Posts by andyo

Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion

Re: Shite

Er, insist all development is on Microsoft platforms and none of this Linux malarkey?

Soyuz later! Russia may exit satellite launch biz

SpaceX builds one rocket engine per day in LA. ULA is the company with the Russian engines problem.

Re: Funny, that's exactly what the UK decided when they cancelled Black Arrow.

And boy have 'we' got good at building those satellites. It's not something that we're about to cede to the Russians... the other 96% of space market:-)

In fairness to NASA, whom I find it easy to criticize, they have had unprecendented success in planetary exploration.

Re: 2 billion in today's market

NASA's cargo resupply contracts and funding of rocket engines has been the single most spectacularly successful investment they have ever made in space vehicles. Crew supply contracts look like they'll yield equally impressive results. NASA didn't so much plan those results as accidentally achieve them. They didn't have a lot of money, they took a bit of a gamble and it's paid off brilliantly.

I thought the Ansari prize was wholly funded by the Ansari family.

Re: 2 billion in today's market

Cheap is all relative. Shuttles worked out at 1500 million each (1.5 billion). ULA is around 400 million, and Spacex advertises 62 million (which will get you a crew to LEO/ISS).

BFR is slated to wipe the floor with all of these solutions. Elon's talking about 5 million launches (over time). Lets say he just undercuts Falcon to start with at say 50 million.

NASA's new SLS is going to run to about 1000 million (1 billion) per flight for comparison. And better still, NASA have spent about 8 billion so far for some very nice pictures of that big rocket.

Re: 2 billion in today's market

Fortunately, uncle Sam is about to wean himself off Russian crew supply. And with two options too. Full up, i.e. 7 astronauts per vehicle (mind, Elon could do one up), it'll be cheaper than the non benign monopoly the Russians have been running for the last 7 years.

2 billion in today's market

I can readily appreciate the point that it's not worth the Russian state trying to compete over a 2 billion launch market. And it makes perfect sense for Musk/SpaceX to do so. But this misses 2 fundamental issues...

i) SpaceX is only hoovering up the private launch market because it has ridiculously low prices. It wants the business to fund the greater goal of making humans a multiplanetary species. Many may scoff at this lofty ambition, but it's one that Russia ceded 40 years ago and one that NASA has squandered over the same time period. Musk/SpaceX WILL make it happen. NASA might go and plant a flag for some pointlessly expensive (political most likely) reason.

ii) 2 billion is the launch market today. It will increase in size as rocket launches become more and more routine. Yes prices will fall, but the revenues and profits will increase. SpaceX is already a benign (defined as not maximising profits) monopoly (defined in economic terms as any supplier having at least 25% of a market). With an even larger share of the market and a much increased market, the revenues will vastly exceed 2 billion per year for launch services. SpaceX has only just started decimating the launch services industry. Ariane looks similarly doomed as well as ULA unless they really can get large parts of their Vulcan system reusable. There appears room for smaller rockets at the moment, but I suspect BFR will decimate that market too.

Elon Musk's latest Tesla Model 3 delivery promise: 6,000... a week

Re: Replacing the batteries.

Battery discharge level is one part of the equation where rechargeable longevity is concerned. The bigger problem is charging past the 'bulk charge' point. this is typically 80% of battery capacity. Charging to 100% may be needed for the occasional long journey, but generally it's best not to go above 80% and for long battery life, this should be considered the normal maximum. Generally, it looks as though most Teslas, driven reasonably sensibly, will be good for half a million miles plus.