Full Video of Elon Musk Q&A Session Post Dragon V2 Reveal

[Jdeshetler]

Manned testflights with either a combination of SpaceX en NASA astronauts or all NASA astronauts, the rule is a least one NASA astronaut.

Interesting so who imposed this "rule", NASA or SpaceX?

[Chris Bergin]

I think we've got most of the key points, but keep them coming if your ears prick up at anything else - as article one from all of this will be tomorrow all being well.

Was going to use the PICA-X v3 notes in the EFT-1 Orion Heat Shield article I've just put on, but I think it's best to keep separation, otherwise we're going to end up mentioning SpaceX in every bloody article!

(Have to be honest, while I was writing the Orion story, I was kinda thinking...."sooner I get this on, sooner I can start building the first SpaceX article from the Q&A video". Hope that doesn't make me a bad person )

[AncientU]

Manned testflights with either a combination of SpaceX en NASA astronauts or all NASA astronauts, the rule is a least one NASA astronaut.

Interesting so who imposed this "rule", NASA or SpaceX?

I suspect that if it is a certification flight, a NASA astro onboard would be NASA's requirement... and a sensible one at that.

[AncientU]

I think we've got most of the key points, but keep them coming if your ears prick up at anything else - as article one from all of this will be tomorrow all being well.

Was going to use the PICA-X v3 notes in the EFT-1 Orion Heat Shield article I've just put on, but I think it's best to keep separation, otherwise we're going to end up mentioning SpaceX in every bloody article!

(Have to be honest, while I was writing the Orion story, I was kinda thinking...."sooner I get this on, sooner I can start building the first SpaceX article from the Q&A video". Hope that doesn't make me a bad person )

Not bad... just apolitic.  It's impossible to avoid comparisons between the technologies.

[QuantumG]

Helodriver you are fantastic.

Here is my full transcript. If anyone sees any errors, feel free to fix them, or let me know.

[Chris Bergin]

Helodriver you are fantastic.

Here is my full transcript. If anyone sees any errors, feel free to fix them, or let me know.

I know how much of a balls ache it is to transcribe, so that's a lot of work there!

It's going to be a big help for me (I'll still refer to video, which will double check quoting), but I'll find a way to link both the video and your page into subsequent articles.

Ton of team effort going on here lately!

[AncientU]

Thanks for the transcript QuantumG and for the video HeloDriver!  This is fantastic material.
33:30
One bit of political softshoe... following big, big smile...

No, we're not replacing NASA. NASA is our core customer. I think there's always a role for NASA. There's always going to be things where there's no obvious way to commercialize something - think of something like Hubble space telescope or the James Webb, or some of the exploratory probes that go to Mars and elsewhere, it's always going to be important for NASA to be doing those things because there's no obvious economic model for those things.

Not mentioned:
BFRs
'Exploration' capsules
Launch abort systems
Heat shield technology
Beyond Earth Orbit 'hard stuff'
High tech engine development
Avionics using state-of-the-art software/hardware
Reusablity technologies
State-of-the-art manufacturing technologies
Affordable spaceflight
...
...
...

[Robotbeat]

SpaceX isn't developing state of the art manufacturing techniques (like 3d printing), just utilizing them. NASA, however, /is/ developing new manufacturing techniques, including developing a way to 3d print carbon nanotube based composites.

[QuantumG]

Yeah, I for one am glad that all major sporting events are government funded. I think there's always a role for national sports institutes. There's always going to be things where there's no obvious way to commercialize something - think of something like the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, or some of the larger local sports teams, it's always going to be important for government to be doing those things because there's no obvious economic model for those things.

/sarcasm

[Robotbeat]

Sports stadiums are most certainly dependent on all sorts of government support/hand-outs.

[QuantumG]

Sports stadiums are most certainly dependent on all sorts of government support/hand-outs.

Maybe this brand of irony is too subtle for your ears.

[ChrisWilson68]

4:28 He says that long-term there should be '1000s of flights a year, a base on the Moon and a base on Mars'.  I thought he had no use for the Moon...

He said he never had much use for the Moon.  He never said he didn't know how to use it.

[joshcryer]

Man, once the local journalists backed off after getting their soundbytes and the guy filming could pick Elon's brain the interview changed dramatically. Even Elon's mild stutter / word search pauses stopped and he was going on about the tech. I love that. Thanks so much to the interviewer and for you guys making this public.

I am surprised about the rental car analogy as opposed to taxi, for some reason I was thinking there would always be at least one SpaceX pilot / crew member on board. But since we're entering the age of self-driving cars and they want this thing to be automated, self-driving space ships make sense.

[sanman]

He said he never had much use for the Moon.  He never said he didn't know how to use it.

Musk could make a lot of money off space tourism by trying the Moon first, rather than waiting for MCT to get people to Mars. Even if he himself doesn't have much use for the Moon, all these others like Golden Spike would pay him a lot of money to bring people there. Money is fungible, and trips to the Moon would sell like hotcakes if Musk could bring down the cost threshold far enough. LEO is so last-century, and trips to Mars are likely to be too strenuous for the near future. But the Moon is the right distance for a vacation, or a sightseeing tour, or a short trip. It could be the next exotic "Down Under".

[meekGee]

He said he never had much use for the Moon.  He never said he didn't know how to use it.

Musk could make a lot of money off space tourism by trying the Moon first, rather than waiting for MCT to get people to Mars. Even if he himself doesn't have much use for the Moon, all these others like Golden Spike would pay him a lot of money to bring people there. Money is fungible, and trips to the Moon would sell like hotcakes if Musk could bring down the cost threshold far enough. LEO is so last-century, and trips to Mars are likely to be too strenuous for the near future. But the Moon is the right distance for a vacation, or a sightseeing tour, or a short trip. It could be the next exotic "Down Under".

That's exactly right.

And I'm saying this as someone who really doesn't think the moon has any long term future as a colonization target.

A tourist trip-around-the-moon is absolutely THE ticket.  It's a destination, as opposed to (3 orbits in LEO), you get to see the scenery change from LEO to GTO to blot-the-Earth-with-your-thumb, then a totally alien world that you can zoom by, and then the trip back home.  For sure. 

If you plot Return vs. Investment, this is the best deal.

EDIT:   ...  and I just realized we're in a "reveal" thread.  This sub-conversation should go to a tourism discussion thread.  Which I'm looking for.


EDIT2:  There is no such thread, so will start one - if you've got a horse in this race, reply there.

[Lars_J]

(Have to be honest, while I was writing the Orion story, I was kinda thinking...."sooner I get this on, sooner I can start building the first SpaceX article from the Q&A video". Hope that doesn't make me a bad person )

Seductive, the dark side of the force is. Embrace it!

[darkenfast]

I thought I'd just skim the video, but ended up watching every minute of it. Thank you for that, Helodriver!  One thing I noticed off my one viewing is that Elon was claiming a lot of payload capability in addition to the seven people.  I think he said "a ton" of pressurized cargo and "one or two tons" in the trunk.  Of course, he's speaking off the top of his head while several people are asking questions at once, but it will be interesting to see just what the capability of this Dragon/Falcon is.

[Geron]

Just watched the video. Great work helodriver. You are awesome. Bummer that girl kept interrupting and asking questions like, "what's the difference between dragon v1 and v2". Pretty annoying lol.

[llanitedave]

When you asked the question about manufacturing in Texas, I really perked up my ears.  Unfortunately, Elon got distracted by something else and didn't respond.  But it was one of the questions I most wanted to hear.  Thanks for asking it, at least, helodriver!

[CuddlyRocket]

Thank to Helodriver for the video and the wit to ask sensible questions; and to QuantumG for the transcript, which will probably be more referenced!

I expect we'll see bits of this Q&A referenced in a lot of individual threads on this forum!