Space Things

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

I'm curious to see where Bezos and Branson go from here. At this point both are, I think ego driven vanity projects. No new ground is being plowed. Musk seems to be operating from a plan. Perhaps a megalomaniacal plan, but a plan nonetheless.

Branson is doing about as much as he plans to do, suborbital flights for space tourism. The Unity design isn't a spaceplane like the shuttle, although I suppose long term he could get there, but like you say I think it's more a vanity project for him from what I've seen.

Blue Origin has a plan and are more SpaceX than V-Galactic. They are capable of going into low earth orbit, and probably higher. They are building "New Glenn" now which is their orbital ship, and they had been participating in the lunar lander project for Artemis, but that has gone to SpaceX in a last minute twist. Blue Origin has filed a complaint on it.

I think now that Bezos is no longer focused as much on Amazon you will see them catch up to SpaceX, but I'm not sure it will be enough.

[bcj]

So no very far up really.
Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Cuomo show last night and put it into perspective a bit.
He related the measurements in 'Muricun finger counting units there.

Here's a link to the french fry metrics

"Using a globe to show what he meant, deGrasse Tyson explained that the International Space Station and a spacecraft orbit would be 1 cm away from Earth while the moon would be as far away as 10 metres. As per this scale, Richard Branson went up till around 2 mm from the surface."

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by bcj

So no very far up really.
Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Cuomo show last night and put it into perspective a bit.
He related the measurements in 'Muricun finger counting units there.

Well, when you get right down to it, there have only been 27 astronauts (the 9 Apollo moon missions) and one space dummy in a convertible that are really space travelers. Pretty much everyone else has just taken a stroll around the block. Whether you walked next door and came back, or went all the way around the block a few times, you really aren't travelling in space.

[brewloc]

Super Heavy Booster is being rolled out. Wow, 29 raptors!

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by brewloc

Super Heavy Booster is being rolled out. Wow, 29 raptors!

When does that one blow up?

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by brewloc

Super Heavy Booster is being rolled out. Wow, 29 raptors!

That is one big Pringles can.

Originally Posted by Spuds

When does that one blow up?

Don't worry, you'll see the flash outside your window when it happens. Sounds like they don't plan on lighting this one up, it's primarily for fuel load testing.

[Dadhawk]

Turns out the raptor engines aren't installed in this tube as they would stick out the bottom and would be visible, at least according to the stream I was watching.

[x808drifter]

[Dadhawk]

Speaking of space things, I really want one of these tags, but just can't justify the price.

It is a tag made from metal from the Mobile Launch Platform (Saturn/Shuttle). The part is the vertical hold that attached to the Shuttle and has been blasted by the rocket exhaust.

[JD001]

Okay, so I've read somewhere an asteroid is heading towards Earth carrying so much precious metal that it could make everyone a billionaire.. What does that mean? What happens to the economy, does the value of currency drop to nothing... Does it mean everything is free? People walk around doing jack, and when their time is up they are reincarnated for another blissful life cycle....

[Capt Spaulding]

Saw that SpaceX has stacked a starship prototype on the super-heavy. I may have to run down there tomorrow and check it out.

[Capt Spaulding]

Originally Posted by JD001

Okay, so I've read somewhere an asteroid is heading towards Earth carrying so much precious metal that it could make everyone a billionaire.. What does that mean? What happens to the economy, does the value of currency drop to nothing... Does it mean everything is free? People walk around doing jack, and when their time us up they are reincarnated for another blissful life cycle....

If everyone is uber-wealthy who is going to do the actual work required so we can all survive? Wouldn't all that formerly scarce metal and the wealth it "created" become worthless. Something scarce would come along to take its place. I'm thinking Dairy Queen Blizzards. With everyone wanting DQ blizzards and no one to make them, the DQ Blizzard maker(s) will be king/queen.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Capt Spaulding

I'm thinking Dairy Queen Blizzards. With everyone wanting DQ blizzards and no one to make them, the DQ Blizzard maker(s) will be king/queen.

Her Majesty's Blizzard becomes the coin of the realm. You read it here first, folks.

[Spuds]

Originally Posted by JD001

Okay, so I've read somewhere an asteroid is heading towards Earth carrying so much precious metal that it could make everyone a billionaire.. What does that mean? What happens to the economy, does the value of currency drop to nothing... Does it mean everything is free? People walk around doing jack, and when their time is up they are reincarnated for another blissful life cycle....

If we were to mine the asteroid in one go, it would make a few already rich investors more rich, and/or would decrease the value of that material drastically since we would have more than we can use.