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> Space is no longer pioneered by nations, it's pioneered by people making money. Why is this bad? That space is a viable destination for private businesses sh

> Space is no longer pioneered by nations, it's pioneered by people making money. Why is this bad? That space is a viable destination for private businesses shows just how far we've come.

rhizome 13y ago
To be fair, it appears that the robber barons never even tried.
hellgas00 13y ago
How are private companies entrance into the rocket design market innovative? Changing the market model for rocket design is hardly innovation, SpaceX getting gov't and private contracts for things done previously, I don't think, is true innovation.
kops 13y ago
Exactly. I may not gain an iota out of it, but I will trade an Elon Musk over a Prince Charles any day. We are gradually moving towards a society where inheritance may not be illegal, but hopefully it will be irrelevant. To me this sounds like the greatest achievement of human race...
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  > We are gradually moving towards a society where inheritance may not be illegal, but hopefully it will be irrelevant. No, we are not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United... http://www.alternet.org/fun-facts-about-rich-people-walmart-heirs-own-more-wealth-bottom-40-americans-wealthy-give-less http://www.alternet.org/fun-facts-about-rich-people-walmart-...
deleted 13y ago
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rektide 13y ago
Are you kidding? SpaceX built a tiny but cost effective rocket engine and rocket for significantly under a quarter billion. Most of the engineering was done under the initial $100m from Musk. They borrowed from well known engine designs that were simple, uncomplex, controllable, and safe, that had only been used on a small scale (they now use 9 of them). They used the cheapest, well-known weld technique, friction stir welding for the rocket. X33, the last great "try some crazy shit" we pulled, was cancelled after $922m from NASA and $357m from Lockheed Martin. (Leave it to congress to kill the interesting/tricky/useful stuff! Revive this project!) X33 was 1/10th the weight of the VentureStar craft it was a demonstrator for. It was to pioneer radical new high efficiency high-control thrust vectoring engines burning the most gravometrically dense element, innovative cryonics, sstol, lighweight composite construction techniques, lifting body aerodynamics, metallic thermal protection, and unmanned flight controls. Any one of these things could produce massive massive spinoff technologies in it's wake, and would be incredibly important technologies to be able to point to, and set a new bar for progress. It's not that private industry is bad (oh, it is), it's that private industry is boring, safe, incremental, and the only massive innovations this world have ever seen have jumped up from the shadows and stolen existing big buisnesses lunch in the split second it took business to blink. Business is the living antithesis of what is most interesting and uniquely human: the radical.

> Space is no longer pioneered by nations, it's pioneered by people making money. Why is this bad? That space is a viable destination for private businesses shows just how far we've come.

rhizome 13y ago

To be fair, it appears that the robber barons never even tried.

hellgas00 13y ago

How are private companies entrance into the rocket design market innovative? Changing the market model for rocket design is hardly innovation, SpaceX getting gov't and private contracts for things done previously, I don't think, is true innovation.

kops 13y ago

Exactly. I may not gain an iota out of it, but I will trade an Elon Musk over a Prince Charles any day. We are gradually moving towards a society where inheritance may not be illegal, but hopefully it will be irrelevant. To me this sounds like the greatest achievement of human race...

johnchristopher 13y ago
> We are gradually moving towards a society where inheritance may not be illegal, but hopefully it will be irrelevant. No, we are not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United... http://www.alternet.org/fun-facts-about-rich-people-walmart-heirs-own-more-wealth-bottom-40-americans-wealthy-give-less http://www.alternet.org/fun-facts-about-rich-people-walmart-...

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rektide 13y ago

Are you kidding? SpaceX built a tiny but cost effective rocket engine and rocket for significantly under a quarter billion. Most of the engineering was done under the initial $100m from Musk. They borrowed from well known engine designs that were simple, uncomplex, controllable, and safe, that had only been used on a small scale (they now use 9 of them). They used the cheapest, well-known weld technique, friction stir welding for the rocket. X33, the last great "try some crazy shit" we pulled, was cancelled after $922m from NASA and $357m from Lockheed Martin. (Leave it to congress to kill the interesting/tricky/useful stuff! Revive this project!) X33 was 1/10th the weight of the VentureStar craft it was a demonstrator for. It was to pioneer radical new high efficiency high-control thrust vectoring engines burning the most gravometrically dense element, innovative cryonics, sstol, lighweight composite construction techniques, lifting body aerodynamics, metallic thermal protection, and unmanned flight controls. Any one of these things could produce massive massive spinoff technologies in it's wake, and would be incredibly important technologies to be able to point to, and set a new bar for progress. It's not that private industry is bad (oh, it is), it's that private industry is boring, safe, incremental, and the only massive innovations this world have ever seen have jumped up from the shadows and stolen existing big buisnesses lunch in the split second it took business to blink. Business is the living antithesis of what is most interesting and uniquely human: the radical.