New Shepard vs Falcon 9

[Crissa]

Yes… SpaceX already got there but we do need options so go for it.

Technically, Blue Origin did it before SpaceX's Grasshopper.

Most smelting doesn't require oxygen. You don't want oxygen in it, because that creates oxides, and that's generally bad. That's why aluminum was considered rare a hundred-fifty years ago.

If we can create robots to do smelting in space, there's no oxides. You can use functionally limitless sunlight to melt asteroids into all the metals we could ever want down here on earth. And the toxic gasses can be frozen and put back into the asteroid belt.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

Technically, Blue Origin did it before SpaceX's Grasshopper.

Most smelting doesn't require oxygen. You don't want oxygen in it, because that creates oxides, and that's generally bad. That's why aluminum was considered rare a hundred-fifty years ago.

If we can create robots to do smelting in space, there's no oxides. You can use functionally limitless sunlight to melt asteroids into all the metals we could ever want down here on earth. And the toxic gasses can be frozen and put back into the asteroid belt.

-Crissa

I'm not sure we're going to have regular flights to/ from the asteroid belt while I'm still alive. Definitely not while Bezos is still alive.

 

[Crissa]

I'm not sure we're going to have regular flights to/ from the asteroid belt while I'm still alive. Definitely not while Bezos is still alive.

Bezos is only 57. Commercial space flight is booming and the price to orbit is falling. There are more satellites under human control than ever, and SpaceX alone launched almost as many times last year as total commercial launches a decade ago.

This is happening now. That s-curve ramp-up.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

Bezos is only 57. Commercial space flight is booming and the price to orbit is falling. There are more satellites under human control than ever, and SpaceX alone launched almost as many times last year as total commercial launches a decade ago.

This is happening now. That s-curve ramp-up.

-Crissa

I expect we'll get some kind of moon base by in my lifetime. We'll probably have something on Mars. But I'm not so sure we'll have some kind of industry/ regular service to the Asteroid belt.

Exciting times for space though.