The Off Topic Topic

[Tamas]

Jeff Bezos now confirmed as pre-eminent passenger of planet Earth.

I know its in fashion to disguise envy as moralist concern for inequality and hate on these on-paper super rich people, but if I had that much money I would also totally build my own space ship.

[garbon]

Jeff Bezos now confirmed as pre-eminent passenger of planet Earth.

I know its in fashion to disguise envy as moralist concern for inequality and hate on these on-paper super rich people, but if I had that much money I would also totally build my own space ship.

This is an odd take.

[Tamas]

Jeff Bezos now confirmed as pre-eminent passenger of planet Earth.

I know its in fashion to disguise envy as moralist concern for inequality and hate on these on-paper super rich people, but if I had that much money I would also totally build my own space ship.

This is an odd take.

It is odd to consider this odd.

[Josquius]

It is strange that there are a lot of people getting really upset about these rocket launches and not the far more useless spending that the rich get up to every day.

[Sheilbh]

Useless spending doesn't normally include carbon emissions in the upper atmosphere.

[garbon]

Jeff Bezos now confirmed as pre-eminent passenger of planet Earth.

I know its in fashion to disguise envy as moralist concern for inequality and hate on these on-paper super rich people, but if I had that much money I would also totally build my own space ship.

This is an odd take.

It is odd to consider this odd.

All the media seems to be sitting around breathless about Branson and Bezos going up into space for a 5-10 minute wank. Shouldn't be surprising then that people might push back against that, particularly during a pandemic where wealth inequality has only become more apparent to the general public.

[Sheilbh]

All the media seems to be sitting around breathless about Branson and Bezos going up into space for a 5-10 minute wank. Shouldn't be surprising then that people might push back against that, particularly during a pandemic where wealth inequality has only become more apparent to the general public.

What's also striking is the contrast of kind of breathless reporting in the media v public enthusiasm.

It's so different from what I sense was the mood about the actual space race. The BBC Archive Twitter was tweeting clips of Gargarin's visit to the UK - 50 years ago last month - and people were excited. That felt like us all/us socially or collectively moving forward. This doesn't.

[Syt]

Well, with Bezos the question is if he's compensating for something:





(Yes, I know the logo is a feather, but from afar .... )

[The Larch]

Then there's the Bezos comment about this being thanks to all of Amazon's customers and employees. As if I needed more reasons to never order from them.

[Savonarola]

Tony Hawk's portrait in the National Portrait Gallery (from 1999, shortly after he did the 900 in competition.)

[Sheilbh]

Then there's the Bezos comment about this being thanks to all of Amazon's customers and employees. As if I needed more reasons to never order from them.

That was so weird because he clearly meant it and seemed to think it would be sort of heartwarming or galvanising, but was so incredibly tone deaf.

[The Minsky Moment]

No issues with rich folks spending $$ on space exploration, but I think sheilbh is right that the Bezos and Branson ventures are just wasteful ways for rich people to blow their carbon budgets to hell, especially the Branson one.  Funny to say it but Elon Musk has taken the more responsible and so far more commercially successful approach.

[Admiral Yi]

No issues with rich folks spending $$ on space exploration, but I think sheilbh is right that the Bezos and Branson ventures are just wasteful ways for rich people to blow their carbon budgets to hell, especially the Branson one.  Funny to say it but Elon Musk has taken the more responsible and so far more commercially successful approach.

That criticism is better suited to Virgin Galactic than Blue Horizon, which AFAIK is another commercial launch company like SpaceX, with Bezos' trip being a one off.

[grumbler]

No issues with rich folks spending $$ on space exploration, but I think sheilbh is right that the Bezos and Branson ventures are just wasteful ways for rich people to blow their carbon budgets to hell, especially the Branson one.  Funny to say it but Elon Musk has taken the more responsible and so far more commercially successful approach.

That criticism is better suited to Virgin Galactic than Blue Horizon, which AFAIK is another commercial launch company like SpaceX, with Bezos' trip being a one off.

Bezo's trip wasn't a one-off.  There are two more Blue Origin space tourism launches scheduled for this year, and multiple launches per year for the foreseeable future.

BO does have some small NASA contracts ,but has lost out to SpaceX for the big ones, because SpaceX technology is just that much more advanced (SpaceX having spent a lot more money developing reliable and inexpensive hardware).  SpaceX's first civilian-manned flight will have a billionaire onboard, but it won't be a space tourism mission.

I'm not sure Blue Origin has a commercial path to success.  They've got a nice engine on the test stand, but they've never launched even an orbital mission, while SpaceX is already flying to the space station.  SpaceX crushed the competition for the new moon landing (BO didn't even make it past the technology risk assessment) and most of BO's moon mission subcontractors have departed for other work, so it is unlikely that BO can compete for further moon landing contracts.

[crazy canuck]

No issues with rich folks spending $$ on space exploration, but I think sheilbh is right that the Bezos and Branson ventures are just wasteful ways for rich people to blow their carbon budgets to hell, especially the Branson one.  Funny to say it but Elon Musk has taken the more responsible and so far more commercially successful approach.

Yeah, the Branson and Bezos flights were the equivalent of a super Yacht being shown off - carbon emissions be damned.  No useful purpose other than stroking the owner's um ego.