Falcon Heavy

[Lyonspride]

20 hours ago, Route66 said:

I think that’s a little harsh. No family capital behind him, writing software at 12, degrees in physics and economics. Net worth $20b. Taking on big automotive and winning. Creating a lot of jobs, taking big risks. I think the world needs a few more of these and a lot less politicians

 

Unfortunately I don't put much value in degree's, i've known too many degree qualified idiots and too many people who went to uni for the party/social life, faked their way through and came out none the wiser........ So as soon as someone says "i've got a degree in......", I tend to think "ok, great but what can you actually do?".

I followed Elon with interest until I started watching some of his presentations, now I admit he may have been simplifying for and playing to a crowd consisting in a majority of "woop wooping" Americans, but he repeatedly comes out with stuff that just isn't true, isn't possible or isn't even remotely viable, and as soon as anyone does that I lose all interest/respect.

I don't mean to be offensive about the guy, I just can't stand all the sales and marketing nonsense, i'm sure that most people lap it up, but I just feel annoyed by it.

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

1 hour ago, Lyonspride said:

 

Unfortunately I don't put much value in degree's, i've known too many degree qualified idiots and too many people who went to uni for the party/social life, faked their way through and came out none the wiser........ So as soon as someone says "i've got a degree in......", I tend to think "ok, great but what can you actually do?".

[corsechris]

I don’t care what he says, I don’t make a point of seeking out his press things as they are often pretty painful to endure based on what little I have seen, but I am impressed with what Tesla and SpaceX have achieved so far, and you can’t deny he has been highly successful with his previous endeavours, degrees or not.

Handsome is as handsome does, as a wise Hobbit once said.

[Blatman]

On 2/9/2018 at 13:05, Lyonspride said:

but he repeatedly comes out with stuff that just isn't true, isn't possible or isn't even remotely viable,

I suspect if you asked almost anyone in the aerospace industry 10 years ago they would have said landing SRB's upright, back on Earth, withing a few feet of the launchpad was neither possible nor viable.

Sometimes it takes the right person saying the impossible thing to make it happen. I suspect if you'd heard JFK's speech live back in 62 your response wold have been the same except it would have been a politician telling lies and trying to make us do the impossible/non viable.

[jeff oakley]

I think where Musk has made such progress is that he had so much money to use. He didn't have to go cap in hand to banks or to a government oversight committee he just cracked on.

Nasa have their hands tied especially after the Space Shuttle accidents where they now have to avoid any disaster. When you go to Cape Canaveral and see just how many chances they took to get men on the moon and you can understand why.

Musk has none of the baggage or politicians to hold him back. 

I think he will spur on major advancements in space and in battery technology. He has also spurred on hyper loop technology which might cut down on polluting air travel. 

I would not be surprised if it is his technology that the US use to go to Mars if the Chinese don't get there first.

[Alan France]

On 09/02/2018 at 13:05, Lyonspride said:

... but he repeatedly comes out with stuff that just isn't true, isn't possible or isn't even remotely viable, 

But isn’t that how disruptive technology works. Dream big dreams and make a lot of mistakes.

For me the point about the degrees is that he worked to gain the entry level, then worked for the degrees. Of course there are idiots with little common sense who get degrees but they would be idiots without degrees.

Most of the US auto industry laughed when he started Tesla... not laughing now. When I had my Corvette I made a pilgrimage to the factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Not a patch on the Toyota or Nissan factories in the UK. Really new innovation is difficult for a giant like GM but Tesla started with a clean sheet of paper.

Good luck to the guy, he deserves, and has earned it.

[Blatman]

There's a saying, something like "anyone not making mistakes isn't trying"

My other favourite is from Bertrand Russell, and one that I refer to internally when trying to explain stuff to non-technical people. It goes like this;

"A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand."

[Alan France]

My favourite is:

Rocket science is easy, it’s the engineering that’s difficult.

[corsechris]

3 minutes ago, Route66 said:

My favourite is:

Rocket science is easy, it’s the engineering that’s difficult.

That’s a superb saying, as long as one appreciates that actually, rocket science is really rather tricky.

Just in case anyone thinks rocket science is easy, try googling “three body problem”. No, it isn’t anything to do with complex interpersonal relationships.....

[Alan France]

OK, Rocket science is hard, but rocket engineering is harder. I didn’t mean to upset any rocket scientists. My experience is limited to lighting the blue touch paper and stepping back.

[Lyonspride]

5 hours ago, jeff oakley said:

 He has also spurred on hyper loop technology which might cut down on polluting air travel.

 

Hyperloop is nothing more than PR/marketing nonsense, it's been busted by some pretty clever people already, some guys did the maths and worked out that for it not to collapse in on itself it would have to have internal structural support, which would then make it impossible to pass anything through it.
Just Google "Hyperloop busted".

Now they might change it, call it "hypoloop" for arguments sake, but in the form it was marketed/promoted, it simply couldn't work.

[Blatman]

If you mean the Thunderf00t thing on Youtube, there's more bad science in that than there is in the Hyperloop. Check the more learned discussion happening on Reddit.

And again, it might be "PR" now, but it was the same for JFK. When he announced the Moon landings they knew next to nothing about space travel. 

[Alan France]

Wouldn’t be the first time a resident of California has had a pipe dream.

Beam me up Scottie would be better, less infrastructure.

Framed message at my tech college:

Six munths ago I cudnt even spel inginere, now I is one.

 

[DonPeffers]

15 hours ago, Blatman said:

There's a saying, something like "anyone not making mistakes isn't trying"

 

By Jove I've been trying damned hard all my life.

[jeff oakley]

13 hours ago, Lyonspride said:

 

Hyperloop is nothing more than PR/marketing nonsense, it's been busted by some pretty clever people already, some guys did the maths and worked out that for it not to collapse in on itself it would have to have internal structural support, which would then make it impossible to pass anything through it.
Just Google "Hyperloop busted".

Now they might change it, call it "hypoloop" for arguments sake, but in the form it was marketed/promoted, it simply couldn't work.

Well it seems to be generating a lot of clever people sticking cash into it. Time will tell but throughout history there have been moments that have changed the future, I think that launch was one of them.

For example, we take air travel for granted now yet until the Wright bros flew a short distance, there were many who thought they were mad. Same with steam trains where people said you would suffocate over 30mph. Those who said the Earth was flat proved wrong and surgeons who were accused of playing god when they started transplanting organs or creating life in a test tube. All those proved they were right.

Yes they had set backs, Google Brunel's atmospheric railway for an example of that but visionary engineers and pioneers in there fields are often  dismissed as self promoting charlatans until they get it right.