The Bezos Sub-Orbital Flight Is Just an Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Ride.

[dutch508]

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215640920

The Bezos Sub-Orbital Flight Is Just an Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Ride.

Nothing more. Nothing new was learned that wasn't learned in 1961. Well, maybe we learned that obscenely rich folks will pay huge bucks for a 15-minute thrill ride.

Bezos got his ride into almost space. But, nothing was accomplished here. It's not a first step into the commercialization of space, even. It's just a very costly stunt. There's no potential value in sub-orbital flights. None. It's not a prelude into settling on another planet, mining asteroids, or even toward terraforming Mars. It's just a freaking stunt.

Why do the leftists hate the commercial space race?

Because all they have is hate.

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

1. It reminds me of a new multi-millionaire buying a Lamborghini.

The next news story is about that rich asshole crashing his Lamborghini into a light pole on Mulholland Drive.

Now, it would be thrilling to drive such a car. I'd love to do it. But, stupid people buy them, get scared by them, and park them in a storage garage. You won't see one with 100,000 miles on the odometer. They are cars rich people by for the lulz of owning one.

Getting your Bezos Astronaut Pin is just like that.

Reminds me of Henry Ford. Maybe Edison. Or Harley and Davidson...

Dial H For Hero (1,291 posts)

5. And buying a Lamborghini is bad....why?

I fully agree that his rocket is a (really cool) carnival ride. If he wants to spend millions for the world's most expensive E-ticket....

Shrug.

 

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

17. In itself, it's not bad. I understand the motivation.

However, too often, people buy such things as a symbol of their wealth and manhood. Such people often crash such cars, which is a waste of a nice piece of engineering.

A waste for whom?

Star Member brooklynite (71,376 posts)

2. The first commercial flight was in 1914

Someone paid $10,000 (in today’s dollars) fir a 23 minute flight.

Think it’ll ever catch on?

Star Member The Magistrate (91,156 posts)

9. Still Basically A Thrill Ride, Sir

It is an interesting patch, though.

You didn't get anything that could seriously be called commercial aviation till after the Great War, with aeroplanes based on large bombing machines.

This is a Vimy Commercial, outside and in.

One of the largest orders for this machine was from China. The agent Was Cecil Lewis, a war-time flier and excellent writer. Oddly enough, a number of these Commercials in China were later fitted out as bombers, in service of, if recollection serves, Chang Tso-Lin, the war lord over Manchuria.

 

Star Member brooklynite (71,376 posts)

10. And those flight charged the equivalent of First Class today....

just a thrill-ride for the wealthy.

Star Member The Magistrate (91,156 posts)

11. I Fail To See Your Point, Sir

I enjoyed an amusement park as much as anyone when a boy. Roller-coasters were quite a thrill. But that's all they were.

This will not lead anywhere. There is no need this serves, nor is it likely one can be created for it to serve. Not of any commercial scale anyway.

I don't mind what the man does with his money. It's his. The problem isn't that he spends his money on this, it is that he has so much of it to spend in the first place. What does rub a lot of people raw is the frivolousness of the expenditure

Ah, there we go. The left is mad because he is successful.

Star Member DinahMoeHum (20,101 posts)

4. Yep, it's nothing more than a. . .

. . .cock-wagging contest between billionaires.

It's not even feasible as freight delivery for earthly purposes. Freight is considered an expense in the logistics business, and this type would be beyond expensive.

Its not about earth you ****ing idiots. It is the first steps to opening up the rest of the solar system to people. The mining of asteroids alone will solves a shit load of problems for humanity... but yeah... it won't make Amazon any cheaper of faster...

 

Klaralven (4,996 posts)

6. The technical achievement, to the extent there is one, seems to be reusable vehicles.

SpaceX and Blue Origin have both mastered the ability to return first stage vehicles to earth such that they can be refurbished and reused.

A major expense in spaceflight has been the expendable hardware required for each flight. Even in the shuttle program, the solid fuel boosters and the huge fuel tank attached to the shuttle were discarded. The shuttle consisted of the crew compartment, cargo bay, and main engines for reuse.

However, it will never be inexpensive, since over 8 pounds of fuel are required to lift 1 pound into near-earth orbit. That's a approximately 17,000 mph orbit, and more fuel is required to accelerate to above the 25,000 mph escape velocity for interplanetary travel.

mathematic (1,021 posts)

15. Is graduating high school a waste of time because "nothing new was learned"?

No, because that student learned things that were new to them.

The people that made the rockets in '61 are dead or retired. They're not making new rockets. The knowledge and practice to launch people into space is not something inherently in our genes, passed along from generation to generation. We must continue to learn the things we know.

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

21. Not equivalent in any way.

The lessons learned back in 1961 are now part of an entire industry that has developed around space missions.

Bezos and Branson used those lessons to redo what was done 60 years ago. That is not a huge accomplishment, nor does it contribute to future advances.

Both flights were just amusement park rides for the extremely wealthy. I can't really celebrate such excesses.

 

Star Member Marrah_Goodman (1,538 posts)

20. I just snoozed MSNBC for the first time ever

Sick of the constant fawning over there billionaire assholes.

Star Member 48656c6c6f20 (6,453 posts)

22. With all the hate towards Bezos I was expecting

This press conference showing a man eating babies while throwing people into a wood chipper.
So to my surprise he seems like a decent, Extremely rich man. With faults and dreams. Good for him on what he did.

 

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

32. Nihilism isn't my bag, bruh..m

Star Member Liberal In Texas (10,773 posts)

29. What an ignorant thing to say. You don't know what you're talking about.

I guess from your perspective a rocket went up and a rocket came down so this means this is just like 19i61. It didn't even dock at the space station so it must not be any good.

Did you even see the booster making a pinpoint vertical landing? I don't remember anything like that in 1961. Also this system is designed to be autonomous, there is no pilot aboard. Not possible in 1961 because the computers were worse than your phone today. And the system is reusable over and over.

Bezos has hired hundreds of the best and brightest aerospace engineers, scientists and designers over the last 16 years. Many of them hired away from NASA. The difference is like the difference between a 1961 Chevy Impala and a 2022 Chevy Corvette or a Tesla.

Yes, Bezos is going to initially concentrate on space tourism. Should he and other billionaires be paying more in taxes? That can all be debated but that isn't what this is about.

This, like any test of a new system is baby steps. Blue Origin isn't stopping with this. There are plans to return to the moon partnered with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draperto produce a Human Landing System for NASA's Artemis program.

Blue Origin, as prime contractor, leads the program management, systems engineering, safety and mission assurance, and mission engineering while providing the Descent Element (DE) that is based on the multi-year development of the Blue Moon lunar lander and its BE-7 engine. (This paragraph from their website.)

Like it or not, our government has squeezed NASA funding and has expected private industry to pick up the slack. This is just one element of that. Already we see that Space X will be shuttling to the ISS so we don't have to rely on our enemies to get us there and back.

 

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

51. Well, despite my fascination with space, I have no desire to go there at all.

I'm not sure how many "everyday people" aspire to fly into space, actually. I suspect it's a very small percentage. Vanishingly small, really.

The essential problem with commonplace, affordable space travel is purely physical. It takes a great deal of energy to lift payloads outside of Earth's atmosphere, and even more energy to achieve orbital velocities. There is also the problem of there being no breathable atmosphere outside of whatever vessel you are in.

What that means is that space travel will always be very, very expensive. The more people you take into space on one trip, the more energy is required to boost the load into space. There is no way to lower that cost. So, no matter how much time passes, the laws of physics will not change.

Commercial air travel is certainly affordable, but only because it occurs in the atmosphere, so oxygen is available to support the combustion required to sustain flight. Also, the presence of an atmosphere creates an aerodynamic environment that allows aircraft to fly. In space, neither of those things exist.

You won't be taking a nice trip into space anytime soon, I guarantee, unless you have millions in your bank accounts.

What a miserable ****ing bastard.

[ADsOutburst]

Star Member MineralMan (138,623 posts)

1. It reminds me of a new multi-millionaire buying a Lamborghini.

The next news story is about that rich asshole crashing his Lamborghini into a light pole on Mulholland Drive.

Now, it would be thrilling to drive such a car. I'd love to do it. But, stupid people buy them, get scared by them, and park them in a storage garage. You won't see one with 100,000 miles on the odometer. They are cars rich people by for the lulz of owning one.

Getting your Bezos Astronaut Pin is just like that.

Kind of beside the point, but you won't see one with that much mileage because it's not designed to be a daily driver sort of car.

Star Member Marrah_Goodman (1,538 posts)

20. I just snoozed MSNBC for the first time ever

Sick of the constant fawning over there billionaire assholes.

Keep it that way.

[SVPete]

JFK's and LBJ's Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Rides. Now if we can just get DUpipo to promise not to use medical technologies developed by NASA ...

At least Bezos, et al, paid for their Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Ride with their own $$ instead of taxpayer $$ ... unlike JFK's and LBJ's Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Rides.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Why do the leftists hate the commercial space race?

Government is God.

Thou shall have no other gods before Government.

If the private sector can get us to space more frequently and more efficiently than NASA, where will this private sector blasphemy end? Wages? Health care? Education?

The infidels must be purged!

[USA4ME]

I agree it's a giant PR stunt for these two and their companies, but they aren't doing it just to show off. There is definitely a motive behind it.

Branson seems to be more into providing thrill rides for those who can afford to do so, but he still has his eye on larger ideas. Bezos is wanting to set up a global communication network where he can provide goods and services more quickly, the focus being mainly on the needs of business. He and Elon Musk are essentially trying to gain the market on this, with Musk being ahead of Bezos at the moment. I forgot how many satellites Musk has planned to put into orbit.

But the knowledge gained and the new markets opened are the purpose of these flights, not so much just fun trips to float around for a while. That Rockhead and the Magistrate dimwits don't recognize the end game of these individuals isn't surprising as they both are short-sighted in their worldview on a good day.

.

[Zathras]

DUmbasses are nothing but a bunch of jealous hypocrites that are green with envy. We all know that, if they had the chance, the DUmbasses complaining about this would jump at the chance to get on that "Uber ride" to outer space.

[Mary Ann]

One of my lib FB friends posted a C&P about how they should have used their $$$ to "race" to see how many hungry children they could feed. I posted that these projects provided jobs that paid lots of $$$ to feed children. She asked for a link, citation, or reference. (Because of course Bezos jerry-rigged this thing in his garage last weekend. Or something.) I posted a link, showing Blue Origin was started in 2000, has 3,990 employees, with 400-some job openings. Yeah, too bad he didn't throw his money down the rat hole of "giving" people crap.

Yay, capitalism!

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

One of my lib FB friends posted a C&P about how they should have used their $$$ to "race" to see how many hungry children they could feed. I posted that these projects provided jobs that paid lots of $$$ to feed children. She asked for a link, citation, or reference. (Because of course Bezos jerry-rigged this thing in his garage last weekend. Or something.) I posted a link, showing Blue Origin was started in 2000, has 3,990 employees, with 400-some job openings. Yeah, too bad he didn't throw his money down the rat hole of "giving" people crap.

Yay, capitalism!

Yes, but none of these literally rocket science jobs can be filled by unskilled illegal immigrant labor.

So, racism.

[Delmar]

Failed thrift store scrounger tells richest man in the world what he's doing wrong.

[67 Rover]

One of my lib FB friends posted a C&P about how they should have used their $$$ to "race" to see how many hungry children they could feed. I posted that these projects provided jobs that paid lots of $$$ to feed children. She asked for a link, citation, or reference. (Because of course Bezos jerry-rigged this thing in his garage last weekend. Or something.) I posted a link, showing Blue Origin was started in 2000, has 3,990 employees, with 400-some job openings. Yeah, too bad he didn't throw his money down the rat hole of "giving" people crap.

Yay, capitalism!

Meh, feed a child and they will just be hungry again tomorrow but go to space and you have a cool story to tell forever.

[SVPete]

One of my lib FB friends posted a C&P about how they should have used their $$$ to "race" to see how many hungry children they could feed. I posted that these projects provided jobs that paid lots of $$$ to feed children. She asked for a link, citation, or reference. (Because of course Bezos jerry-rigged this thing in his garage last weekend. Or something.) I posted a link, showing Blue Origin was started in 2000, has 3,990 employees, with 400-some job openings. Yeah, too bad he didn't throw his money down the rat hole of "giving" people crap.
...

Back in the early 70s Libs were complaining about "pouring our (national) love out on the Moon". Many of them are now probably using medical and other technological advances that came out of Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

[DLR Pyro]

Back in the early 70s Libs were complaining about "pouring our (national) love out on the Moon". Many of them are now probably using medical and other technological advances that came out of Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

such as their obama phones that they use to post their daily screed on DU every day...

[I_B_Perky]

Yo dummies...

The main thing here, in my opinion, is what these companies are doing to advance space flight.  For instance.... NASA decided to let the booster rockets fall into the ocean. Real expensive.   They had the right idea with the space shuttle but let the booster rockets fall into the ocean.   

Enter the private sector... they said "hey this is expensive so why can't we bring the rockets back to Earth to land and reuse them?".

And they did.  Heck they even landed one on a barge in an ocean. Do you idiot dummies know how incredibly difficult that is?  Ask any FA-18 pilot what it takes to land his/her/it plane on a bouncing postage stamp... and then think about how one of these companies landed a booster rocket that was in low orbit on a floating barge and did it without a pilot on board!!!! 

 I'm gonna go out on a limb and say these gazzionares will be the ones that get us to Mars and beyond.  Bezo's wants to go to space, and can afford it, more power to him!!! He is funding our exploration of space.

[thundley4]

Seems this matches the DUmmie attitude.

[SVPete]

A little history lost from DUmmies -fogged minds ...

Project Mercury's "Freedom 7" flight, piloted by Alan Shepard was sub-orbital.

Project Mercury's "Liberty Bell 7" flight, piloted by Gus Grissom was sub-orbital.

Project Mercury's "Friendship 7" flight, piloted by Gus Grissom, the project's third manned flight, was ordital.

Project Mercury was JFK's Uber Expensive E-Ticket Theme Park Ride.