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A comment on To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations . Parent comment

Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by kunle on Saturday June 30, 2012 @02:47PM (#4182452)
>Elon is awesome, but the founders of NASA contracting companies, intel, car companies, etc didn't reach bill gates levels of wealth

This might be true. But Elon stands to be the first private citizen with a chance to reach the moon or Mars. The chance is (admittedly) slim, but the expected value of being commercially successful at reaching the moon or Mars is exponentially greater than Microsoft.

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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by jmj42 on Saturday June 30, 2012 @03:40PM (#4182608)
I don't think the change is that slim. Elon is the type of person who knows his limits and pushes them. His goals tend to be grand, but, with effort, achievable.

I'd be more surprised if he didn't reach the moon or Mars

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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by chc on Saturday June 30, 2012 @07:27PM (#4183145)
What is the expected value of a private party reaching Mars? What are they going to get from it?
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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by stcredzero on Saturday June 30, 2012 @07:43PM (#4183181)
The first individuals to reach North America didn't become ultra-rich. But North America did eventually produce unprecedented new wealth.

Zubrin has argued that the colonization of Mars is analogous to North America, and will produce unprecendented wealth.

http://www.nss.org/settlement/mars/zubrin-promise.html

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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by mohawk on Sunday July 01, 2012 @08:54AM (#4184581)
Hate to be a pedant, but the first people who reached North America were massacred by the ones who followed.
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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by stcredzero on Sunday July 01, 2012 @11:34AM (#4185027)
> Hate to be a pedant, but the first people who reached North America were massacred by the ones who followed.

No, good point. That one doesn't count as pedantry on your part, but as a d'oh on my part!

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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by kunle on Saturday June 30, 2012 @10:08PM (#4183541)
Hard to say. I'm completely speculating but I'm imagining that between the natural resources present there and the possibility of colonizing the planet, there's economic potential. That being said, very difficult to calculate.
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Re:To Elon Musk and the Model S: Congratulations by CamperBob2 on Saturday June 30, 2012 @08:50PM (#4183341)
Depends on whose logos are on the rocket.
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