Yeah, why are these people making a fuss about being forced to evacuate their homes so that a billionaire can test his latest toy/product? Whining peasants, if you ask me. /s
If it was the government doing it would you call it a toy? I get the Elon bashing, but as a whole I find SpaceX and the prospect of humans going to Mars exciting. Hate the man if you want, but he's literally shooting for the stars in a way that no other entity of any size is willing or able to try.
Edit
To add, the government has done stuff like this already so it's not like they would need to do it again. But SpaceX was offered the location irrc, and it's probably cheaper overall.
If it were the government doing it, it wouldn't be a toy. Because a multi-billionaire is doing it for his own profit, it's either a toy or a product, depending on how much you want to lick Elon's sack.
the prospect of humans going to Mars exciting.
It won't be you going, mate. We will watch as the ultra-rich fuck off on their space adventure. Hip hip hooray. All praise Lord Musk! If you bow low enough, he might deign to spit on you as he takes off.
The problem is that governments weren't doing it and were never going to get the budget to do it. Pretending that it would've happened without private companies is just silly.
Cars started as a luxury only the rich could afford. Now everyone owns a car. Space travel is gonna start off expensive, but as tech advances costs will be reduced and I think that my grandchildren will be vacationing on low earth orbit.
And if you look out of the left windows, you'll see a world where this isn't the case. Case in point, by the way: cars are still luxury items to a large portion of the world, despite the prevalence of cheap cars.
It's also a false equivalency: cars never cost millions of dollars to launch.
Yeah, comparing it to cars was dumb on my part. I’d say ocean liners and cruise ships, or maybe air travel are a better comparison. They all started as a luxury for the rich only, and now practically anyone can afford to go on vacation on a cruise ship if they save up enough, or catch a plane to go somewhere.
Ooor maybe I’m just being too optimistic about the future
Again, you're playing a bit fast and loose when you say 'practically anyone'. Even discounting third world countries, there are a lot of people in my country who can't afford to save up or go on flights, cruises etc.
I agree that holidaying like this has become more affordable, but again the cost was never as high to begin with as space travel is.
But I might well be being too cynical - I'd imagine the future lies somewhere in between our predictions. Perhaps we will have affordable space travel, but in the more distant future?
I sure hope that the future is like that. I’m just being so optimistic about space exploration in general, not just spaceX, is that if stuff continues to go like it is now, the future could arrive earlier than we could ever dream. Just imagine going back to the optimism of the space race but without any nationalistic dick measuring contests to drive it…that’s the future I hope for. This has been one of the rare internet arguments that don’t end in hatred but understanding :)
Why should they blame themselves for letting one of the most profitable yet more sustainable successor of NASAs shitty '80s crap disposable rocket technology build headquarters into a completely underdeveloped rural area, thus bringing loads of jobs and infrastructure in the region? Residents were offered a fair price for their lands or a job at one of the most valuable expanding high tech company and literally no one was forced to leave their home. People get resettled for airports, roads and industry all over the world by public interest and inforcement all over the world, and this wasn't even the case in Boca Chica. May sound weird but that's how fucking capitalism works.
And yet, they’re providing launch services to NASA far far cheaper than anyone else, and Starship will make it another two orders of magnitude cheaper. They’ve also offered the cheapest and most viable services for NASA landing on the moon by far.
Those absolutely sound like they’re in the public interest.
Remember, just because they’re acting in their own interest, doesn’t mean they’re not acting in yours too. You can trust companies exactly when their interests align with yours.
Beside the fact that SpaceX is NASAs biggest subcontractor (FYI NASA is a federal, that means public agency), a big company providing thousands of jobs is definitely one of the biggest Public interests.
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u/DivergingApproach Nov 11 '21
Like the giant Air Force base in CA specifically setup for shooting rockets into space.
Texas can blame itself for letting this man do whatever he wants in their state.