Elon Musk launched a car into space.

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Re: Elon Musk launched a car into space.

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Sun Feb 11, 2018 3:32 pm

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Simpsons did it again...
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Re: Elon Musk launched a car into space.

Postby IamNotCreepy » Mon Feb 12, 2018 4:41 pm

I think the question is: Would it have had the same effect if they had just launched a bunch of scrap metal up?

The answer is obviously: No.

The way he did it generated way more positive buzz than if they just went for the cheapest route possible. Tide didn't have to cast David Harbour in their Superbowl ads. They could have cast me instead -- I would have been much cheaper.
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Re: Elon Musk launched a car into space.

Postby blehblah » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:11 pm

SpaceX offered to sent something skyward for free, but given it was a test flight, the folks who own the very expensive stuff they want to send into the sky politely declined. The Tesla, then, was a back-up.

http://www.businessinsider.com/starman- ... asa-2018-2

However, according to Lori Garver, a former NASA deputy administrator, the company offered the US government a chance to fly whatever payload it wanted — free of charge — before deciding on Musk's car.

"I was told by a SpaceX VP at the launch that they offered free launches to NASA, Air Force etc. but got no takers. A student developed experiment or early tech demo could have led to even more new knowledge from the mission," Garver tweeted on Thursday. "The Tesla gimmick was the backup."

SpaceX and NASA didn't immediately respond to Business Insider's request for more details about the offer and why it was declined.


The article also notes while this might be quite true, the reality is that timing is wut kilt it.

Garver later suggested that the offer may have come too late or too casually to be taken seriously by NASA, the Air Force, and other divisions SpaceX may have contacted. It can take several years and millions of dollars to build and test even a small satellite that can function in the harsh environment of space.

"I have no idea when Elon decided on the car & the opportunity offered to the govt could have been for smaller payloads, low cost v. free etc.," Garver tweeted. "I'm sure [SpaceX] would call the car idea brilliant & provocative."

"If only informal inquiries were made & there was no serious interest, that is understandable," she said, adding that this is especially true for a first-time vehicle, and with a late inquiry.

"Tesla had to have been planned for awhile," Garver said.


Also, had the whatever required a precise orbit around the sun, it would have been a failure.

In any case, what SpaceX is doing is massively driving [har!] the cost of launching stuff down [harhar!]. The payloads will always be expensive on their own, but a pretty good chunk of the total cost is the getting it up [enough, already, Bleh] into space.

Musk is a showboat, yes. But, after PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, I'd be downright insufferable. By all accounts, Musk is a rather [don't do it, Bleh] down to Earth [the voice in your head is done, Bleh] kind of visionary, workaholic, billionaire.

Personally, I see Tesla as something which may work-out in the long run, as a company. The effect of Tesla on car manufacturing, specifically electric cars, will be long-lasting. Tesla could have a much more interesting future following the home/commercial solar (still waiting for the roof tiles in Canada, Elon) and energy storage industry. SpaceX, on the other hand, is something else.

While mass manufacturers of cars, like VAG, can smirk at Tesla's pace of manufacturing (while 'forging ahead with them thar diesels'), there is nothing out there that is close to Space-X, or likely to get there anytime in the foreseeable future. The turning point for SpaceX was this:

http://spacenews.com/spacex-air-force-reach-agreement/

SpaceX will drop its lawsuit against the U.S. Air Force in exchange for the service making more national security launch missions available for competition, the two parties announced Jan. 23.

The Air Force would also move faster on its efforts to certify SpaceX to launch military satellites as part of the agreement.

The move comes less than two weeks after the sides entered mediation over an $11 billion sole-source contract the Air Force gave United Launch Alliance of Denver.


All that to say, on the good vs. bad billionaire scale, as measured by net effect on the world, Musk is okay in my books. So, let him launch his stripped-down roadster into a heliocentric orbit with a fine Hitchhiker's reference - what's the worst that could happen, a traffic jam?
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