Author Topic: Bloomberg Report on SpaceX (Read 5050 times)

aero313 · « **on:** 05/02/2008 08:22 pm »

From Bloomberg.com:

"...if successful, make Musk the father of the first privately funded rocket to reach orbit."

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a_hfyGPv3sGo&refer=home

Funny, I thought Pegasus was the first privately funded rocket to reach orbit - in 1990!

Chris-A · « **Reply #1 on:** 05/02/2008 08:29 pm »

Case in point, reports always gets something wrong all the time. It's not new.

aero313 · « **Reply #2 on:** 05/02/2008 10:07 pm »

Quote

Chris-A - 2/5/2008 4:29 PM

Case in point, reports always gets something wrong all the time. It's not new.

Yup. What worries me is how much other stuff that we read in the press is equally incorrect, but we don't have the background to know it.

William Graham · « **Reply #3 on:** 05/02/2008 10:07 pm »

And Falcon is yet to successfully reach orbit.

Comga · « **Reply #4 on:** 05/02/2008 11:18 pm »

Aw, it's a decent article by someone not that up on rockets. There surely are a few bits of puffery, but there is some real interesting details that were new to me. It is surprising to hear of some of his contributions that did and did not stick at PayPal, Tesla, and elsewhere. There are comments from some interesting people, like Scott Hubbard and Musk's physics professor who said that he was too scattered to achive what she thought he could. There are more precise numbers for his fortune than I have seen before, but perhaps others have seen them. What is most fascinating is the stories of personality clashes, and who ousts whom. It is not all flattering.

meiza · « **Reply #5 on:** 05/02/2008 11:28 pm »

And yet, aero, it's a surprisingly accurate and fact-dense article...

jabe · « **Reply #6 on:** 05/02/2008 11:36 pm »

Whatever happened to his Mars Oasis idea? I guess he dropped it once he sank money into Spacex and other ventures.

nacnud · « **Reply #7 on:** 05/03/2008 12:21 am »

What happened to Mars oasis?

I my opinion the kernel of the idea is still there. After all SpaceX formed partly because he couldn't find a way to get a payload to Mars with private money.

A_M_Swallow · « **Reply #8 on:** 05/03/2008 01:26 am »

Guessing.

The Mars oasis is going to need the rover/greenhouse, control/communications, a Mars lander, a LEO to Mars transfer vehicle and a launch vehicle.

The Falcon 9 heavy can get 29 tonnes to LEO.
The service module for the cargo Dragon could form the basis of a transfer vehicle. Alternatively the solar panel company may produce a SEP ferry.
A Mars lander's rocket motor would probably burn kerosene. The Merlin and Kestrel engines burn kerosene. The parachute and heat-shield technologies from the Dragon will be useful.
The electric motor and batteries in the Tesla may form the heart of the rover, when modified for space.
Work on the communications equipment and the greenhouse can restart when he has a working rocket.

Chris-A · « **Reply #9 on:** 05/03/2008 03:41 am »

The early space show programs with musk is some history of the project.
there's the Musk Foundation: http://www.muskfoundation.org
and life-to-mars (dead site): http://www.lifetomars.com/mission.html

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #10 on:** 05/03/2008 03:56 am »

Made the thread title reflective of the report.

iamlucky13 · « **Reply #11 on:** 05/06/2008 12:48 am »

The article gives a much more colorful view of Musk than we usually get, I suppose partially due to it's greater detail (on the man, rather than the rockets). Was forcefully ousted from paypal. Ousted a co-founder of Tesla as CEO, and layed off 30 employees. It would have been helpful to know some more of the details behind that. Simply stating it followed their transmission issues makes me think it was a knee-jerk, even punitive measure, which in that case would be extremely severe.

Journalists also seem to like playing the "successful dropout" angle. I'd say that's misleading in his case at best. He completed his BS. He withdrew from his doctorate program before the start of the first term. It's hard to dropout when you never started.