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by Teever 1164 days ago
I know that Von Braun expected humans to set foot on Mars by the late 1970s. If Von Braun thought that was possible it certainly was, if not for the pivot in budget that occured under Nixon.

For better or worse we're seeing a resurgence in privately funded space exploration which may be the key to making it happen this time.
1 comments
Towaway69 1163 days ago
Private companies are even worse in following long term goals especially if those goals become unprofitable.

Private companies can also go bust or be bought up by competitors only to be shutdown.

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Teever 1162 days ago
I agree with these points but I can see no evidence that they apply to SpaceX.
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shjake 1162 days ago
How could Space X even afford fund a mission to Mars? There is no way that can be profitable .

What they are doing now is cool but they are still a business which offers a launch services at a competitive price and a satellite internet provider themselves. How does an exceptionally expensive (especially in this financial environment) Mars mission fit into that.

I highly doubt Space X could ever realistically get to Mars before NASA. Artemis seems way more promising than SpaceX as far as manned space flight is concerned.

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Teever 1162 days ago
How could SpaceX fund a mission to Mars? Honestly it sounds whack but I bet Musk could easily crowd fund it.
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shjake 1161 days ago
He could have spent the money he paid on Twitter on it. Return on investment likely wouldn’t be much lower…
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Towaway69 1162 days ago
When banks fail do they broadcast the fact beforehand? It's always a "shock" when a company fails.

Just recently Virgin space (or whatever it was called) closed its doors. There wasn't a public debate beforehand, it was just announced. Sure insiders knew about it but not the broader public.

I'm not implying that spaceX is going shut its doors but it even less incentive to be transparent than a governmental organisation.

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Teever 1162 days ago
It isn't always a shock when a company fails, and Virgin Space is a prime example of that.

They flew something like a handful of missions in 20 years with an unscalable platform and to my knowledge they never once received money to put a payload into orbit.

They are totally incomparable to SpaceX, the company that is putting more tonnage into orbit than any other entity, corporate or governmental.

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