My issue with Musk sending a Tesla into space

[Baruch]

Luckily most nations, including those with current space capabilities have signed treaties against doing just that.

Same as Antarctica.  And that division was based on freedom of navigation law.  Good thing the US owns the Moon though, we can put all our lunatics there ;-)

[Unbeliever]

Treaties are only as good as the armies used to enforce them.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Treaties are only as good as the armies used to enforce them.

So Canada is fucked?

[Unbeliever]

We're all fucked - we just don't know it yet.

[Baruch]

Treaties are only as good as the armies used to enforce them.

According to Iron Sky II ... Hitler built a utopian society under the S Pole, not just on the dark side of the Moon (Iron Sky I) ;-)

[Baruch]

We're all fucked - we just don't know it yet.

Tell that to the Russian ordinary and extraordinary military personnel killed in Syria recently.  Some just last week.  Oops!  Will Putin release the Kraken?

[Cavebear]

So if Elon wants to try to light that spark by putting one of his cars in space, let him. Its an early first step in getting us to a place where private space vehicle companies are innovating and moving the needle slowly closer to a world where space travel is as common as getting on bus.

Could he have done it differently and loaded the thing with experiments? Sure. But guaranteed he would have gotten 1/10 the amount of press coverage. So put experiments on board and maybe this flight leads to one or two more flights. Or make it a press event like he did and this flight leads to ten or twenty more. Which is better? Elon is a big picture guy and he hasn't failed much so far. There are certainly worse horses you could bet on.

Challenges are good things.  Space X wouldn't exist with the governments trying things first.  Basic research leads to commercial enterprises.

[Unbeliever]

Well, apparently it wasn't just a Tesla that they sent into space:

In the glovebox of the Tesla Roadster launched on the SpaceX Falcon Heavy is the secret to preserving human knowledge forever - and it comes from a small lab in Southampton.

Professor Peter Kazansky of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton has found a way to store data onto near-indestructible glass that could last for billions of years.

With the help of Nova Spivack of the Arch Mission Foundation, they aim to secure human history, art and culture in space for eternity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2OTtIFnC50

[Baruch]

Well, apparently it wasn't just a Tesla that they sent into space:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2OTtIFnC50

Which history?  The Liberal one?

[fencerider]

.O.P. i got on this post late...

Elon probably didnt want to risk another expensive piece of equipement. On a test flight of the smaller rocket there was a military satelite that was destroyed when the rocket failed. I think he had to prove the heavy could lift the weight before anybody wanted to risk another piece of equipement.


The Navy has an electromagnetic rail gun that uses a magnetic field to accelerate a projectile to a speed that can cause serious damage. Maybe we can use it to launch space objects. Or we could try using that gun that Saddam had in Iraq that was meant to launch stuff into space. I dont think he ever got to try it.

[Baruch]

.O.P. i got on this post late...

Elon probably didnt want to risk another expensive piece of equipement. On a test flight of the smaller rocket there was a military satelite that was destroyed when the rocket failed. I think he had to prove the heavy could lift the weight before anybody wanted to risk another piece of equipement.


The Navy has an electromagnetic rail gun that uses a magnetic field to accelerate a projectile to a speed that can cause serious damage. Maybe we can use it to launch space objects. Or we could try using that gun that Saddam had in Iraq that was meant to launch stuff into space. I dont think he ever got to try it.

Saddam killed the Canadian engineer traitor who was building that cannon for him.  Rail guns work brilliantly, they have been proposed for the Moon for example, to get Lunar products into low Lunar orbit or even farther.  No air resistance and lighter gravity.  In long distance shots in Earth orbit, one would still have some drop in trajectory ... but on the Moon, firing vertically, no problem.

[Cavebear]

The Navy has an electromagnetic rail gun that uses a magnetic field to accelerate a projectile to a speed that can cause serious damage. Maybe we can use it to launch space objects.

I am highly in favor of studying mag/lev technology.  Chemical rockets got us into space, but they are too costly and dangerous for routine work.  And it is time routine space travel starts.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Let's not forget that the Moon is a harsh mistress.

[Baruch]

I am highly in favor of studying mag/lev technology.  Chemical rockets got us into space, but they are too costly and dangerous for routine work.  And it is time routine space travel starts.

You missed your opportunity to be the crash test dummy on the Space Tesla ;-)  I remember funny ads for safety, being done by crash test dummies.

[Baruch]

Let's not forget that the Moon is a harsh mistress.

Particularly if she wears leather, lives in Berlin and is chancellor of Germany ;-)  Funny code names we use.