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Elon Musk opens the door to a new era in space operation

Vambram

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Many conservatives love their saviors, be they named Trump, Putin or Musk.
The one and only savior whom I have is the Lord Jesus Christ. Attempting to label Putin, or Musk, or Trump as a savior is extremely insulting in my opinion.
 
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Nithavela

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The one and only savior whom I have is the Lord Jesus Christ. Attempting to label Putin, or Musk, or Trump as a savior is extremely insulting in my opinion.
I would agree, but when you have so called leaders saying things like "I alone can fix it" and everyone cheers, that does look like him being treated like a savior to me.
 
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rambot

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Elon Musk's SpaceX landed a large booster rocket safely back upon its launch pad. This is an amazing feat and it's something that NASA has never been able to do.
I think it's fair to say that NASA never really had the computer power to do ANYTHING CLOSE to something like that.
 
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Arcangl86

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I didn't say he he gets sole credit I said he makes it all possible, didn't he get the government contract? I'm sure he had help with that too
The premise of this whole thread is that Elon did this thing, not SpaceX. And when people push back against that framing you accuse them of having animosity against Elon. So I actually think it's fair to say you are claiming he gets sole credit.
 
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BPPLEE

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The premise of this whole thread is that Elon did this thing, not SpaceX. And when people push back against that framing you accuse them of having animosity against Elon. So I actually think it's fair to say you are claiming he gets sole credit.
What you think is fair is irrelevant. I said he doesn't get sole credit and you don't get to put words in my mouth. You are trolling now.
If you wish to have a conversation address the post
 
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iluvatar5150

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I think it's fair to say that NASA never really had the computer power to do ANYTHING CLOSE to something like that.
NASA could have as much computer power as it wants. They’re just not in the business of building large hardware in the way that private companies are. They do tons of data processing, though. Likewise, the DOD doesn’t build airplanes, but they do process satellite imagery.
 
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Arcangl86

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What you think is fair is irrelevant. I said he doesn't get sole credit and you don't get to put words in my mouth. You are trolling now.
If you wish to have a conversation address the post
I did address the post, but I see we're apparently playing "imply then deny."
 
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CtC

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The tower catching the booster was especially impressive I thought. Watching that made me go "ohhhh...."

It's a world history first but I'm sure it seems unimpressive to some. I'm not in that group though. I think innovation is actually kinda cool... Towers catching rocket boosters? Count me in the nerd club that does find that fairly impressive.
I found the explanation for WHY they built a tower to catch the booster (and eventually the Starship as well) to be equally fascinating.
 
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CtC

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I'd be really interested to know how much of their direction is from him as a visionary and how much is just from him as a piggy bank who stays out of the way. I've read comments (that at least seem to ring true) that, at least in the past, he was a pretty decent engineering manager, which I can believe. But that's hard to jive with some of his more recent actions. I wonder if he just takes SpaceX more seriously and respects the level of expertise required to get anything done, whereas with Twitter and, to a lesser extent, Tesla, he sees them more as playthings.
If you take a few steps back and look across the portfolio, you might see a different "story" unfolding.

If your objective is to be pro-human, you might consider expanding the number of humans. If you want to expand the number of humans, you'll not only want more places to live (other planets), but back-up plans (other planets). If you want to expand society to other planets, you need:

Structures (SpaceX, Boring Company)
Transportation (SpaceX, Tesla)
Communication (StarLink, X [formerly twitter])
Energy (Tesla [solar])
Food / Farming (??? might we see something in the future)
 
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Hazelelponi

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If you take a few steps back and look across the portfolio, you might see a different "story" unfolding.

If your objective is to be pro-human, you might consider expanding the number of humans. If you want to expand the number of humans, you'll not only want more places to live (other planets), but back-up plans (other planets). If you want to expand society to other planets, you need:

Structures (SpaceX, Boring Company)
Transportation (SpaceX, Tesla)
Communication (StarLink, X [formerly twitter])
Energy (Tesla [solar])
Food / Farming (??? might we see something in the future)

I was more thinking exploration for minerals. We are strip mining the earth for rare earth minerals.

We have to find other sources or sooner than later the rare earth minerals are gone and we go back to the 20th century of technology, which is to say basic.

Anyone who views new technologies as a potential way forward is going to be concerned with making sure the minerals needed are less rare.

I see all this as his pet projects towards mineral exploration on nearby planets myself.
 
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Hans Blaster

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I was more thinking exploration for minerals. We are strip mining the earth for rare earth minerals.
Strip mining is how much of mining is these days. Coal mining, iron mining, gold mining, copper mining.
We have to find other sources or sooner than later the rare earth minerals are gone and we go back to the 20th century of technology, which is to say basic.

Anyone who views new technologies as a potential way forward is going to be concerned with making sure the minerals needed are less rare.
Collectively they are less rare than many well known metals like copper and zinc, but they don't concentrate in ores that can be easily mined as well.
I see all this as his pet projects towards mineral exploration on nearby planets myself.
Oh brother. Asteroid mining (generally) is a very iffy prospect when there is high concentrations of something really valuable, but lifting something off the surface of a planet is so much less economically viable. (And without many of the geologic processes that concentrate minerals, I doubt there would be very viable "ore bodies" in asteroids either. It would probably be cheaper to just pick any random rock and extract REEs from them.)
 
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Pommer

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Strip mining is how much of mining is these days. Coal mining, iron mining, gold mining, copper mining.
‘Cause there’s gold, coal, iron, copper in where them thar hills used to be!
 
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Hazelelponi

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Strip mining is how much of mining is these days. Coal mining, iron mining, gold mining, copper mining.

Collectively they are less rare than many well known metals like copper and zinc, but they don't concentrate in ores that can be easily mined as well.

Oh brother. Asteroid mining (generally) is a very iffy prospect when there is high concentrations of something really valuable, but lifting something off the surface of a planet is so much less economically viable. (And without many of the geologic processes that concentrate minerals, I doubt there would be very viable "ore bodies" in asteroids either. It would probably be cheaper to just pick any random rock and extract REEs from them.)


I won't go around and around on this because there's really no point but strip mining in general is horrific and there's toxicity issues involved and everything else.

The hope is that AI will provide some assistance with a path forward with new technology that uses what is abundant and is easy to acquire instead of needing to use the earths core, which is plentiful but not easy to get to.

We have to stop what we are now doing, it's ridiculous to even consider continuing unless you see it as a very very temporary step in the process towards something better.

Exploring Mars and other nearby planets as potential places we can send AI driven robots to mine in the future has to remain open as a possiblity or people should honestly just stop using new technology now because it's far too damaging to the environment and human health. It's definitely not sustainable to continue.

I vote if we have to strip mine, we do it on another planet not one inhabited with people. It's not doable yet, but we can get there faster than we can continue to strip mine the whole earth.
 
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Pommer

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The hope is that AI will provide some assistance with a path forward with new technology that uses what is abundant and is easy to acquire instead of needing to use the earths core, which is plentiful but not easy to get to.
There’s CERN too, over in Europe that is nearing a better understanding of gravity and how to maybe harness it for human beings benefit. (They’re probably around the place Volta was with the frogs legs vis-à-vis “the fyre electric”.)
 
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Nithavela

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I'm optimistic that mankind will wipe itself out before it can spread.

Perhaps general AI will keep a few of mankind in a zoo to satisfy some part of it's programming.

 
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DaisyDay

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Anyone who views new technologies as a potential way forward is going to be concerned with making sure the minerals needed are less rare.

The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths),[1] are a set of 17 nearly indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. Compounds containing rare earths have diverse applications in electrical and electronic components, lasers, glass, magnetic materials, and industrial processes.

Scandium and yttrium are considered rare-earth elements because they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and exhibit similar chemical properties, but have different electrical and magnetic properties.[2][3] The term 'rare-earth' is a misnomer because they are not actually scarce, although historically it took a long time to isolate these elements.[4][5]

In this case, "rare" does NOT mean "scarce"; rare minerals/elements is a term of science. The common meaning is not the geology meaning in this case.
 
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Hans Blaster

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This message was incoherent and relies on fantastical thinking and general ignorance of the logistics of space flight. I will now reply to each section briefly.
I won't go around and around on this because there's really no point but strip mining in general is horrific and there's toxicity issues involved and everything else.
I didn't say strip mining was good, I said it was how a large number of economically important substances are obtained. Strip mining for REEs wouldn't be categorically different than for copper
The hope is that AI will provide some assistance with a path forward with new technology that uses what is abundant and is easy to acquire instead of needing to use the earths core, which is plentiful but not easy to get to.
What? (This is what I meant about this post.) AI is not some magical tool or supreme intelligence. It is quite dumb and completely dependent on what human generated information is fed to it. I have no idea what magical "path" you think it will find? (To get of the Earth easier? Nope. that is just simple gravitational potential energy, it can't be avoided. To find new "tech" that doesn't need REEs? Good luck with that.) One possible use would be a ML model that was taught geological formations and REE minerals. Perhaps it could find some location where a hidden ore body might be located.

The Earth's core has *NOTHING* to do with any of this other than its mass makes space travel very expensive.
We have to stop what we are now doing, it's ridiculous to even consider continuing unless you see it as a very very temporary step in the process towards something better.
Empty statement with no meaning. What are we "stopping"? What is that "better" something?
Exploring Mars and other nearby planets as potential places we can send AI driven robots to mine in the future has to remain open as a possiblity or people should honestly just stop using new technology now because it's far too damaging to the environment and human health. It's definitely not sustainable to continue.

I vote if we have to strip mine, we do it on another planet not one inhabited with people. It's not doable yet, but we can get there faster than we can continue to strip mine the whole earth.
Mining other planets is pretty dumb. Can you find even one credible economic study for mining REEs on Mars? I have my doubts.
 
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