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Like everything to start with? Consider that whatever device you're writing your posts through is millions of times more powerful than devices that, in the livi

Like everything to start with? Consider that whatever device you're writing your posts through is millions of times more powerful than devices that, in the living memory of some today, was something so exclusive that literally the only people capable of owning one were national governments. Then it became national governments and massive companies. Then it became national governments and massive companies and very wealthy individuals. Then it became .... anybody who can work for a few days at minimum wage.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
With an important difference that while over time it cost less and less effort to build a powerful CPU, a moon loop still costs about 3000 km/s of Delta-V. Since the first space flight, CPUs have changed in terms of cost and capacity worth several orders of magnitude, while spaceflight, despite the investments made, is still basically the same. I don't think spaceflight will be revolutionized in our lifetimes, making it affordable as much as computing power has.
- TangoTrotFox 8y ago
  It has already been revolutionized. After all was said and done each Space Shuttle launch came out to about half a billion dollars. In modern times Air Force figures showed Boeing/Lockheed costs averaging out at $404million per flight, and that's just on the flights. We pay them to develop rockets and even pay them just to exist. Literally, known as the 'launch capability contract', we throw $800 million of taxpayer money to Boeing/Lockheed for absolutely nothing except agreeing to stay in business. Isn't lobbying and corruption fun! Factor all the real costs into their launches, and we're paying more for launches than we did during the Space Shuttle era. Now enter SpaceX. Today you can go buy a rocket contract and send whatever you want up into space for about $62 million. That has already been an enormous revolution in space access, and it's just the beginning. They haven't been landing rockets for shits and giggles. Relative to the cost of a rocket, fuel is practically free. The real cost is in the actual materials for the rocket and engines. And previously companies have just thrown those away. Even the Space Shuttle had 'reuse' only on paper rather than any significant reusability. But the Falcon rockets are genuinely reusable, and them autonomously landing rockets is now, amazingly, starting to become business as usual. Go for a flight proven rocket and the costs drop even further. This is only what has already happened. None of this is future or speculative. This is happening at this very moment. If you want to see what the plants are then look into the goals for the BFR and Mars. This is the thing that's so disappointing. We're currently going through one of the biggest revolutions in technology today, that will likely be a keystone moment for our species' entire existence, and most people have absolutely no idea the relevance or scale of what's happening - instead distracted by irrelevancies that nobody will even remember in 10 years, and in many cases - 10 months if not 10 weeks.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

With an important difference that while over time it cost less and less effort to build a powerful CPU, a moon loop still costs about 3000 km/s of Delta-V. Since the first space flight, CPUs have changed in terms of cost and capacity worth several orders of magnitude, while spaceflight, despite the investments made, is still basically the same. I don't think spaceflight will be revolutionized in our lifetimes, making it affordable as much as computing power has.

TangoTrotFox 8y ago
It has already been revolutionized. After all was said and done each Space Shuttle launch came out to about half a billion dollars. In modern times Air Force figures showed Boeing/Lockheed costs averaging out at $404million per flight, and that's just on the flights. We pay them to develop rockets and even pay them just to exist. Literally, known as the 'launch capability contract', we throw $800 million of taxpayer money to Boeing/Lockheed for absolutely nothing except agreeing to stay in business. Isn't lobbying and corruption fun! Factor all the real costs into their launches, and we're paying more for launches than we did during the Space Shuttle era. Now enter SpaceX. Today you can go buy a rocket contract and send whatever you want up into space for about $62 million. That has already been an enormous revolution in space access, and it's just the beginning. They haven't been landing rockets for shits and giggles. Relative to the cost of a rocket, fuel is practically free. The real cost is in the actual materials for the rocket and engines. And previously companies have just thrown those away. Even the Space Shuttle had 'reuse' only on paper rather than any significant reusability. But the Falcon rockets are genuinely reusable, and them autonomously landing rockets is now, amazingly, starting to become business as usual. Go for a flight proven rocket and the costs drop even further. This is only what has already happened. None of this is future or speculative. This is happening at this very moment. If you want to see what the plants are then look into the goals for the BFR and Mars. This is the thing that's so disappointing. We're currently going through one of the biggest revolutions in technology today, that will likely be a keystone moment for our species' entire existence, and most people have absolutely no idea the relevance or scale of what's happening - instead distracted by irrelevancies that nobody will even remember in 10 years, and in many cases - 10 months if not 10 weeks.