3 ms·

We haven't even entered the real "Space Age." Commoditization of space flight is an important step. Call it whatever you want, it might be frivolous for Bezos a

by least 5y ago

We haven't even entered the real "Space Age." Commoditization of space flight is an important step. Call it whatever you want, it might be frivolous for Bezos and Branson to be the ones going into space, but who cares? It's such a small aspect of what's going on behind the scenes, where we have several private companies pouring billions into research of space flight. > But what he and Branson are doing has none of that R&D that defined the space age, where innovations in materials and technology found real-world applications and became everyday objects for common people. Except that these companies absolutely are doing R&D. We don't know what sort of "real world applications" might come from it in the future. We do know that right now, it's extremely expensive and difficult to go into space for anyone. Hopefully in the future going into space will become more than an expensive hobby for billionaires, but you can't get there without investment into space exploration. > All they're doing is spending millions of dollars doing something that has already been perfectly possible for over 70 years. Yet we still haven't returned to the moon and haven't gone to Mars, or to an asteroid, or to really anything else in that time. Being able to do it and it become a thing that we do are two different things entirely. We can't rely solely on NASA for innovations in space flight, especially when its funding can be stripped and killed off on the whim of a President, like Obama's disastrously bad space policy did during his presidency.

mavhc 5y ago
All smartphone companies did was the same thing anyone could do in 1970 with a truck sized computer and radio tower. Doing the same thing but 10x cheaper is progress, also makes the thing that's 10x too expensive that's never been done before possible. Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit are making air launches easy, but they're not the first. Pegasus first flew in 1990, released at 12km, can launch 443 kg into orbit for $56 million. Virgin's LauncherOne, releases at 10.7km, can carry 500kg into orbit for $12 million
KozmoNau7 5y ago
The entire reason NASA was down-prioritized and had finding stripped is because of wealthy private interests, who wanted that pie to go to them for profit, rather than to a public agency. And because the US only cares to do anything if there's a competition involved, the fall of the Soviet Union meant that politicians didn't really care anymore, they got lazy and lost their ambitions. Now China (and India) and speeding up and leaving the US in the dust. The money spent on private space exploration could be spent much better on public research and space exploration, with international space agencies working together, instead of funding billionaire joyrides and further lining their pockets with money they can barely figure out how to spend.
- least 5y ago
  The fact that NASA was defunded on the whim of the president is a strong indication that no, that money couldn't be spent much better on public research and space exploration because that money never got there. Obama's policies set NASA back a lot. We absolutely need private companies vying for better space capability. We would have to send someone, whether it be billionaires or someone else up into space to facilitate that. That money would be spent regardless, so why does it matter that Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are doing it rather than any random person? The goal is to get to the point where it's no longer remarkable to travel through space.
  - KozmoNau7 5y ago
    The influence of private corporations are the reason why NASA was stripped of funding, because of lobbyism and having politicians in their pockets. It's the same old game, lobby for politicians to reduce funding to public agencies and institutions, demand ever-higher profits and put hack-and-slash stooges in charge. Then after a few years of letting them struggle, publicly declare the public sector horribly inefficient and call for widespread privatization, with the contracts coincidentally going to your biggest sponsors. The USPS is just the latest in a long lineup of examples of this method. It's corruption, pure and simple.

by least 5y ago

mavhc 5y ago

All smartphone companies did was the same thing anyone could do in 1970 with a truck sized computer and radio tower. Doing the same thing but 10x cheaper is progress, also makes the thing that's 10x too expensive that's never been done before possible. Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit are making air launches easy, but they're not the first. Pegasus first flew in 1990, released at 12km, can launch 443 kg into orbit for $56 million. Virgin's LauncherOne, releases at 10.7km, can carry 500kg into orbit for $12 million

KozmoNau7 5y ago

The entire reason NASA was down-prioritized and had finding stripped is because of wealthy private interests, who wanted that pie to go to them for profit, rather than to a public agency. And because the US only cares to do anything if there's a competition involved, the fall of the Soviet Union meant that politicians didn't really care anymore, they got lazy and lost their ambitions. Now China (and India) and speeding up and leaving the US in the dust. The money spent on private space exploration could be spent much better on public research and space exploration, with international space agencies working together, instead of funding billionaire joyrides and further lining their pockets with money they can barely figure out how to spend.

least 5y ago
The fact that NASA was defunded on the whim of the president is a strong indication that no, that money couldn't be spent much better on public research and space exploration because that money never got there. Obama's policies set NASA back a lot. We absolutely need private companies vying for better space capability. We would have to send someone, whether it be billionaires or someone else up into space to facilitate that. That money would be spent regardless, so why does it matter that Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are doing it rather than any random person? The goal is to get to the point where it's no longer remarkable to travel through space.
- KozmoNau7 5y ago
  The influence of private corporations are the reason why NASA was stripped of funding, because of lobbyism and having politicians in their pockets. It's the same old game, lobby for politicians to reduce funding to public agencies and institutions, demand ever-higher profits and put hack-and-slash stooges in charge. Then after a few years of letting them struggle, publicly declare the public sector horribly inefficient and call for widespread privatization, with the contracts coincidentally going to your biggest sponsors. The USPS is just the latest in a long lineup of examples of this method. It's corruption, pure and simple.