14 thoughts on “Elon Musk”

  1. Very long. Musk shouldn’t need a defense.
    The problem is there too many brainwashed and not educated people in the world.
    And we could start by pointing at people running the “best universities in the world” and then we got the very obvious ones, hordes of them, who very delusional.

  2. In the disagreement of about 4 vs NASA’s 20.

    Why does Musk have to have the lunar Starship crew return have dry mass of 100 tons, rather then say around 20 tons.
    And also do something likewise with Mars crew mission?

    1. Musk is not building a lunar lander from scratch, he’s building a universal interplanetary spacecraft that weighs 100 tons dry. HLS is just a repurposing of Starship. That’s why it’s so cheap compared to other proposals. The Blue Origin vehicle, if it gets built, will be much smaller. Mars crew mission? No. Starship’s original name was “Mars Colonial Transport.” Now do you get it?

      1. Starship second stage, gets to lunar orbit, and close to landing on the Moon. Engine higher up,
        do final landing it on lunar surface.
        Use these engines to leave the moon after leaving +50 tons dry mass on the Moon.

        With Mars bring more rocket fuel to Mars surface and have upper engines have say, twice the thrust . And dock with another starship in Mars orbit, and return to Earth.

        1. You still don’t get it. You’re talking about billions of dollars for a lunar lander that you fly on a vehicle that can land on the Moon for zero extra dollars. And for Mars you’re talking about adding a Mars lander and Mars orbital fuel depot, added to a Mars lander that can land on Mars for zero extra dollars. This is similar to your Mars via Venus obsession. Musk plan is to have Starship manufacture its return fuel on Mars from local ingredients (water and C02, which are abundant on Mars).

          The hidden fact in all this is, you can save 90% of the Artesmis budget by deleting SLS/Orion. Which is the whole problem.

  3. I think Musk is easy to understand. What I don’t understand is people I’ve met that claim to love space, but think only government agencies should be involved. Further, they actually fear Musk trying to go to Mars. I understand envy. What I don’t understand is if you truly love the idea of space and travel, why do you even care how it is getting done. These aren’t people afraid of say China beating us to the moon, so why do you care if Musk gets to Mars?

    The rest of what the article discusses is being too kind to people that want to destroy Musk to maintain their own power over censorship. It is well covered but too kind,

    1. I want NASA to go to Mars {mainly because NASA has said, it wanted to} I want NASA to work, rather what it’s been doing.
      But before NASA is allowed to explore Mars, it must explore the tiny area in the lunar polar regions and do it quickly and not screw up. Thereby allowing enough confidence, that it has some realistic chance, it can exploring Mars without being a complete disaster.

      I don’t like the message of staying on the Moon, rather I prefer the message of after exploring to Moon, which NASA trying to do as fast as possible, then quickly moving on to exploring Mars.
      Unfortunately, NASA message is they going try land a crew by 2030.
      They have to move faster if they want the job of exploring Mars. It’s too much of SLS, mindset.

      Exploring Mars will take a long time, but in this kind of “NASA time”, it’s roughly, never.

    2. Leland said:

      “What I don’t understand is people I’ve met that claim to love space, but think only government agencies should be involved. Further, they actually fear Musk trying to go to Mars.”

      Leland, I grew up with such people.

      They fear any free person going to Mars, or anywhere they are not constrained, because they fear free people. Some of them are satisfied if it’s a government employee, but others want only governments focused on their personal needs and wants.

      They love spectacle, but not an obvious open door into the solar system, where people can walk away from them. They need people bound to some rule, that can be twisted to place others under them, in a hierarchy that ultimately cannot be escaped. Otherwise, those they have around them might walk away, and they would be left alone, with no one to command, at the bottom of any imagined hierarchy. That is their version of hell.

  4. Agreed. Mr. Musk has nothing for which he requires defense.

    As far as motivation, it seems that everything he’s done since he sold PayPal has been driven towards one goal: Life in space/on Mars. Electric cars? Space flight? Tunnel boring? Neuralink? All have direct relevance to space.

    That he is misunderstood is because most people are unable to dream large dreams….

  5. Casy Handmer seems like a smart but gullible guy with progressive left wing views. He seems to think the vaxx was safe and effective and he clearly drank the CO2 caused global warming Koolaid. There may be hope for him, though.
    Elon was pretty non political for a long time, leaning left to the Democrats because of the zeitgeist but after 2020 he’s clearly been red pilled. Casey can’t quite figure this out.

      1. My current job is to live long enough I make a profit on my social security tax. I’ve been retired for 11 years, so far. My Dad had been retired for 32 years when he died, so I’ve got a ways to go.

        1. I have a strong suspicion that your “making a profit” on your social security tax doesn’t account for the time value of money at any reasonable rate of return.

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