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Musk's Mars plan depends on reducing the marginal costs of launching so much that SpaceX could with minimal expenditure chuck dozens of rockets at Mars every ye
by wahern 8y ago
Musk's Mars plan depends on reducing the marginal costs of launching so much that SpaceX could with minimal expenditure chuck dozens of rockets at Mars every year loaded with supplies and crew.
This is important to keep in mind when wondering why a corporation would continue pushing its costs down after obtaining an effective monopoly. As long as Mars is the goal SpaceX won't turn into a ULA or Ariane. But if for some reason SpaceX ceases to pursue Mars then it would likely recapitulate the same business decisions of every other spacefaring corporation.
- TangoTrotFox 8y agoOn the other hand, one might argue that SpaceX has already permanently changed the space game. If SpaceX fails to keep moving society forward, it would do little more than create a major vacuum that could be filled by companies such as Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, or other new players. I think this in particular is really the hugest benefit of privatizing space. When we had the government in charge of space, it living or dying was really subject to nothing more than the whims of a gaggle of politicians. As space has become a prominent part of the private industry with ever increasing competition, you remove that aspect of a single point of failure. I think the odds of us entering into another era of stagnation come regression are rapidly approaching 0, and that's incredibly exciting!
- TomK32 8y agoone mission to Mars, just think about the workload that ground control would have to deal with. Will there be extra communication satellites involved outside earth's system?