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It takes enormous amounts of capital to do all of this. He's got to build some of that capital first, and to do that he has to pursue commercial interests firs
by cryptonector 5y ago
It takes enormous amounts of capital to do all of this. He's got to build some of that capital first, and to do that he has to pursue commercial interests first. Once he's got positive cash-flow and growth and demonstrated a sustainable business, then he still can't quite build a radio telescope on SpaceX's dime for fiduciary reasons, but he'd have built a launch facility that governments could use to do it.
- justapassenger 5y ago> It takes enormous amounts of capital to do all of this He's literally richest person on earth and SpaceX is his playground.
- cryptonector 5y agoHe can't just dedicate it to this or anything else in one go. That wealth is largely paper wealth based on other people's idea of what he can deliver, but then he has to, you know, deliver -- if he suddenly dedicated himself entirely to non-commercial projects, then he'd suddenly not be all that rich anymore. So, he has to make SpaceX more clearly a success before he can dedicate any capital to a space-based radiotelescope. And even then, he can't use SpaceX's capital -- he has to use his own.
- panick21_ 5y agoSpaceX has to survive on its own, he can just do any project he wants. Sure, he could sell lots of Tesla stock and develop some scientific instruments but even for a rich person just dropping many billions on something experimental instrument is a bit rich. Musk is gone have enough opportunity to invest in things that are not commercially viable for Mars missions. Because it will take a long time before NASA gives them money for this.