4 ms·

Some say this is an "inevitable" result of pushing boundaries. No. This is the result of a poorly managed program. Some of the boundaries that are being pushed

Some say this is an "inevitable" result of pushing boundaries. No. This is the result of a poorly managed program. Some of the boundaries that are being pushed are how much oversight, how meticulous, etc you have to be. In other words, how well you have to manage the program, how tight a ship you keep. Keeping a tight ship raises costs, and isn't the big emphasis of all this privatized space travel on reducing costs?

x0054 12y ago
That's a really grate way to sell tickets: "We now know just how careless we can be to limit in flight explosions to just one per year!" You can't use the same attitude that's now common in software startups with space vehicles, or any vehicles for that matter. "Ship now and fix problems later" does not work with real world products, and to be honest, should be avoided in software as well.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  That's one of the big ways the private sector cuts costs! Where do you imagine the "fat" that the private sector trims (relative to gov't) comes from? The private sector isn't somehow just better at stuff. It has different motives and different priorities, and makes different compromises.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    That's one of the big ways the private sector cuts costs! Is it? Is there evidence that the private sector is consistently more accident prone that public entities when doing similar activities?
venomsnake 12y ago
Costs are fixed. It is up to the culture to choose whether to pay in blood or treasure.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- aero142 12y ago
  Even though it catchy, it's still bullshit. Spending much more money and still failing miserably is a likely outcome of lots of projects.
  - venomsnake 12y ago
    The less you spending on safety and training, or have lax safety standards, more people will die. End of story.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      Cars, planes, etc are all much safer than before while costing less. Safety mechanisms are not somehow immune to efficiency improvements.
- ninjaplease 12y ago
  Are you a professional quote maker?
  - stcredzero 12y ago
    It is a nice sounding quote, though it may have factual problems until you get to programs with large numbers of iterations. Speaking of which, your username was coined by a traditional drummer/singer friend of mine. Do you know her?
    - ninjaplease 12y ago
      It is not a nice quote, it's douchey, reductionist, and mostly nonsense. What on earth does "costs are fixed" mean? I also did not realize there was an inverse relationship between "blood" and "treasure". Are we pirates? In case you aren't trolling me, my snark was a reference to http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric I don't know your friend, but my username is pretty stupid, so if she wants to take credit for it she's 100% welcome.
galago 12y ago
Its scary to consider, but you're basically right. This also applies to automobile/truck/aircraft manufacturing. There's always something more one can do increase safety, but it often isn't financially viable. Designing a car in which no one ever died, wouldn't be feasible, or even functional. In the 20th century, cars incrementally increased speed, which isn't so different from space-planes flying higher and higher.

x0054 12y ago

That's a really grate way to sell tickets: "We now know just how careless we can be to limit in flight explosions to just one per year!" You can't use the same attitude that's now common in software startups with space vehicles, or any vehicles for that matter. "Ship now and fix problems later" does not work with real world products, and to be honest, should be avoided in software as well.

sliverstorm 12y ago
That's one of the big ways the private sector cuts costs! Where do you imagine the "fat" that the private sector trims (relative to gov't) comes from? The private sector isn't somehow just better at stuff. It has different motives and different priorities, and makes different compromises.
- icebraining 12y ago
  That's one of the big ways the private sector cuts costs! Is it? Is there evidence that the private sector is consistently more accident prone that public entities when doing similar activities?

venomsnake 12y ago

Costs are fixed. It is up to the culture to choose whether to pay in blood or treasure.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
aero142 12y ago
Even though it catchy, it's still bullshit. Spending much more money and still failing miserably is a likely outcome of lots of projects.
- venomsnake 12y ago
  The less you spending on safety and training, or have lax safety standards, more people will die. End of story.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    Cars, planes, etc are all much safer than before while costing less. Safety mechanisms are not somehow immune to efficiency improvements.
ninjaplease 12y ago
Are you a professional quote maker?
- stcredzero 12y ago
  It is a nice sounding quote, though it may have factual problems until you get to programs with large numbers of iterations. Speaking of which, your username was coined by a traditional drummer/singer friend of mine. Do you know her?
  - ninjaplease 12y ago
    It is not a nice quote, it's douchey, reductionist, and mostly nonsense. What on earth does "costs are fixed" mean? I also did not realize there was an inverse relationship between "blood" and "treasure". Are we pirates? In case you aren't trolling me, my snark was a reference to http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/in-this-moment-i-am-euphoric I don't know your friend, but my username is pretty stupid, so if she wants to take credit for it she's 100% welcome.

galago 12y ago

Its scary to consider, but you're basically right. This also applies to automobile/truck/aircraft manufacturing. There's always something more one can do increase safety, but it often isn't financially viable. Designing a car in which no one ever died, wouldn't be feasible, or even functional. In the 20th century, cars incrementally increased speed, which isn't so different from space-planes flying higher and higher.