53 seconds in.

 

 

First of all, the author's bias and his personal and political opinions shine through in this article, therefore one must not take anything he writes too seriously.  Having said that he does make some valid points.

For one, I agree with the author regarding the EV issues and they're not being a true solution for you know what.  However, that's not Elon Musk's fault - he's just building a business based on what the media, govt., and millions of people say they want.  I also don't support self-driving vehicles and believe that Musk is wasting his time and money on that, but that's just my personal opinion.  Musk is also right about mass transportation.  People in the USA don't like using mass transit and prefer to drive their cars.  This has been demonstrated over and over again all over the country.  Despite this, I agree that we need more high speed rail for distances under 500 miles that can compete with the airlines.

As for the former NASA astronauts and their criticism of Musk, I can only say that these guys are biased in favor of NASA and they really disappoint me.  It just shows that these guys are relics of the past and are resistant to progress.  I have always supported NASA, but the organization lacks vision, or at least it did for many years.  The US taxpayer has poured many billions of dollars into NASA over the years, and the best we've gotten is some remote control Mars rovers.  No grand plan to establish a moon base or send humans to Mars.  We pathetically were forced to use Russian rockets in order to send our people to the space station because NASA couldn't do it.  Now SpaceX rockets are doing what NASA can't.

What SpaceX has done in such a short time and for less money is extraordinary.  Every time I see a SpaceX rocket booster return to Earth and land itself perfectly ready for reuse I am amazed.  Why couldn't NASA do that?  I believe I know why, but I can't discuss that here.

Elon Musk is a visionary and man of action.  He actually *does* things.  He has revolutionized space travel and provided jobs for thousands of people.  Some people are just jealous and like to criticize him for being filthy rich.  If anyone deserves to be filthy rich then it's people like him. 

Keep going Elon.  It's because of people like you that we'll finally land humans on Mars within my lifetime if I'm lucky.

Dave

Edited August 14, 20223 yr by dave2013

49 minutes ago, dave2013 said:

As for the former NASA astronauts and their criticism of Musk, I can only say that these guys are biased in favor of NASA and they really disappoint me.  It just shows that these guys are relics of the past and are resistant to progress.  I have always supported NASA, but the organization lacks vision, or at least it did for many years.  The US taxpayer has poured many billions of dollars into NASA over the years, and the best we've gotten is some remote control Mars rovers.  No grand plan to establish a moon base or send humans to Mars.  We pathetically were forced to use Russian rockets in order to send our people to the space station because NASA couldn't do it.  Now SpaceX rockets are doing what NASA can't.

What SpaceX has done in such a short time and for less money is extraordinary.  Every time I see a SpaceX rocket booster return to Earth and land itself perfectly ready for reuse I am amazed.  Why couldn't NASA do that?  I believe I know why, but I can't discuss that here.

Elon Musk is a visionary and man of action.  He actually *does* things.  He has revolutionized space travel and provided jobs for thousands of people.  Some people are just jealous and like to criticize him for being filthy rich.  If anyone deserves to be filthy rich then it's people like him. 

Keep going Elon.  It's because of people like you that we'll finally land humans on Mars within my lifetime if I'm lucky.

 

Precisely. The former astronauts criticism was quite  a few years ago now of course, and they are now eating their words. Concerns about safety indeed, since then the Dragon capsule has been serving the astronauts on the ISS safely, efficiently, and cheaper than NASA ever could. I agree with everything you said above. 

EV's have never been regraded as "the" solution, just part of the solution. EV's in Europe emit much less over their entire lifetime compared to ICE. The worst case scenario is a battery made in China and driven in Poland, that will emit 37% less compared with a petrol vehicle. And the best case scenario is a car with a battery made in Sweden and driven in Sweden that emits 83% less than petrol.

That which is referred to as "you know what" has appeared again. So its best we don't comment further. 😉 

 

Edited August 14, 20223 yr by martin-w

3 hours ago, martin-w said:

That which is referred to as "you know what" has appeared again. So its best we don't comment further.

I had to reference it because it was in the article.  Yes, let's not go down that road again as we won't ever agree about most aspects of the issue.

The author seems to be more on my side, though. 😁

Dave

Edited August 14, 20223 yr by dave2013