Musk

I am a big Musk supporter. My biggest issue with him is what P touched on. He tries to do too much. His story is an interesting one, if you want to read more the Ashlee Vance biography is a good one, although it is a few years old now.

I agree with P also, if SpaceX, Tesla (cars), Tesla (solar panels), NeuraLink or Starlink succeed immensely then he wins and we all will benefit greatly.

 

Every news outlet has confirmed it also. To those that don't believe he did, do you have any proof?

 

Most those considered to be "genius" are also considered to be somewhat insane.
However, they are not...they just see the world via a different kaleidoscope.

 

I'm just a natural skeptic

 

Archy didn't believe it because he questioned where the money came from. But if you look at the timeline, he paid that loan off after Tesla posted its first quarter of profitability and after the stock had risen from around $32 per share to $180 in less than 12 months. He also invested 100 million of his own cash back into Tesla aside from paying back the loan. Seems like he was flush at the moment so he used the cash to pay off the Feds.

 

For all those calling him a genius for privately funded space flight you may want to understand the recklessness of what his company did. There are rules for space flight and Musk broke a lot of them. For example, they did not take the steps necessary to remove all microbes from the car prior to orbit. May seem small but the aerospace community is universally upset.
Personally, I am all for innovation but just because you or some privately held company wants to do something doesnt mean you get to ignore standard, sensical protocol.
I do appreciate that he is working technologies that make the world lazier (autonomous vehicles) - very good business model (I am not joking. Really admire his business acumen)

 

I would say safer with autonomous vehicle. You've heard of one major accident with his autonomous cars in five year compared the 30,000 plus that die annually in cars driven by humans.

 

The government has no right, or authority, to legislate, rule, or set protocols for space--they do NOT own it.
Even if the rules are sensible.

 

I'm sure the Russians are making sure those patchwork Soyuz rockets are microbe free lol

 

I work with NASA. They seem universally pissed. I didnt conduct a pole - simply stated what I heard from multiple people.

Barry has a decent point but from the industry perspective what he did was reckless.

The issue with microbes has more to do with impacts on other than Earthly lifeforms. Yeah - I realize no one gives a hoot about aliens but I found the perspective interesting enough to share.

Agree or not is fine - to each his own.

 

got any of those NASA black files to share with us?!

 

I will bet that NASA is pissed because he got ahead of them.
BTW, I am a biologist by training, education and employment. I do understand the microbe issue more than most. And it isn't just about aliens, but also, what mutates and comes back to us, in a more virulent form.

 

They don't need to go to space to do that, this happens on earth, probably trillions of times a day.