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When I read such articles I imagine SpaceX dropping their own rover in a few years that will autonomously drive around and gather more data in 30 days than NASA

When I read such articles I imagine SpaceX dropping their own rover in a few years that will autonomously drive around and gather more data in 30 days than NASA had in 30 years. However, it will also manage to get stuck/kill itself within the 30 days ;-)

imglorp 6y ago
This is my concern about SpaceX applying its superpower to Mars. Rapid prototype iteration on Mars is orbital time: you wait 2 years for the next launch window and then ~7 months for travel, blow something up and learn lessons, repeat next window. Hopefully they do some rapid iterating on Starship Moon missions and get some of the blowing up out of the way early.
- dylan604 6y ago
  I expect SpaceX to be prepped to launch multiple rockets per window.
  - imglorp 6y ago
    In production, of course yes. In iterating development, you would expect one at a time so a bug would not affect a whole fleet.
spookthesunset 6y ago
One thing spacex seems to do better is “eye candy”. They’d make sure that copter would transmit high quality video of its flight... constraints be damned. Eye candy is very important for getting the public excited about these missions. More public excitement == more money and easier recruiting.
cma 6y ago
Musk said SpaceX would have a mars mission (not manned) on every earth/mars rendezvous starting in 2018. He originally said it was going to use dragon. And then he said manned missions starting in 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Mars_program#2016_plans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Mars_program#2016_plans They backed out of that but are still claiming they will do the manned around-the-moon trip in 2023 using Starship, and haven't backed down from point-to-point earth passenger travel by 2028 for cheaper than a business class flight. https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17227036/flight-spacex-gwynne-shotwell-space-ted-conference-interview https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17227036/flight-spacex-gwynne-... ("Shotwell estimated the ticket cost would be somewhere between economy and business class on a plane ")

imglorp 6y ago

This is my concern about SpaceX applying its superpower to Mars. Rapid prototype iteration on Mars is orbital time: you wait 2 years for the next launch window and then ~7 months for travel, blow something up and learn lessons, repeat next window. Hopefully they do some rapid iterating on Starship Moon missions and get some of the blowing up out of the way early.

dylan604 6y ago
I expect SpaceX to be prepped to launch multiple rockets per window.
- imglorp 6y ago
  In production, of course yes. In iterating development, you would expect one at a time so a bug would not affect a whole fleet.

spookthesunset 6y ago

One thing spacex seems to do better is “eye candy”. They’d make sure that copter would transmit high quality video of its flight... constraints be damned. Eye candy is very important for getting the public excited about these missions. More public excitement == more money and easier recruiting.

cma 6y ago

Musk said SpaceX would have a mars mission (not manned) on every earth/mars rendezvous starting in 2018. He originally said it was going to use dragon. And then he said manned missions starting in 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Mars_program#2016_plans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Mars_program#2016_plans They backed out of that but are still claiming they will do the manned around-the-moon trip in 2023 using Starship, and haven't backed down from point-to-point earth passenger travel by 2028 for cheaper than a business class flight. https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17227036/flight-spacex-gwynne-shotwell-space-ted-conference-interview https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17227036/flight-spacex-gwynne-... ("Shotwell estimated the ticket cost would be somewhere between economy and business class on a plane ")