid mining and other industrial activities, once pricing comes down, I think entertainment could be a large market. Space tourism is one possibility, but tourists have to deal with getting sick going up. I think entertainment produced in space but sold on Earth could be big - particularly space sports! You could design sports that are just not possible to play on a planet.
People keep say astroid mining but I've yet to see a convincing business case...
I didn't know that there are so many rocket launches going on all the time. Here's a list of them: https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/
There a launch almost every second day.
The most interesting ones are Dec 7 Chinese launch to the far side of the moon and Jan 30 launch of India's moon rover.