Is Elon Musk Nuts? by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Is Elon Musk Nuts?

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Monday, April 15, 2024 17:54
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Monday, April 19, 2021 5:12 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Anyone who signs a contract with Musk is as nutty as he is.

Yes, I know: The American space station program ... such as it is ... depends exclusively on Russian "heavy lift" rockets, and since Biden* has done such a fine job pissing off the Russians, and the Russians have threatened counter-sanctions, those in charge of the spce station program must be having a butt-puckering moment.

BUT.

You won't find a solution in a "Hail Mary" SpaceX shot, which AFAIK have NEVER landed successfully!

Tailfin landings??? Seriously?? At least the space shuttle took its inspiration from Star Trek. Musk's program takes its inspiration from Buck Rogers!
Space Shuttle takes inspiration from Star Trek?
How so?
Space Shuttle research, development and testing predates Star Trek.
Even one of the later non-thrust bodies was testing before Star Trek ended. The M2-F2, IIRC crashed horribly. You can see the actual footage of that crash, which was used as the intro to the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

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Monday, April 19, 2021 5:47 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

OK, so Star Trek took inspiration from the shuttle program.

Still, SpaceX has not had much luck with its tail-fin landing approach. The last effort blew up midflight, when it was attempting its turnaround for tail-first landing. And this was the fourth explosion in a row!

I thought they were supposed to be making progress on their program. Instead, they seem to be going backwards lately. I get the distinct impression that they're beating a dead horse/ relying on a model that's fundamentally flawed.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

THUGR posts about Putin so much, he must be in love.

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Sunday, April 25, 2021 6:33 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, if SpaceX or any other firm doesn't get paid until ... what is the interim project goal, again? A successful UNmanned landing?? .... then NASA doesn't have to continuosly pour money down a rathole. Which is a good thing.

Not sure how that works for the company involved. There has to be some interim successfully-achieved goal, and then the partner company gets .... what?

Altho, based on SpaceX's achievements so far (a lot of rockets exploding) they have not yet achieved any sort of milestone. And if the contract is worded as you say, they will CONTINUE to pour their own development money down their own rathole until ...?

Elon Musk has another project that only looks like a rathole that Musk is trying to fill with money. The project is Starlink.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink

Starlink requires thousands of communication satellites be launched. Once the system is in place, after many years of work, Musk can finally start getting his money back from millions of customers, not one customer, NASA, in the case of the moon landings. The two projects are actually related. Starlink satellites are planned to launch on Starship, an under-development rocket of SpaceX that will launch 400 satellites at a time and also go to the moon for NASA.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Sunday, April 25, 2021 6:54 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

People think making rockets work is easy.

But there's something about those massive exhaust flames shooting through nozzles that makes them for unknown reasons become unstable. So having working rockets depends mostly on tweaking older designs previously achieved through trial and error. Even today, every now and again, a rocket from a reliable design and manufacture goes rogue. Or, if you think you're really brilliant and don't have to learn from others, and start from scratch, it happens more often.

Oh testing man, oh testing man,
How did that last run go?
Thus queried the harried engineer:
Speak man! For I must know!
The testing man, he scratched his head,
And settled in his chair.
Oh, I don't know, oh engineer,
But I think 'twas pretty fair.

Taken from memory: Rocket Man

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Sunday, April 25, 2021 7:12 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

Quote:
Originally posted by 1KIKI:

People think making rockets work is easy.

But there's something about those massive exhaust flames shooting through nozzles that makes them for unknown reasons become unstable. So having working rockets depends mostly on tweaking older designs previously achieved through trial and error. Even today, every now and again, a rocket from a reliable design and manufacture goes rogue. Or, if you think you're really brilliant and don't have to learn from others, and start from scratch, it happens more often.

Oh testing man, oh testing man,
How did that last run go?
Thus queried the harried engineer:
Speak man! For I must know!
The testing man, he scratched his head,
And settled in his chair.
Oh, I don't know, oh engineer,
But I think 'twas pretty fair.

Taken from memory: Rocket Man

There is Firefly Aerospace. Firefly keeps delaying the first launch of Alpha, with Reaver engines, named after the TV show Firefly's Reavers. http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=20&tid=63463

One day Firefly Alpha will either fly or explode. Maybe both! Maybe neither! Maybe this month. Maybe next year. But for months the rocket has been sitting on the launchpad waiting for some daring engineer to push the ignition button and see what happens.
https://firefly.com/launch-alpha/

If Elon Musk owned Firefly Aerospace, I am sure he would be asking his rocket engineers at least once a month if there is some reason for not launching next month. Musk would want to know exactly what the engineers need from him before they will be ready to launch. Whatever the engineers needed, Musk would go and get for them. That is not nuts for Elon Musk. That is how Musk runs his companies. Expensive? Yes. But worst plans have succeeded, and better plans have failed.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Tuesday, April 27, 2021 9:54 AM