CyclopsRock
Member
I still think there would be a sufficiently large market for it (high end clients for whom speed is a relevant factor), it was political problems that killed Concorde more than practical or financial ones.
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Space X Announces BFR - Travel anywhere on earth in under an hour - Mars in 2022
- Thread starter mcfrank
- Start date
I still think there would be a sufficiently large market for it (high end clients for whom speed is a relevant factor), it was political problems that killed Concorde more than practical or financial ones.
I love that Elon is striving to turn science fiction into modern reality. I showed the video to my kids this morning and told them they could one day take a rocket trip around the globe and their imaginations lit up.
Look what SpaceX has already done. They've revolutionized the industry with reusable rockets. It's amazing.
Look what SpaceX has already done. They've revolutionized the industry with reusable rockets. It's amazing.
$200k wouldn't be bad, but that's only divided by what, 10-20 people? Tops?
That's around $10,000/person. Planes just have more space because they don't need nearly as much thrust as rockets. The air does most of the work for them.
Fenderputty
Banned
At $5000 a person it blows every first class / business class trans Atlantic flight out of the water (especially from California) considering how fast it is.
If this is the case, total game changer ...
You could do extended weekend trips like your going to Vegas but in Australia or some shit and it would be available mass market.
Bam Bam Baklava
Member
What's up with all this backlash against innovative endeavors? Seeing a lot of negativity in this thread over safety and cost, things that will improve over time.
Fuck yes. Traveling is so time-consuming.
People would risk going on a space rocket just to be on a space rocket, bonus points if you actually get to go somewhere.
Robot Pants
Member
To Mars in only four years? I doubt that very much
Austriacus
Member
There's no way tickets for this thing would just be 5K or 10K. Aren't there "luxury" airliners that cost even more than that? This is a fucking space rocket. I hope it comes with courtesy life insurance too.
He is in fact claiming they are gona be at economy airplane fare prices.
So saying they are gona be priced at 5k-10k is already not taking his word.
Fenderputty
Banned
I want to live in a hypothetical world in which economy ticket prices can get you anywhere on the globe in an hour. The implications are staggering for travel and tourism and even business. If this happens in say 20 years as I'm getting closer to thinking retirement .... ohhh boy. Gonna see everything on that bucket list.
nekkid
It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
Launch to Mars would be in 7 years according to the presentation.
OrangeGrayBlue
Member
Between neogaf user SlimySnake's understanding of people's transportation demands and Elon Musk's, I have a hard time deciding who to trust.
Vermillion
Banned
LMAO
Just_myles
Member
Definitely beneficial for intercontinental travel. I believe the risks are no more riskier than any manned flight anywhere. I'm sure safety will be figured out way before they go commercial.
If anything I would think that this would make regular airlines cheaper, right?
AnotherDayAnotherDollar
Banned
Mars cities will have all the great technologies and none of the old, legacy crap we have to deal with.
Are you kidding me? Look at all of SlimySnake's accomplishments! Do you see Elon taking time to post on NeoGAF? No, you don't, because he doesn't have what it takes to change the future, one post at a time.
Clockwork5
Member
2022. Nope.
Same could be said when planes first started getting attention.
I hope this becomes reality, it sounds super cool imo
Yeah if this comes to fruition then it's a game changer for sure. An actual example of disruptive technology. Still a bit concerned about comfort levels and it impact on physiology though (assuming having to bear a few Gs).
Because why not?
Wait, is that to scale because I always thought it was much larger.
Subpar Spatula
Banned
what about the physiological damages humans would suffer on mars? you're going to need some bone-strong folk there. plus, what tech will be used to prevent the environment from killing you? radiation? food? recyclable water and air?
There has to be whole books of data on this kind of thing given jet fighter pilots have been flying for decades and regularly take much worse than what this rocket would dish out.
Sure, I'm not suggesting the effects of this on the human body are unknown but more so how a casual passenger would cope with it and what is being done to accommodate everyday individuals who lack the physical fitness of a jet fighter pilot.
Virgin Galactic has hundreds of people signing up to pay $250k to go on a suborbital flight that doesn't go anywhere, to see the black of space, the curve of the earth, and experience a few minutes of microgravity
For suborbital flights of light payloads (passengers), they should have huuuge fuel margins that would allow them to take everything nice and slow.
The biggest health concern (other than exploding or crashing) would probably be people losing their lunch in microgravity
R10Neymarfan
Member
It's genetic engineering a thing now? I am sure we'll "evolve" ourselves to survive Mars
I would say a good chunk of us that grew up with sci fi movies saying we should have flying cars and space travel by now are pretty cynical. Reality always seems to slap hype and pie in the sky dreams down every time. Mars in 4 years when Space X still isnt reliable now is just not realistic. I cant speak for everyone but i sure hope to see space travel in my lifetime. I would piss my pants in glee if the government gave the entire military budget to NASA. Its just really hard to get excited by projections and theories anymore, especially with the anti-science direction our country has been headed in.
Yep. As a rocket geek (and in the field) - this is crazy pants ridiculous if they can get the costs down that low. Right now, the major catch is going to be getting the build economy of scale in only 9 of the rockets - basically each new rocket they build is going to have to have a full step jump in terms of efficiency and cost of build. That's...that's really hard to do.
The math...is really hard to do on this. It's why manned Mars flight is so hard, it's really hard to get the engineering and design efficient enough to not run into the beer and toilet paper problem (basically, 99% of the fuel is burned to lift off..the fuel, leaving only a 1% gain. Don't know if it's actually 99% but it's close). That propulsive ratio is what they have to figure out how to deal with. Unless they have a propulsive breakthrough (which the entire transportation industry is trying to do), they're going to need a materials / build process breakthrough, and possibly multiples of them.
It can take 80 people and all their gear, food, water to *Mars*
The pressurised volume is comparable to an A380. Think hundreds
Isnt the plan to refuel in LEO (or possibly the Moon down the line) and then blast off to Mars?
$10,000 is what I figure the baseline could possibly be in our lifetimes. That was me just going off fuel costs. Adding in maintenance, safety requirements, insurance, profit, etc. etc, the cost would be higher than $200k, probably by an order of magnitude. Even if you could fit 200 people in, it'd just end up evening out.
Rockets have an unfortunate habit of blowing up for the smallest reason. As a reference, something like the Delta II or the space shuttle have a success rate of ~98%, considered excellent in the industry. The airline industry has a success rate of ~99.9999%.
Would you get in a rocket on your trip to Australia if you knew there a 1 in 50 or even 1 in 100 chance of never landing? I don't know if I would. Surely safety will go a long way when regulated for consumers, but it has to go a looooooong way to be as safe as an airline.
ClosingADoor
Member
I don't know, are people going to risk getting on a metal tube in the sky just to travel faster? We already got boats and trains.
Not that I think this rocket thing is happening anytime soon, but there is little reason for it not to be available somewhere in the future.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Uh, trains? I know you guys have them in the US. I took one from the middle of NYC to Newark, and it didn't take very long. But maybe that's an exception. Pubic transportation does need to improve DRAMATICALLY in most of the US.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Haters gonna hate.
andythinkpad
Member
Musk's space plans all sounds like spammer bullshit. That actually make me lose a bit of confidence in Tesla products by association.
Sir Abacus
Member
mentallyinept
Banned
I don't understand this.
What has this guy failed at? Ever?
What has he lied about other than aggressive timelines?
If there is one thing to count on, it's that Elon Musk delivers, sometimes a few years later than he wants, but he delivers.
I'm very skeptical about all of this.
I'd love to be proven wrong though. But it seems like everything is at least 10 years too soon. Mars in 2032? Maybe, but not in 5 years, that's ludicrous. Same thing with that rocket ship. This stuff is extremely hard and uncharted terrain, yelling at your engineers won't make the progress go any faster.
I'd love to be proven wrong though. But it seems like everything is at least 10 years too soon. Mars in 2032? Maybe, but not in 5 years, that's ludicrous. Same thing with that rocket ship. This stuff is extremely hard and uncharted terrain, yelling at your engineers won't make the progress go any faster.
Chuck Norris
Banned
Gotta respect Elon Musk, he is trying to do stuff that will have him remembered for thousands of years