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I remember watching the Tesla going into space and the rockets landing on the platform. I remember thinking "Wow this man has restarted the space race for my ge
by hpoe 6y ago
I remember watching the Tesla going into space and the rockets landing on the platform. I remember thinking "Wow this man has restarted the space race for my generation." It was a hopeful and wonderful feeling, I figured with the budget cuts, the politics, and the general "been there done that" attitude that was prominent for much of my life space was closed.
To see it opened again, gives me some sort of hope, some idea that there are things bigger than our squabbles, we took one giant leap for mankind when we stepped on the moon, but it's time for the next step to see what we can do after a leap.
- nynx 6y agoAs a young person (21), I feel the same way. Space exploration and a beautiful future suddenly seems achievable with hard work and a lot of engineering instead of just feeling impossible.
- ridgeguy 6y agoAs an old guy, I feel the same way. I was in JPL’s SFOF building watching Armstrong and Aldrin step out onto the moon. Today’s SN8 mission gave me reasonable hope I’ll live to see somebody set foot on Mars. It’s been a good day.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago> As a young person (21), I feel the same way. Space exploration and a beautiful future suddenly seems achievable with hard work and a lot of engineering instead of just feeling impossible. That is the goal for me, I'm not going to Mars and I knew that as soon as I went to the MDRS. I also made it an effort to make the director (commander on several mission) to realize how important it is motivate the younger generation and not just the future astronauts that come aborad for analogue missions. SpaceX doesn't pay much, and you have to make a ton of sacrifices to even be considered, but I can tell you that being there you get this 'I wouldn't be any where else' feeling that I think is far superior to any monetary value. Unfortunately, many of this year's missions at the MDRS are postponed due to COVID, but the robot challenge (mainly comprised of college aged students) is the one I really felt felt disappointed about. I was going to try and make it out this year to help out with that. I hope you decide to get involved in this space (pun intended); I know if I was in my 20s, I'd do it all over again.
- nynx 6y agoGetting involved is a dream of mine, but it's been quite difficult for me to get my foot in the door, so to speak.
- Melting_Harps 6y ago> Getting involved is a dream of mine, but it's been quite difficult for me to get my foot in the door, so to speak. It is for all of us, it makes the journey that much better. I didn't get into to do any of that above until my mid 30s after starting late at ~26.
- nynx 6y agoDoes the journey have to be difficult to make the destination worth it? I suppose it does. Doesn't feel that way when you're still on your way though.
- benhurmarcel 6y agoFirst requirement is to be American. That rules out most people.
- garmaine 6y agoThis may be off topic and probably person specific, but what made you change your mind?
- boothby 6y agoAt your age, I had a similar feeling as the pictures from Spirit and Opportunity started rolling in. Quit my cushy but relatively dead-end web dev job, and went back to school. Busted my ass, got the grades, and found a love for math, but eventually found my way back to high tech. It's not what I set out to do, but absolutely worth the effort. An amazing future is within your grasp. It might not be what you're picturing, but an education in math, physics, engineering, mechatronics, whatever... will open doors to a brilliant future. Go get em!
- nynx 6y agoThank you! I'm pursuing engineering science. Until recently, I wasn't sure what I wanted to go into... but now I think I know.
- marricks 6y agoI'd really think a bit more about it. We have so many problems here and none are solved by leaving. Climate change, wealth inequality, hungry, poor. None of the billionaires (Musk/Bezos) building rockets treat their workers terribly well now, and their end game will just be exploiting workers around the solar system. Coming as a past fan of space exploration is was pretty devastating to realize...
- texasbigdata 6y agoPerhaps Elon is not the best example for climate change due to his battery research, solar panels, electric cars, etc...
- marricks 6y agoEh, I’d say he’s a fine example. Musk may be trying to help the environment but he’s not going to save it, that’s for sure, and his future dream doesn’t involve treating his workers any better than he is now.
- FeepingCreature 6y agoIs this about the environment or about labor rights? And if Elon "solar panels, electric cars and in-house batteries" Musk doesn't contribute enough to save the environment, what exactly are you hoping for instead?
- nickik 6y agoSo because he can't fix the climate by himself, fuck him. And his workers are treated pretty well, his companies often rank on top of places people want to work.
- marricks 6y agoHis factory workers are? With all the workplace injuries? If you're just talking about his engineers then I think you have some serious issues.
- sneak 6y agoMs Shotwell is no man.
- mhh__ 6y agoThe fact that SpaceX's President and COO is a woman seems to get surprisingly little publicity, especially given that she seems like the more qualified engineer out of Musk and herself as well.
- ctdonath 6y agoI thought gender wasn’t supposed to matter. She’s the best for the job; sexist to dwell on “she’s a she”.
- macintux 6y agoGiven how many cultural biases exist that inform young girls that their value is directly proportional to their beauty, it's helpful to draw attention to women who are successful for other reasons.
- read_if_gay_ 6y agoThis is a good point. It got me wondering how effective it would be to try and get rid of those biases in the first place, e.g. by eliminating certain TV shows, or fixing Instagram culture, and why this idea doesn't seem to get much traction.
- aardvarkr 6y agoThat’s a very male oriented statement to make. Somehow it’s sexist to applaud the fact that she’s a role model for women everywhere. It’s really hard to express how incredible for the chief executive at one of the most ambitious and innovative company of our time is a woman. I’ve met her personally and she is an incredibly inspirational person that I hope will inspire more women to become engineers.
- 6y ago
- anovikov 6y agoExcept he didn't restart the race itself: there are no opponents.
- dawnerd 6y agoUhh: Blue Origin, ULA, etc. The race for gov contracts is definitely on. We’re on the cusp of seeing these companies fight it out over who can start exploiting space first. Sure might be years out still.
- sombrero_guitar 6y agoSpaceX doesn't compete directly with them but the rockets from Virgin Orbit, RocketLab, and Relatvity Space are also exciting.
- emilecantin 6y agoIt seems people are giving way too much credit to Blue Origin; they haven't even sent hardware to orbit yet. They have a bunch of cool paper rockets, but they haven't achieved much beyond New Shepard (and that rocket has only done test flights). They are not even in the same league. ULA on the other hand is much more accomplished. Tory Bruno seems like a cool dude (he even comments on /r/SpaceXMasterRace!), and his factory tour with SmarterEveryDay (on YouTube) was very instructive. However, they seem to have absolutely no regard for costs. You can see it in the factory tour; they machine huge aluminium blocks down into panels for the rocket sides, removing ~90% of the material in the process. How is that cost-effective in terms of time or materials? They send back the chips for recycling, but still. And that's not even starting on the reusability angle; SpaceX is currently working on a fully-reusable rocket (and has flown hardware!) when ULA only has vague plans to save the engines at some point on their next rocket. I think the only launch company that could credibly compete on innovation would be Rocket Labs, but I fear they're too small and too late to compete commercially; they'll probably end up in the "very small sats in weird orbits" niche, as ridesharing on Starship will eat the rest of the small-sat market.
- garbagetime 6y agoI don't understand what you mean. Surely the big space programmes such as CNSA and NASA are ahead of SpaceX in most measurements?
- zalkota 6y agoCapitalism is a beautiful thing!