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Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

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Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#51

Post by samastur »

jjeaff wrote: post #42
ceejayoz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If John Glenn could do a Shuttle flight at 77, I suspect you're overstating the difficulties here. People voluntarily subject themselves to 3+ Gs and 360 degrees pitch/roll at amusement parks daily, with fairly minimal levels of physical fitness being required.

If the full 30 minute flight is like a roller coaster, I would be green by the time we got there and probably have a full puke bag. But I'd still prefer that to a 12 hr long haul flight in coach.

If you could afford flying on a rocket, I bet you can also afford flying first-class. Would that alter your preference?

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#52

Post by chapium »

ceejayoz wrote: post #27
aphextron wrote: post #23

Rocket based travel will never ever ever happen on a widespread scale simply because of the G forces involved. Passengers on an airliner will begin feeling uncomfortable at around 1.2 G's and > 20 degrees of bank angle. The thought of subjecting regular paying passengers to 3+ G's and a full 360 degrees of pitch/roll is absurd. It could definitely be a niche thing for people that are physically fit, but this just isn…

If John Glenn could do a Shuttle flight at 77, I suspect you're overstating the difficulties here. People voluntarily subject themselves to 3+ Gs and 360 degrees pitch/roll at amusement parks daily, with fairly minimal levels of physical fitness being required.

John Glenn is an exceptional case however. His career was in rocket travel and experimental aircraft.

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#53

Post by huslage »

larrydag wrote: post #18

As a business model I think SpaceX should be a manufacturer and not in the transportation business akin to Boeing or Airbus. There is a ton of logistics involved in transporting people globally. Of course there is the safety issues as well.

SpaceX already are in the transportation business...they launch payloads into space today. Boeing and Airbus are manufacturers of those payloads and aircraft and whatever else, but they don't routinely operate them.

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#54

Post by XR0CSWV3h3kZWg »

ceejayoz wrote: post #29
bmcusick wrote: post #14

The main thing I'm thinking of is noise pollution. You think living near an airport is loud? I cannot even imagine what living near a BFR spaceport would be like. For coastal cities maybe it would be worth it to build a landing pad on an ocean platform some miles out to sea, but what about for cities like Atlanta or Beijing? There's nowhere around them to build that isn't already a suburb.

I'd expect a city like Atlanta to be served by an off-shore landing zone, with high speed rail (hyperloop!) as the connection.

Atlanta is very open to running public transit lanes into the area and land acq is cheap OTP. /s

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#55

Post by ksherlock »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #44
sandworm101 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> safety issues as well. And vomit. 4+G on launch. Freefall during cruise. 5+ G on reentry. Give me the first class ticket on a BA flight any day.

That sounds amazing actually. As of today, I'd consider a few minutes of micro gravity to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If that ever becomes something you can experience for the price of an airline ticket, I'd consider the ride itself to be worth the price of admission all on its own. Obviously not for everyone, but you don't really need to be able to service _everyone_ to be profitable.

You can do it today for the price of a reduced-gravity aircraft ticket (~$5,000, https://www.gozerog.com)

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#56

Post by XR0CSWV3h3kZWg »

Ajedi32 wrote: post #48
pjmorris wrote: post #32

How do you tell the difference between commercial scheduled rocket flights and incoming ICBM's?

The same way you tell the difference between commercial scheduled airline flights incoming kamikaze pilots?

Assume that there aren't commercial scheduled airline flights going straight through a warzone?

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#58

Post by AskewEgret »

igravious wrote: post #9
cthulhujr wrote: post #2

>This is the only time I've out-visioned Elon ... I want to meet other people in other solar systems. You're not out-visioning Elon; it's a petty attempt at one-upmanship. It just doesn't seem genuine. I want to meet people in other Superclusters. Now she's been out-visioned!

Employee #7 at SpaceX didn't you hear? Relax, they're on the same team.

And a really interesting life story. I like how she randomly ended up in the job:

https://www.northwestern.edu/magazine/spring2012/feature/roc...

> Four years into the job, Shotwell had lunch with a co-worker who had just joined the then-startup company SpaceX. They walked by the cubicle of CEO Elon Musk. “I said, ‘Oh, Elon, nice to meet you. You really need a new business developer,’” Shotwell recalls. “It just popped out. I was bad. It was very rude.”

> Or just bold enough to capture Musk’s attention. He called her later that day in 2002 and recruited her to be vice president of business development, his seventh employee. She wrestled with the decision. “The history of startup rocket companies isn’t exactly great,” explains Hughes, SpaceX senior vice president and general counsel. “This was not necessarily the safest play.”

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#59

Post by Ajedi32 »

XR0CSWV3h3kZWg wrote: post #56
Ajedi32 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same way you tell the difference between commercial scheduled airline flights incoming kamikaze pilots?

Assume that there aren't commercial scheduled airline flights going straight through a warzone?

Assume there aren't commercial scheduled spaceline flights taking off from nuclear missile silos.

Re: Gwynne Shotwell: SpaceX's Plan to Fly You Across the Globe in 30 Minutes [video]

#60

Post by hackpert »

I think a major point that isn't being talked enough about in public (although I'm sure people in SpaceX have considered it before coming up with numbers) with the "point-to-point" transport system is simple demand-supply economics. Sure, let's say they can run 10 100-person flights per day from New York to Shanghai but do that many people even want to travel that route on that particular day?
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