Elon Musk's Falcon rocket

mrfpb

In the words of Faraday when asked what was the use of his first electric motor experiment -"Of what use is a newborn baby?"

Sputnik was a novelty, but the GPS network is now essential. If you can't see the advantages of putting objects in orbit around the sun rather than earth,, just wait a few decades. If we do land people on mars having a sun-orbiting communication network will be important.

Musk is already hiring out his launchers to NASA to take payloads to the ISS, so if not self funding his "publicity stunt" launches, then he at least has a business model.

imposter2.0

Might just be me, but does anyone else think that Musk has the potential to become the biggest 'Bond Villain' ever..?

bianchimoon

Imposter wrote:

my grandad's bike wrote:

And the astronaut driving one of his cars in space shouts publicity stunt to me.

You know it wasn't a real astronaut, right? Just a crash-test dummy in an old space suit.

Of course putting one of his cars in space was a stunt. But he's just successfully launched the biggest load carrying rocket into orbit since Saturn V, so I think he's allowed a bit of 'me' time...

They would have had to use passive weights/ballast of some sort ie concrete blocks, genius using your old roadster. Wouldn't it have been amazing if Bowie was still around to have watched it

imposter2.0

bianchimoon wrote:

Wouldn't it have been amazing if Bowie was still around to have watched it

If he'd lived a bit longer, he'd probably have wanted to be in the space suit - something similar to James Doohan's last flight..

mrfpb

Today I shall mostly be listening to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZyLwfrDyjc

https://genius.com/Public-service-broad ... row-lyrics

I was only four years old when Apollo 17 left the Moon. I had thought, after all the issues with the shuttle, that landing a man elsewhere would not happen again in my lifetime. I hope to be proved wrong.

bianchimoon

Imposter wrote:

Might just be me, but does anyone else think that Musk has the potential to become the biggest 'Bond Villain' ever..?

you might have a point

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeeYW0NA1HU/?hl=en

He's mad in a good way! selling 20k 'flamethrowers' to help fund the hyper loop he wants to build

lostboysaint

No-one buying into any of the conspiracy theories then?

There were spectators for the Saturn rocket launches. And anyone could land a couple of rockets - blokes have been flying around in the suits for 40 years +

mamba80

mrfpb wrote:

In the words of Faraday when asked what was the use of his first electric motor experiment -"Of what use is a newborn baby?"

Sputnik was a novelty, but the GPS network is now essential. If you can't see the advantages of putting objects in orbit around the sun rather than earth,, just wait a few decades. If we do land people on mars having a sun-orbiting communication network will be important.

Musk is already hiring out his launchers to NASA to take payloads to the ISS, so if not self funding his "publicity stunt" launches, then he at least has a business model.

This is the most compelling argument for space exploration, however, we are reaching a tipping point with climate change, we appear to be doing very little to even limit it IF the climate change scientists are correct, we could be wrecking the planet and this will limit the advancement of mankind.

MF makes a good point about reusing/not using plastic but again, its all a bit stable door, plastic is being found in every corner of the worlds oceans, areas of which we know even less about than the moon.

Much of the 8k tons of plastic going into the seas every day come from a few fast developing countries.

As for Branson going down....... not on me he aint.

mamba80

the problem is Musk used the wrong car and test pilot.....

rolf_f

mrfpb wrote:

If we do land people on mars having a sun-orbiting communication network will be important.

Why? Mars is a dump. People on it aren't going to have much to say! And if they do (eg "oooh, look, I've found some more red dust), we can wait until other planets get out of the way.

I can't help but feel that Musk has converted the solar system into a car scrapyard. Of course, really what should happen now is that the car should be ejected from the rest of the Falcon to carry on on its own. That would really confuse the aliens.......

laurentian

I think we have always understood our earth, its place in the cosmos, its fragility and possibility far better from being able to look at it rather than from it.

fenix

lostboysaint wrote:

No-one buying into any of the conspiracy theories then?

There were spectators for the Saturn rocket launches. And anyone could land a couple of rockets - blokes have been flying around in the suits for 40 years +

What would the point of faking it be ? He's proving he can launch big loads into space.

So if a company comes to him with a lucrative satellite contract after this - what would he say ?

Conspiracy Theorists are loons.

imposter2.0

Rolf F wrote:

Of course, really what should happen now is that the car should be ejected from the rest of the Falcon to carry on on its own.

That is exactly what has happened...

rolf_f

Imposter wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Of course, really what should happen now is that the car should be ejected from the rest of the Falcon to carry on on its own.

That is exactly what has happened...

Oh right. I thought it was still attached to various rockety/satellite gubbins and all that happened was that the nose cone was ejected.

trivial_poursuivant

mamba80 wrote:

the problem is Musk used the wrong car and test pilot.....

I thought he should have sent up a couple of flat earth conspirators . They could have reported back their findings to the other flat earth morons.

trivial_poursuivant

mrfpb wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration,

Do you ever use a GPS?

Or a mobile phone, or the internet, or watch Satellite TV, or use commercial airways, trains.

The tech you live your comfortable modern life in allin one way or another was helped along by technology funded by space programmes.

rolf_f

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

mrfpb wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration,

Do you ever use a GPS?

Or a mobile phone, or the internet, or watch Satellite TV, or use commercial airways, trains.

The tech you live your comfortable modern life in allin one way or another was helped along by technology funded by space programmes.

Not really relevant though is it - just because something may have originated from space technology doesn't mean it has to have. In most cases it probably just means that the technology was developed in an extremely inefficient way. Satellite based technology is obviously clearly beneficial to us in a practical sense; I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

trivial_poursuivant

Rolf F wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

mrfpb wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration,

Do you ever use a GPS?

Or a mobile phone, or the internet, or watch Satellite TV, or use commercial airways, trains.

The tech you live your comfortable modern life in allin one way or another was helped along by technology funded by space programmes.

Not really relevant though is it - just because something may have originated from space technology doesn't mean it has to have. In most cases it probably just means that the technology was developed in an extremely inefficient way. Satellite based technology is obviously clearly beneficial to us in a practical sense; I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

The funding that was used to put man on the moon or put satellites in orbit around other planets helped develop lots of other technologies that we take for granted, so where it may not seem to have a direct influence, indirectly it has helped massively.

Matthewfalle

The above plus all that chemistry/physics stuff we don't understand, mechanical and electronic engineering, material composition research, biological changes .....

Random stuff probably goes in there as well like the development of the iridium coating for your sunnies.

Civvie and military development.

The list is pretty endless. Pretty darn shortsighted if you can't see the benefits.

vimfuego

Imposter wrote:

Might just be me, but does anyone else think that Musk has the potential to become the biggest 'Bond Villain' ever..?

right down to the flamethrower....

trivial_poursuivant

vimfuego wrote:

Imposter wrote:

Might just be me, but does anyone else think that Musk has the potential to become the biggest 'Bond Villain' ever..?

right down to the flamethrower....

Don’t joke. The Simpsons predicted Trump as President!!!!!!

fat daddy

Rolf F wrote:

I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

How are we going to feed a team of people that far away from home for the length of time there will be there for ? .... the research put in to feeding and growing in space will certainly drive forward the impending food shortage that will happen on earth as more and more people are born and less and less resources available.

oh yeah, and resources ... mars would make a nice stop off for future mining of the asteroid belt

AND ... it gives pretentious musicians somewhere else to play that isnt a Saville row roof top

fenix

Rolf F wrote:

[ I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

Blimey Rolf - do you stick to laps of your town when you cycle rather than venturing over the hill ?

bianchimoon

Fenix wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

[ I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

Blimey Rolf - do you stick to laps of your town when you cycle rather than venturing over the hill ?

or is it a flat hill?

rolf_f

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

mrfpb wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration,

Do you ever use a GPS?

Or a mobile phone, or the internet, or watch Satellite TV, or use commercial airways, trains.

The tech you live your comfortable modern life in allin one way or another was helped along by technology funded by space programmes.

Not really relevant though is it - just because something may have originated from space technology doesn't mean it has to have. In most cases it probably just means that the technology was developed in an extremely inefficient way. Satellite based technology is obviously clearly beneficial to us in a practical sense; I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

The funding that was used to put man on the moon or put satellites in orbit around other planets helped develop lots of other technologies that we take for granted, so where it may not seem to have a direct influence, indirectly it has helped massively.

Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean that those technologies couldn't have been developed more efficiently in other ways. There's more than one way to achieve an end.

Fenix wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

[ I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

Blimey Rolf - do you stick to laps of your town when you cycle rather than venturing over the hill ?

You shouldn't need to ask that question based on my comment - I just said it is fun finding out. But I can't say I have ever chosen to ride over a hill on my bike for much purpose other than fun unless the other side of the hill was where I needed to be. And I don't see any need to be in outer space.

That said, in truth I have cycled over every hill around here and am completely bored by it. Hence I pretty much just commute by bike now!

Edit:

Matthewfalle wrote:

The above plus all that chemistry/physics stuff we don't understand, mechanical and electronic engineering, material composition research, biological changes .....

Random stuff probably goes in there as well like the development of the iridium coating for your sunnies.

Civvie and military development.

The list is pretty endless. Pretty darn shortsighted if you can't see the benefits.

Oh I give in! If nobody actually bothers reading what you say, why bother?! All I can say is that people who don't pay attention aren't going to be developing iridium coated sunnies whatever their enthusiasm for space is!

trivial_poursuivant

Rolf F wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

Trivial poursuivant wrote:

mrfpb wrote:

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration,

Do you ever use a GPS?

Or a mobile phone, or the internet, or watch Satellite TV, or use commercial airways, trains.

The tech you live your comfortable modern life in allin one way or another was helped along by technology funded by space programmes.

Not really relevant though is it - just because something may have originated from space technology doesn't mean it has to have. In most cases it probably just means that the technology was developed in an extremely inefficient way. Satellite based technology is obviously clearly beneficial to us in a practical sense; I'm not sure that what lies beyond earth orbit really is. Even if finding out about it is good fun.

The funding that was used to put man on the moon or put satellites in orbit around other planets helped develop lots of other technologies that we take for granted, so where it may not seem to have a direct influence, indirectly it has helped massively.

Yes, I know. But that doesn't mean that those technologies couldn't have been developed more efficiently in other ways. There's more than one way to achieve an end.

Eh? But they were. Some of them were invented only because of technology developed by NASA. There are a lot of things that get developed they were never ever imagined. If these people hadn’t thought them up to solvecorher problems they would exist at all. A lot of scientific advances are discovered by accident. They are not planned. It’s only until someone thinks or a useful way to exploit them they suddenly become useful.

fenix

I bet most of us got a Space Pen for Xmas when we were kids ? Man I loved that lil dude. Now lost down the back of a sofa no doubt.

Worth it just for that surely ?

cooldad

Fenix wrote:

I bet most of us got a Space Pen for Xmas when we were kids ? Man I loved that lil dude. Now lost down the back of a sofa no doubt.

Worth it just for that surely ?

A pencil?

rjsterry

Rolf F wrote:

And I don't see any need to be in outer space.

If we just limited ourselves to what we need we'd still be hunter gatherers.

shinyhelmut

mamba80 wrote:

i totally fail to see the adv of space exploration, we landed on the moon almost 50 years ago, yet despite technology having moved on since then (somewhat!) we are no more nearer putting people on Mars than jumping over the moon......

its not the same as Columbus sailing to the Americas, same planet same atmosphere & similar eco systems, we know of no planets that can support life as we know it.

If he just wants to pump a load more carbon into the atmosphere in order to run a cruise company/advertise cars, then the guy is an idiot.

Global warming / climate change are very real threats to mans survival.... Musk might be better off keeping his feet on the ground and looking to solve real world problems closer to earth.

You are not the first to wonder...

http://myscienceacademy.org/2012/08/13/why-explore-space-a-1970-letter-to-a-nun-in-africa/