Jeff Bezos wants to give away his fortune for climate and unifying humanity.
Interestingly, there is no mention of space, even though he has famously claimed that his goal is to see billions of people out in the solar system. At the Space Settlement Summit in the wrap-up session on Friday, the NSSers were bemoaning the lack of public support for and knowledge about the potential of opening the solar system to economic development, and wondering how to change that.
I noted that Mr. Bezos, both as one of the word’s wealthiest men, and a media mogul, could do a lot to remedy that if he chose to. They said, “but he’s given us a million dollars to promote space,” as though a) that is a significant amount of money in the context of both his fortune and the amount that he is ostensibly spending on his rocket company and b) that the best way to promote space is to give money to NSS. They took my comment as a suggestion to ask him for more money (which would simply look self serving), when what I meant is that they should tell him that he should be spending more money, in a more effective way than handing it out to non-profits (e.g., hire PR firms).
There aren’t any brick and mortar retail stores on the moon. How will lunar colonies be able to buy the stuff they need?
They will produce the bulk of their mass including water, organics (DevelopSpace.info/cubes), metals, and food (DevelopSpace.info/consensus). Electronics are cheap to ship from Earth because of their low mass. Money to pay for relatively low-cost Starship shipping will come from: International space budgets initially followed by private savings (DevelopSpace.info/venn).
Yeah, I can just see Dolly Parton managing that charity money. WTF?!
She’s actually a good choice. She’s been very involved with charities for a long time, particularly ones that promote literacy.
I couldn’t agree with you more. If he thinks opening the Solar System is going to be helpful to humanity, increased donations to NSS are NOT going to be effective ways to convey that.
Maybe he figures that Blue is going to do the job by demonstrating the possibilities. Given their rate of progress so far compared with Elon’s I wouldn’t bet on it… for a few decades anyway. And I really, really wish Blue were just as daring as SpaceX, unhealthy not to have real competition in the big reusable booster and similar categories.
Elon is driven by the need to establish the life insurance policy for humanity. It is prudent to purchase that sooner than later. Hence his drive.
Bezos is driven by the O’Neillian vision which is so grand that he believes that it cannot be achieved in his lifetime and that it is not an insurance policy but a nice-to-have goal to theoretically improve the quality of life for humanity sometime in the future. So there is no critical drive towards that goal.
“…even though he has famously claimed that his goal is to see billions of people out in the solar system.”
If goal is billion of people out in the solar system, he should make an artificial gravity station.
One aspect is does artificial gravity actually work, second is what is minimal amount of artificial gravity which works.
I don’t think wheel artificial gravity station is good idea- and it expensive if trying to build one from launching from Earth surface.
Instead I like stick artificial station- and I think a stick station could be cheaper than two capsules and a cable/rope.
So, rather build artificial gravity station, we need an artificial gravity test station in orbit.
Once tested, and we have some clue, then an artificial gravity station can be designed and built.
Let’s imagine 1/2 of Earth’s gravity works, and 1/3rd gravity doesn’t. Or 1/3 works and 1/6th doesn’t.
Or 1 earth artificial gravity doesn’t work.
If doesn’t work, maybe we can find out, how top make it work.
Or maybe they sort of work but not for more than 10 years. And sooner we find out what works for 6 months or more, the sooner we get to finding out doesn’t for more than 10 years.
I don’t think Mars can support 1 billion people- we will need more than Mars for billions.
Venus L-1 seems like it could have billions- though that depends on artificial gravity stations.
And if have million people living on Mars, they going use Venus orbit.
Got me wondering about returning to Earth from Mars.
So, I guess with 6.9 km/sec of delta-v, at earth low orbit, one can get to Mars in 6 month [and you hitting the Mars atmosphere pretty fast].
So, if in Mars Low orbit and Starship got 6.9 km/sec, how fast can get to Earth?
Also suppose instead landing on Mars surface, and you were coming from Earth and taking 6 months get there, can you aerocapture and enter a low Mars orbit?
And I suppose if coming from Mars to Earth, one would do aerocapture with Earth’s atmosphere and dock in LEO?
I recall Ted Turner donating a billion dollars to the U.N. a couple of decades back. How’d that work out?
At least Bozos’s spending on climate change is unlikely to do any harm, based on the effectiveness of his Blue Origin spending. Anyone know what “unifying humanity” even means? I find that a frightening concept. At least with diverse opinions, one may stand a chance of being right.
Bezos runs Amazon. Amazon has Amazon Video. Amazon Video makes content. Amazon spent almost a billion dollars on a crappy Tolkien adaptation. Why not use that platform to tell stories about the world he wants to create? Make money while spreading his message.
Bezos also owns one of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers. Why not get them to talk about something other than Trump?