Frontier - please add the Tesla Roadster as a POI in the SOL system.

[relayer]

When I was a kid, I thought we'd be on Mars and have a permanent Moon base by now.
Today is the biggest step towards actually achieving that since then. Recency or not.

Yes... the young me, surrounded by plastic model spacecraft from the Mercury capsule and everything that came after... the one who started a model rocketry group in 6, 7 & 8th grades... the one who wondered what would happen if Godzilla came to Aldebaran... *spoiler* Rodan

That kid dreamed of being a short-order cook in some dicey bar in the "bad" section of the moonbase and, through some agency divine, got mixed up with a bunch of shifty characters and fell in love with a smugglin' girl.

We lost our imaginiation.

 

[relayer]

Chiming in from several discussions on Twitter about this issue:

1. Depending on how you measure a ton (2,240 pounds (1,016.05 kg) in Britain (the long ton), 2,723lbs of a non-uniform or balanced weight is a good cargo test and in line with what such reusable rockets will be used for - workhorse grunts to carry materials to orbital locations.

2. Many have thought, read about and published futurist-focused fiction and a general consensus is that government funding of such a program is unlikely and prone to political attacks. The real key to getting out in space now is to get the "greedy corps" to fund the infrastructure. Whatever gets us out there; people & societies can change...

 

[Aussiedroid]

For the lols and the screenshots, it would be cool to see it in the game.

 

[Gortron]

The material that the Tesla is made of will degrade overtime due to high radiation. Only the steel chassis would remain.

So if Frontier puts this in-game it would be a non-descriptive Steel chassis of a car. This doesn't require approval from Tesla.

The material will degrade but it won't disintegrate because there will be few outside forces to act on it. In a few thousand years it would still be the same shape but the paint job would be suffering from significant discoloration due to radiation damage.

I'd love FDEV to add a POI for the Falcon Heavy test. Not because a car was placed into orbit but because it is the most significant leap in space exploration technology since Apollo 11; probably. Hopefully the Sabre engine will be as significant but I doubt it will ever be as spectacular as this is:

[video=youtube_share;Z_kfM-BmVzQ]https://youtu.be/Z_kfM-BmVzQ[/video]

That is utterly amazing IMHO

 

[Patrick_68000]

That is utterly amazing IMHO

It looks like it goes back in the past

Like a movie that is rewound

 

[Jools]

Oh and Communism is great on paper but doesn't really work in reality.

well... it has not yet been put to a test, communist regimes we`ve had over the course of 20th century were so far detached from Marks`s proposals that they are not even in the same ballpark, they were supposed to pave the road to true communism (with blood and one man tyranny lol) but never did and instead what we had were cruel tyrannies by militaristic socio paths

anyway I digress

As it comes to OP, I`m all for any new visual content, so why not, but there is a whole list of items that should be put in the game before so i guess its not worth the hassle (legal issues)

 

[Patrick_68000]

well... it has not yet been put to a test, communist regimes we`ve had over the course of 20th century were so far detached from Marks`s proposals that they are not even in the same ballpark, they were supposed to pave the road to true communism (with blood and one man tyranny lol) but never did and instead what we had were cruel tyrannies by militaristic socio paths

anyway I digress

Yes the politics is not appreciated for some time

 

[Valorin]

The material will degrade but it won't disintegrate because there will be few outside forces to act on it. In a few thousand years it would still be the same shape but the paint job would be suffering from significant discoloration due to radiation damage.

I'd love FDEV to add a POI for the Falcon Heavy test. Not because a car was placed into orbit but because it is the most significant leap in space exploration technology since Apollo 11; probably. Hopefully the Sabre engine will be as significant but I doubt it will ever be as spectacular as this is:

https://youtu.be/Z_kfM-BmVzQ

That is utterly amazing IMHO

Actually you are totally right. They all talk about the car while this is the real accomplishment here. I have to admit that the car is an excellent marketing trick to make aware of the project though.

 

[Mengy]

I'd argue any rocket engineer (which aren't that rare I believe) could have done it, its just a matter of money which he happens to have a lot.

You can hate on Musk all you want and that is your prerogative, but NO, not just anyone could have created Tesla, SolarCity, and Space X and accomplished what Elon has done. If it was that easy then it would have happened long ago. It takes more than just money to create three companies like these and get them successful. It's okay to dislike him but disregarding what he's accomplished is super petty and extremely short sighted.

This Falcon Heavy test was a historic achievement. I'm not sure it warrants a Tesla Roadster implemented into the game, but it's still damn awesome and a huge step forward for space travel in general.

 

[xondk]

I'd argue any rocket engineer (which aren't that rare I believe) could have done it, its just a matter of money which he happens to have a lot.

Also, this:

two things.
1: if 'any' could have done it, why wasn't it done?
2: without funding things aren't going to get done, so it is an important aspect, but again, like in 1: why wasn't it done? one of the reasons is likely that people do not see it as a good investment, you know, to try to improve the world for humanity.
So would it have been done without people like Elon?

 

[Shinji Ikari]

You can hate on Musk all you want and that is your prerogative.

I don't hate him, I just think he gets treated as if him was flawless or that all his ideas are surely going to work.

but NO, not just anyone could have created Tesla, SolarCity, and Space X and accomplished what Elon has done. If it was that easy then it would have happened long ago.

The bussiness world is also tied in with a lot of luck and contacts, after all, most people on Earth would do just about anything to become as rich as him yet we never see that many of them.

It takes more than just money to create three companies like these and get them successful.

Yep, he added the ultimate in marketing and PR.

It's okay to dislike him but disregarding what he's accomplished is super petty and extremely short sighted.

Want to go personal? Ok, I just find that there have been much greater achievements overall in the world like proving the Poincaré Conjecture or Fermats Last Theorem and yet I don't see people thinking "Jeeze, this is incredibly impressive". I'll repeat myself, Musk provided the money, I don't recall hearing how he patented the Merlin Engine or the thousends of components in his rockets, I just recall hearing his animated videos explaining superficially his plans.

In short, I believe he is a better behaved Steve Jobs that makes useful products.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

two things.
1: if 'any' could have done it, why wasn't it done?

Because most billionares aren't scientists.

2: without funding things aren't going to get done, so it is an important aspect, but again, like in 1: why wasn't it done? one of the reasons is likely that people do not see it as a good investment, you know, to try to improve the world for humanity.

I'd argue nuclear fusion is also an underrated technology that doesn't get much investment but either way, I'd suspect most would not invest on the market as there are some seasoned enterprises in it like Boeing or Lockeed Martin.

Maybe another option is just that most billionares don't seem to care much about space exploration.

So would it have been done without people like Elon?

I cannot answer that question, I clearly don't know the future but considering NASA had plans of its own to get to Mars before SpaceX was a thing, I'd say yes.

 

[znôrt]

2. Many have thought, read about and published futurist-focused fiction and a general consensus is that government funding of such a program is unlikely and prone to political attacks. The real key to getting out in space now is to get the "greedy corps" to fund the infrastructure. Whatever gets us out there; people & societies can change...

i'd argue, a bit off topic maybe, that most fancy private innovation builds on boring basic science research that comes from mostly public funding. falcon heavy (or the iphone, or google, or facebook, or gmo seeds, or ...) would have never been possible without decades of state investment in research. as an example today, the lhc collider is a completely crazy idea and afaik 100% publicly funded, and the findings may (or may not) spur who knows how many future innovations with great returns.

all these success stories, however laudable, actually prey on massive amounts of public money and risk taking. this by no means takes away any of their merits, but the question on how this success could have an equitable return back to the public has still not been addressed. hey, it's our collective money we invest and risk, after all.