Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by ncmncm on Friday February 11, 2022 @06:21PM
(#30308204)
While US gov't put in $billions. But who kept ownership? Mars hype turns out to be good for drawing money out of governments.
ITER is a dead end, no matter what, so not a useful data point.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by s1artibartfast on Friday February 11, 2022 @06:44PM
(#30308402)
>While US gov't put in $billions.
There is a difference between buying something and putting in money. If I buy a cheeseburger, I can't say I "put in" $5 to McDonalds and should have some ownership. If I pay my contract plumber to fix my toilet, I don't own their business either.
I think you will be hard-pressed to find any substantial examples where the US gov wasn't buying something from SpaceX.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by ncmncm on Saturday February 12, 2022 @02:33AM
(#30310718)
McDonald's won't go bankrupt if you elect not to get the large fries. SpaceX would have gone bankrupt several times if NASA hadn't kicked in at a crucial moment.
Re:Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
by s1artibartfast on Saturday February 12, 2022 @10:51AM
(#30313669)
So they deserve equity for being a critical customer? I still don't follow the logic.
Classic zero sum thinking. Spacex doesn't cost money, it makes it. How much money do you think Musk put into it? The answer is ~100 million seed. It is now worth 35,000 million.
How far do you think that 100m would go to develop fusion. The ITER project alone costs 65,000 million.