5 ms·

Everything they do has an impact on their end goal/master plan, Mars. They need to send thousands of ships to colonize Mars. This global sat internet service w

Everything they do has an impact on their end goal/master plan, Mars. They need to send thousands of ships to colonize Mars. This global sat internet service will require them to deploy tens of thousands of micro-sats to provide global internet. The revenue generated by said service will provide them the funding to build the said ships for Mars. Oh and of course, the eventual solar system internet.

gfodor 9y ago
Yeah one can definitely imagine a future where SpaceX kills their payload-to-orbit delivery business in order to streamline operations and free up resources to focus on a) revenue generation from the sat network and b) the "get your ass to Mars" program. It'd be a risk from a diversification perspective but I could see them doing it once the sat network hits escape velocity wrt projected revenues landing them to cash flow positivity in the Mars program.
- grey-area 9y ago
  They won’t have to. The larger rockets planned for mars (bfr) will make payload to orbit even cheaper as it is fully reusable, so only fuel costs.
pjc50 9y ago
Colonizing Mars must not happen until we have a definitive answer as to whether there is or was native life there. The answer "there was life until Musk landed" is not going to be acceptable.
- thaumaturgy 9y ago
  There will be no practical way to determine that until we've colonized it.
  - jandrese 9y ago
    Proving the existence of life is relatively easy: we just have to find some. Proving that Mars is lifeless is flat impossible. We can't even be sure our definition of life is sufficient.
Dylan16807 9y ago
> solar system internet What exactly are you picturing here? Because of light-speed considerations you'd have semi-isolated networks at each major body, and bodies connected with special high-power high-latency links. And those links might as well be direct, only needing a handful of dishes. Is there a reason to scatter little relay satellites all over the middle of nowhere? Or do anything else that needs many many rocket launches?
- stcredzero 9y ago
  What exactly are you picturing here? Because of light-speed considerations you'd have semi-isolated networks at each major body, and bodies connected with special high-power high-latency links. Late 21st century FidoNet. Late 21st century USENET?
  - phkahler 9y ago
    And mirroring of sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, and social media. Interplanetary email (with video attachments too).
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  http://ipnsig.org/ http://ipnsig.org/

gfodor 9y ago

Yeah one can definitely imagine a future where SpaceX kills their payload-to-orbit delivery business in order to streamline operations and free up resources to focus on a) revenue generation from the sat network and b) the "get your ass to Mars" program. It'd be a risk from a diversification perspective but I could see them doing it once the sat network hits escape velocity wrt projected revenues landing them to cash flow positivity in the Mars program.

grey-area 9y ago
They won’t have to. The larger rockets planned for mars (bfr) will make payload to orbit even cheaper as it is fully reusable, so only fuel costs.

pjc50 9y ago

Colonizing Mars must not happen until we have a definitive answer as to whether there is or was native life there. The answer "there was life until Musk landed" is not going to be acceptable.

thaumaturgy 9y ago
There will be no practical way to determine that until we've colonized it.
- jandrese 9y ago
  Proving the existence of life is relatively easy: we just have to find some. Proving that Mars is lifeless is flat impossible. We can't even be sure our definition of life is sufficient.

Dylan16807 9y ago

> solar system internet What exactly are you picturing here? Because of light-speed considerations you'd have semi-isolated networks at each major body, and bodies connected with special high-power high-latency links. And those links might as well be direct, only needing a handful of dishes. Is there a reason to scatter little relay satellites all over the middle of nowhere? Or do anything else that needs many many rocket launches?

stcredzero 9y ago
What exactly are you picturing here? Because of light-speed considerations you'd have semi-isolated networks at each major body, and bodies connected with special high-power high-latency links. Late 21st century FidoNet. Late 21st century USENET?
- phkahler 9y ago
  And mirroring of sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, and social media. Interplanetary email (with video attachments too).
toomuchtodo 9y ago
http://ipnsig.org/ http://ipnsig.org/