Author Topic: Elon Musk-SpaceX Interview at MIT AeroAstro, Oct 2014  (Read 155039 times)

Offline Chris Bergin

New techs required for Mars - what about the Moon?

Going to the Moon is like crossing the English channel when you compare to going to Mars. Moon is not necessary as a step.

I think we've got the basics for Mars travel. Earth Orbit refueling. MCT fleet between Earth/Mars every 26 months. Don't need any sort of thing we don't know about. Mass efficiency is important, better heat shields. Radiation risk is overblown. Mitigate en route to Mars, such as the water in the direction of the Sun.

Need a Prop Depot on Mars (that just made a few people I know cheer ;) )

Think we'll see more robots on Mars. Need to make sure the prop depot works. Do you need a nuclear reactor - they are heavy. Big inflatable solar arrays? Power generation is what to figure out.

Mars has a CO2 atmosphere, there's a lot of water.

Love it when he rambles. Cool things are said ;D
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Offline Chris Bergin

Plenty of people will go one way to Mars.

*Hands up if you want to go to Mars*

Hardly anyone.

Elon jokes "not to die!" ;D
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Offline Chris Bergin

Important to have a self sustaining colony on Mars. Not as important as health care, but more important than cosmetics ;D
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Offline Chris Bergin

Wise move to aim for Mars now. The window of opportunity is with us. Speaks of the Pyramids, and then they couldn't build them. There's clearly been a cycle with technology. Hopefully it's upwards looking for a really great future, but maybe it doesn't, something bad really happens......
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Offline Chris Bergin

Q&A coming up soon!

Tesla stuff first. Lovely cars, but OFF TOPIC! ;D
« Last Edit: 10/24/2014 05:14 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Chris Bergin

HA! Football (soccer) references! Talking about the best player on a team is not the one that scores all the goals, but one who provides the most assists.

I officially love him now! ;D (Especially as I play on the right wing, so that'll be me!)
« Last Edit: 10/24/2014 05:26 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Chris Bergin

Question time. About NASA's future.

NASA's been really helpful for SpaceX - in contracts and technical. SpaceX has been dependant on what NASA has done in the past.

I'm a huge fan of NASA.

NASA's doing the right thing given all the constraints they have. I've been pretty impressed with them. Supports competitive commercial space.
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Offline Chris Bergin

The machine is important, but the machine that builds the machine is more important.
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Offline Heinrich

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Re: Elon Musk-SpaceX Interview at MIT AeroAstro, Oct 2014
« Reply #28 on: 10/24/2014 05:28 pm »
About building a lot in house:

Never been a real strategy. If there's a good supplier, then fine. You need to either find a way, or make a way. And it turns out we had to make our way a lot of the times.

Offline Chris Bergin

Tesla questions - get off! ;)
« Last Edit: 10/24/2014 05:29 pm by Chris Bergin »
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Offline Chris Bergin

Do you want to go to Space?

It's not why I started SpaceX, but the easiest thing would be to buy a ride on the Soyuz. The thing I was trying to do was extending life off Earth. I expected it to fail. Wanted to send a greenhouse to Mars. Thought it would get people excited, increase NASA's budget. But if we make rockets way better, it won't matter.

The goal of SpaceX was to advance rocket technology where we can establish a colony on Mars - or go as far as we can for that.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Own astronaut corp?

We should be transporting scientists. Dragon doesn't need pilots. Want to go Earth/Moon for science, maybe to the Moon. It should be easy to get on a spacecraft.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Oh hello. Boeing vs SpaceX on CCtCap!

Boeing is a great company, but what we're trying to do with Dragon is to land propulsively with precision. Aliens landed like that in movies. It would be weird if they landed in the ocean with parachutes ;D

Boeing is trying to improve, with airbags, but crashing into the desert. Don't like that. It's one way to land, haha. But propulsive is what you need.

We're already going to the Station, Boeing isn't.
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Offline Heinrich

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Re: Elon Musk-SpaceX Interview at MIT AeroAstro, Oct 2014
« Reply #33 on: 10/24/2014 05:40 pm »
US colony or international colony, what is the idea?

I'd like to have multiple colonies! Well the main intention is to get there in the first place. I would like to be in a time where we could have this discussion.

Offline Chris Bergin

It would be better to have international competition than cooperation (Mars base). When governments go into lockstep, things don't tend to go faster.

Want positive competitiveness, not involving wars, like the Olympics. The Olympics with no competition wouldn't make sense.
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Offline Chris Bergin

Crack cocaine on Mars reference.....missed what that was about! ;D
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Offline Chris Bergin

Elon likes beamed laser energy, but needs a lot of power. Would like to see how well it scales and how much it costs.
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Offline puhnitor

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Re: Elon Musk-SpaceX Interview at MIT AeroAstro, Oct 2014
« Reply #37 on: 10/24/2014 05:44 pm »
Crack cocaine on Mars reference.....missed what that was about! ;D

Not 100% sure, but it seemed to be about the economic viability of a Mars colony, i.e. could they ship and sell anything to make themselves viable.

Offline Chris Bergin

Student built a model hyperloop and had problems. Elon corrects him! :)
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Offline Chris Bergin

Not going to try and get resources from the Moon. Useful for a base, but not for bringing back.
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