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SpaceX

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 14:53
by Destructor1701
Company:
Image

Full Name:

Space Exploration Technologies

Founder:
Elon Musk

Aims:
  • To reduce the cost of spaceflight by orders of magnitude through rocket re-usability, enabling the mass exploitation of space.
  • To colonise Mars by founding a city there.

They're changing our future. I could type at extreme length about this company - they're doing the most exciting things in the world right now, if you ask me - but rather than wax lyrical, I've come to suspect that a much cleaner way to explain their importance is to take the opposition stance and deflate it with facts, let SpaceX's performance and culture speak for itself.

To that end, here's a list that Space Engineer pasted to DoctorOfSpace, which he then translated to English. It comes from a Russian forum where SpaceX fans were mocking people who continually express doubt about the company, no matter what they do. I've edited it slightly for neatness, flow, and accuracy to the SpaceX timeline.


1. When there are SpaceX customers, then we'll talk.
2. When the Falcon 1 flies, then we'll talk.

3. When the Falcon 1 reaches orbit, then we'll talk.

4. When there is a contract with NASA, then we'll talk.

5. When the Falcon 9 flies, then we'll talk.

6. When they build their own ship, Dragon, then we'll talk.

7. When they reach the ISS, then we'll talk.

8. When they launch geostationary satellites, then we'll talk.

9. When they figure out how to land rockets, then we'll talk.

10. When they make their Dragon 2, then we'll talk.

11. When they land the first stage of a rocket, then we'll talk.
  • "The Falcon has landed" | Recap of Falcon 9 launch and landing
    [youtube]ANv5UfZsvZQ[/youtube]
    ^ I will never get tired of that video - 21/12/2015
  • SpaceX Makes History (from National Geographic's MARS series)

12. When they land the first stage of their rocket on the barge, then we'll talk.

13. When they land a stage after the launching to GTO (geostationary transfer orbit), then we'll talk.

14. When they successfully launch a reused rocket, then we'll talk.

15. When they launch their Falcon Heavy, then we'll talk.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>WE ARE HERE<<<<<<<<<<<<<


16. When they start to carry people to orbit, then we'll talk.

17. When they send a ship to the Moon, then we'll talk.

18. When they can land a ship successfully without parachutes, then we'll talk. 

19. When the Red Dragon is launched, then we'll talk.

20. When the Red Dragon sits on Mars, then we'll talk.

21. When they make their Martian transport, then we'll talk. 
22. When people land on Mars, then we'll talk.
  • SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System
    [youtube]0qo78R_yYFA[/youtube]

23. When Mars is colonized, then we'll talk.
24. When they terraform Mars, then we'll talk.
Phew! That took a long time to put together.

I don't know if it's more informative than my usual approach of spewing forth a stream of consciousness about the company, but it's certainly more complete. I turned up so much nostalgic stuff about SpaceX from way back in the founding days, some of which I had never seen before. It's amazing to see how many of their objectives they have met, and how much resistance and doubt they have pushed through to reach this stage. The list above is a tongue-in-cheek distillation of the doubts expressed at every stage of their journey, and the bullet points are a refutation of those doubts.

SpaceX are the most important thing happening on this planet right now. I wish them every continued success.

Edited to tidy up some formatting errors

SpaceX

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 15:31
by DoctorOfSpace
The list looks good, gotta rub it in to those SpaceX skeptics.

SpaceX

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 17:50
by Gnargenox
Never heard of Space X, what's that all about?

SpaceX

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 22:32
by Destructor1701
Hmm, good point. I haven't explained anything, just typed out my side of an argument with a largely imaginary foe.

SpaceX is a privately-owned rocket company. Elon Musk founded SpaceX, but he's probably best known publicly for co-founding and running the electric car and renewable energy company Tesla.

SpaceX is actually slightly older than Tesla, and those two companies, along with OpenAI and the recently incorporated Neuralink, represent Musk's response to some items on a list of existential threats to humanity that he devised while in college.

The threats included:
  • Climate change
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Single-planet vulnerability (ie, if some disaster befalls the Earth, the only known intelligence in the universe would be wiped out)
SpaceX is a response to that last one (with Tesla and OpenAI responding to the top two). SpaceX is also a response to what Musk saw as the slow-down of Humanity's progress towards the stars. Luckily, promoting increased interest in space exploration and colonising other worlds are very synergistic goals.

SpaceX's mission, therefore, is generally to lower the cost of access to space through efficient manufacturing and clever design, and specifically to advance the technologies and mount the efforts needed to establish a substantial human population on the most suitable nearby planet: Mars.

SpaceX

Posted: 07 Apr 2017 22:42
by Gnargenox
That's astounding! Glad we have people like that in this world, making dreams a reality without any fear or hesitation. I'm so glad to be living in a time where things like this can happen, and I can see the progress, the knowledge gained, and the imaginations run wild with all the new possibilities. Kinda reminds me though of some of the 50's and 60's sci-fi books and movies where there is this one guy in control of it all, with a super-human mind and resources beyond any compare, that steer the human race with their best and purely altruistic motivations, and then they go nuts from cosmic rays and end it all in a horrible apocalypse lol I guess we will see wont we?!

But really I was teasing about not knowing. I really admire the time and effort you put into this! It truly is a marvelous time to be alive!

SpaceX

Posted: 20 Apr 2017 09:13
by DoctorOfSpace
[youtube]WPh2jUKTKCA[/youtube]

SpaceX

Posted: 01 May 2017 06:42
by DoctorOfSpace
Launch today was perfect
[youtube]EzQpkQ1etdA[/youtube]

SpaceX

Posted: 16 May 2017 07:32
by HarbingerDawn
Hi everyone, I'm currently vacationing in Florida and decided to stop by for the launch yesterday. It was pretty awesome, you would not believe how bright the exhaust plume is. Anyway, here's a pic and audio recording. I'll be posting additional pics at that link. Might not process any more before I return home this weekend, but we'll see.

SpaceX

Posted: 28 May 2017 03:26
by Creator78
Hi,

Veery good set showing process in SpaceX, thank you! Its a great index of the related materials.
Please, add some on these plans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_sa ... stellation
I tried even tried to help them to get instant light-based sustainable communication system https://www.uni-jena.de/en/Research+News/FM160304_Teleportation_en.html. If you read this to end you may be concerned about the technology if its both coherention of photons which are quants (quantum coherention based communication). No one replayed either to me or to Alexander Szameit thus. No one contacted these best guys in Viena. This seems strange to me.
I wish SpaceX luck in receiving TCP ACKs which may delay for half hour without this technology.

SpaceX

Posted: 28 May 2017 03:35
by Creator78
However there is an another inquiry about light space engine technology. Light is good. Photon has a mass. It moves exactly with the speed of light. Well, good technology. There is also rumors that huge energy may be condensed in a single looped beam. But I'm not sure how or should I contact them. They have already ignored one my email. Can someone advice how to contact about this?

SpaceX

Posted: 28 May 2017 04:21
by Creator78
If someone interested there is the email content:
► Show Spoiler

SpaceX

Posted: 28 May 2017 11:35
by Destructor1701
Hi Creator78.

Unfortunately, none of us in this thread work at SpaceX.

It can be difficult to contact SpaceX because they are so popular that they receive a lot of communications. It can be hard for them to sift through all that noise to find a signal.

Rest assured that they do keep abreast of the latest scientific developments, but that sometimes the cost required to develop new technology like this can outweigh its utility in the short term.

The internet constellation currently planned will be in Low Earth Orbit, serving the people of Earth only. Ping times will be under a second from one side of the planet to the other, even without quantum entanglement.

In future, they will expand the internet to Mars. At that time, quantum entanglement communications (if it is possible for high-bandwidth utilities - isn't each entangled particle only good for one bit of information?) will become much more attractive to develop and deploy, in order to eliminate the time-lag between Earth and Mars.

You're right, I should add the satellite constellation to the list - I don't have time right now, but I'll come back and edit it in!

SpaceX

Posted: 29 May 2017 08:20
by Creator78
Thanks, much obliged.

Omnigotti already gone from Jena University. They had to gain Nobel prize but instead the technology is in risk of death. Pretty small team that can handle the technology. Only two men. And the team is already broken. I see high risk of the technology to pass away. Rest of science society thinks it is impossible. Like you. Only these two guys understand that photon can be both a particle and quantum. And they can control it. If no-one try to glue them back then one huge interstellar concern remains unresolved. Interstellar communication system. 

Anyway, thank you again for outlining and supporting this useful information thread. It is really awesome. I wish you good luck!

SpaceX

Posted: 30 May 2017 14:18
by Destructor1701
[youtube]gtYoNLm9zCY[/youtube]

Excellent video recapping the news and events of just this last month - including some broad details on the satellite constellation.

SpaceX

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 07:35
by DoctorOfSpace
[youtube]S5V7R_se1Xc[/youtube]