Posted on 02/10/2018 8:49:17 AM PST by Voption
"Capitalism in space: SpaceX has highlighted the last image from its Tesla car, heading out to the asteroid belt after being lofted into space by its Falcon Heavy rocket... .....this also highlights that a private American company was able to send a payload beyond Earth orbit, and it took them only seven years of development and no government funds. ....[an almost perfect test] according to Musk, the reason the [1st stage] core hit the water so fast is because some engines did not fire as intended. [SpaceX] engineers believed only one of three engines fired during a final burn designed to slow the rocket’s descent, before touchdown. The stage only missed the boat by about the length of a football field, but the force of its water impact was enough to “take out” two engines on the nearby drone ship, and spray it with debris...."
(Excerpt) Read more at audioboom.com ...
“.....this also highlights that a private American company was able to send a payload beyond Earth orbit, and it took them only seven years of development and no government funds. ..”
That extremely cool launch, shows the way.
“No government funds”. Meanwhile the Tesla car company receives subsidies to sell their cars. Elon Musk isn’t totally ‘pure’ in that regard.
Still preferable to the way NASA does business.
Totally agree. But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does.
I loved the way it “jumped” off the launch pad. It had PLENTY of spare thrust — impressive indeed.
“...But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does.”
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No dislike for THIS Musk initiative. The reason being “...no government funds...”, IMHO.
the John Batchelor show is unique - really first rate.
“But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does. “
Well I don’t know what he’s said or done previously other than Tesla, (probably hates Trump) but launching your car into space using the biggest rocket ever and having the boosters land....
...well that’s reminiscent of old time American titans.
What’s not to like?
How is it that the video of the orbiting Tesla car is rotating in a Westerly direction when the vehicle was clearly launched in a Eastern trajectory?
How is it that the car is in a perfect horizontal plain and not tumbling?
Do you read / know much, think critically?
RE: “But there is a strange deep seated dislike on this forum for Elon Musk and anything he does”
Here’s some 5 Billion shrinking working class dollars of reality for you:
“In a particularly glorious, damning bit of investigative reporting, the Los Angeles Times recently determined that Musk’s empire had been built on almost $5 billion in government subsidies. This includes:
$750 million from New York State to build a solar panel factor in Buffalo.
A 10 year property tax exemption from New York worth an estimated $260 million.
$500 million in direct solar power grants from the Treasury Department.
$1.3 billion in incentives from Nevada to build a battery factory near Reno.
$517 million in California’s emissions tax credits from competing automakers (so that kind of makes Musk an environmentalist bookie, of sorts).
Whenever it’s reported that General Electric pays no taxes, we grumble at the thought. But Musk doesn’t do just that, he takes taxes. The taxpayer’s “investment” in his financial empire has certainly been a boon to Musk’s Tesla, which has seen its stock price soar over the years:
Right now, Musk is asking for yet more taxpayer money, this time to fund his pet project SpaceX, which he hopes will take him to Mars. The organization recently asked the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness for an (ahem) “public-private partnership” to advance missions outside of Earth’s orbit.
Of the hearing, Wired Magazine wrote, “the future of space will continue in that good ol’ fashioned American spirit of free markets with a heaping side of government help.”
Like a reverse Robin Hood, Musk isn’t robbing from the rich and giving to the poor: He’s robbing from the working class and keeping it for himself. As the Wall Street Journal astutely wrote last year, “Tesla looks more like a classic of the reverse income redistribution of green crony capitalism, in which the middle-class taxpayers subsidize billionaires who make products to satisfy the anti-fossil-fuel indulgences of the upper classes.”
But now that Musk has risen to the top, he has started to condemn government subsidies. This is symptomatic of Silicon Valley’s schizophrenic Ayn Randian attitude that the believe they created the world through their genius alone, and not without loads of government support. (News flash, Bay Area liberals: Silicon Valley was created by the DOD.)
On this contradiction, columnist Jim Motavalli said, “Elon is now looking at it from the point of view of a winner, and he doesn’t want to see other people win because they get government money. I do think there is a tendency of people, once they have succeeded, to want to pull the ladder up after them.”
http://www.weeklystandard.com/elon-musk-wants-to-end-government-subsidies/article/2009014
I’m no apologist for electric-car & solar-panel cronyism by Musk. I don’t like it and he probably could have pulled it off on-his-own, to a large extent, without money from the Washington Swamp trough.
That being said
(I do hear you! and it’s a point worth knowing & remembering.)
He’s not THE poster boy for free-markets, but he’s the best we have right now, and the best thing for ‘space’ in general, and he’s a Carnival Barker who actually delivers, with the Falcon & now Falcon Heavy.)...
I would put forth however, SpaceX is doing great stuff and it’s infinitely more ‘free-market,’ than say the SLS which is truly a make-work, Crony, Big Old Space, model.
(I do have confirmation-bias toward Space in general, and/but, I’ve waited 50 years for a little bit of Capitalism in Space, so I’ll take it!)
-thanks for weighing in!
The booster landings were cool, but that Tesla Roadster in space looked phony as shite. Also, has anyone else seen “Heavy Metal”? I haven’t seen any reference to the opening sequence of this 1981 cult film in the reporting.
That is because when he first got into the rocket business several years ago, he trashed NASA and mocked their inability to do anything.
1. NASA’s problems have been largely political/managerial, not technical.
2. Musk touted his Falcon rocket as a cutting edge design, new way of rocketry. The basics of his rocket were developed by NASA 50 years ago. He developed some neat innovations, but his disrespect for the accomplishments of NASA in the basics of his rocket design is insulting.
3. Musk has proposed some stuff that captures the imagination of people and politicians.... and is technically ludicrous. His idea of a high speed “Tube Train” that operates in a partial vacuum is ridiculous. That one died a pretty quick death after some engineers apparently told him how expensive it would be to build a sealed rail tube from Los Angeles to San Fransisco and how expensive it would be to pull a vacuum on it. We won’t even get into the details of someone moving at 400 MPH in a train then encountering a hill or curve.
He is a salesman. And his biggest successes have been getting hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government for his “private, commercial” projects.
You are on to something ref Musk
I’ve always been leery of Musk, however— when it comes to space & rockets & Mars—he’s committed, and’s he’s producing.(and’s he’s truly brilliant at it specifically)
Re-usable 1st stages?— We are living in the future! That is a revolutionary development in rocketry.
I don’t like cronyism, but I’m not going to be a purist on it. And SpaceX is the least of the Usual Suspects.
And with Tesla and Solar City..... compared to Solyndra, what can I say? Musk is no angel, but I’d be willing to bet, he’s wasted LESS government largess, compared to all the other Crony’s. It’s not an excuse, just sayin’.
Anyway... Good comments by all.
I agree. I was on it in December talking about Project Vanguard. http://www.thespaceshow.com/show/06-dec-2017/broadcast-3030-hotel-mars-richard-easton
1. Central Core failed to land. It didn’t just miss, or fall over, it crashed at 300+ MPH on it’s attempted return.
2. Burn to Mars failed, not because the engine didn’t fire but, because the guidance system, or engine controllers, or calculations were WAY off.
#1 is a system failure that is very expensive.
#2 is a complete loss of payload/crew type failure. They wouldn’t be able to reach their destination nor return (since reaching destination will be necessary for return trip).
Other than that, I guess it was a success.
I like John Batchelor, too. He always bones-up completely on everything he’s presenting and is a thoughtful interviewer.
(You can listen to podcasts of his shows with the TuneIn radio app...)
You can't name a billionaire who doesn't play the tax capture game to the hilt. Yes, ... even him!
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