News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking seriously. Parent comment

Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by jacquesm on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @01:00PM (#12490144)
Because:

(1) Rockets are proven technology, nobody has yet been able to put anything into LEO using a railgun

(2) Rockets have significant freedom when it comes to choosing the final orbit to deploy to

(3) Rockets are relatively cheap on the 'capex' front, a 200 km long electromagnetic launcher up the side of a mountain will be extremely expensive and may not even work...

Of course if you're so sure about this then maybe start a company to create an electromagnetic launcher, it should be easy to raise money assuming you are right.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by personjerry on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @01:07PM (#12490216)
> Of course if you're so sure about this then maybe start a company to create an electromagnetic launcher, it should be easy to raise money assuming you are right.

Could you explain how it would be easy? In my mind it seems hard to raise several billion dollars, no matter how you put it...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by bbctol on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @01:18PM (#12490325)
It's a joke: if it really was clear that a railgun was "the way to go," companies would be doing it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by jsprogrammer on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @04:11PM (#12491802)
I haven't estimated building costs yet. Several billion could be in the ballpark though.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by SquirrelOnFire on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @06:52PM (#12492892)
Serious issue with rail guns is the acceleration. Might be suitable for cargo lift, but accelerate a human quickly enough and it squishes rather unpleasantly.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by coredog64 on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @02:25PM (#12490948)
Efficient market hypothesis.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by beamatronic on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @02:22PM (#12490923)
It's apparently not hard to raise several billion dollars if you're trying to sell pet food online, create an app that dispatches taxis, or post extremely short messages on a web site.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by whamlastxmas on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @04:25PM (#12491921)
>It's apparently not hard to raise several billion dollars if you're trying to sell something that makes hundreds of billions of dollars
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by NeutronBoy on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @08:10PM (#12493308)
Sorry, when did sell online pet food retailing, taxi dispatching apps, or instant messaging apps, come close to making anywhere near "hundreds of billions of dollars"
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking serio... by whamlastxmas on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @09:13PM (#12493590)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_concern
[ Parent | on HN ]