Re:SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocke...
by the_duke on Monday August 02, 2021 @07:58PM
(#28044234)
> What frustrated me more were the comments that appeared to be divorced from reality about what space exploration will bring.
There's not a single comment in this thread that does anything of the sort.
> He's spending his investors' money
All large, institutional investors that invest not because of some hypothetical Mars colonization, but because SpaceX is dominating the launch market, including government contracts, and has a potentially very large upcoming revenue stream with Starlink.
In terms of any sort of GDP comparison, space activities and employee numbers are a tiny, tiny fraction of economic output, so I really fail to understand such complaints.
Undertaking the risk of exploration has -- I would venture to say -- almost always had some economic, political, or military motive. Someone had to see some potential gain for the risk they were undertaking.
To be clear, I'm not frustrated at Elon for spending his money like this. I mean, if it were his money, because it's not. He's spending his investors' money, which he raises for himself by selling these ideas. I'm less excited by my government spending money on this, but, yes, it's not really that much.
What frustrated me more were the comments that appeared to be divorced from reality about what space exploration will bring.