So who exactly do we have here, a gaggle of mostly high school students?

Except for Oler, who is ex-military?

Today I heard rumors that Rick Tomlinson, the president of the Space Frontier Foundation, was a of community college dropout, and he was studying drama, not engineering…

I wonder why Nelson even posts comments here. His resume lists his “interests”, but space or rocketry or NASA do not make his list. Like windy and DCSCA I see only a focused dislike of SpaceX, and comments that to try to discredit the accomplishments of Elon Musk and the team he has brought together.

I know that to let these lies go unchallenged is to risk the creation of more Chris Castros, but trying to engage these trolls in a rational debate is silly.

They don’t want that, they want to drop bombs on the really interesting debates here at Space Politics. They want to stop the conversation. They want people to stop talking about SpaceX and the NewSpace companies.

Why is that, do you think?

I really enjoy reading the thoughts of 99% of the folks who comment here, except when they’re having to, one again, post links and quotes to counter the bullshit lies and overall smears from the 3-4 trolls I’ve mentioned. This means I have to skip over 50% of the comments. I find that sad.

“So, are you going to post your resume? Or am I the only one who is not afraid? Credentials, please!

It will be interesting to find out who some of you folks really are, or are not…”

Nice try Nelson. Keep working your robots. Think about it this way. Tomorrow you may apply for a job and this job may be related to space. And frankly some people here do not like your views, simplistic views and name calling of fellow space engineers and entrepreneurs. So what do you think might happen? Yes you have the “courage” of giving your name but there is no consequence to you for it. Some of us don’t have the luxury. Call us cowards for all I care.

As for my credentials. I am still waiting for anyone here to say that I don’t have any. Whatever I posted speak to my credentials, or not. You are free to question them. You are free to debate my opinions. You are free to debate the facts. For all this you will not be called upon.

What I find annoying is the slander, the outright lies you spout most of the times. You are not the only one mind you. You gave your name. You did not have to.

You need surprisingly little knowledge of spaceflight to verify the arguments put forward by advocates of commercial development of space as to why an HLV is unnecessary. I posted the relevant information in one of the other recent threads. It requires no more than high school maths.

“Are you jealous that Musk is building real hardware that can reach Mars?”

Mars, Pennsylvania looks forward to the display he will set up in the R/V park out near the Wal-mart and McDonald’s by the highway. Another press release. Musk is going no place fast.

“He [SpaceX] would need more than 12 launches of the Falcon Heavy, in order to get the required 600mT (Doug Cook) into LEO for a Mars mission, along with on-orbit rendezvous and docking.”

So you’re saying that the only way to get to Mars is with a spaceship 30% bigger than the ISS? Just the fuel along to push that sucker is going to require it’s own fleet of fuel deliveries.

But OK, but even assuming you’re close to right (even dart boards can pick a right number), Musk stated that they plan on being able to build and launch 10 ea Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy per year, so that is well within their capabilities.

So far all you’ve shown is that you don’t like SpaceX, and not that you care about the goal of going to Mars, or anywhere for that matter.

“Let’s hold Musk to his promise to safely deliver a man to the Martain surface by Dec 31, 2021.”

He never promised that, but that’s your “issue” with facts again, isn’t it?

But if you want to prove me wrong, great, just paste a copy of what he DID say, and provide the link to it. I’m more than happy to have my facts corrected – are you?

“What Musk rockets “can” enable is the work on things which will change the Mars equation a lot. The VASIMER is one such example. Launch cost with the shuttle are high, but a FAlcon9H If it meets its cost can do the trick for not a lot of money and if the engine works…things change a lot.”

And that’s what most naysayers miss. Companies that previously were priced out of space activities (like Musk originally was) now have a much lower price starting point. For instance, the price differential between Delta IV Heavy and Falcon Heavy is about $300M – you can build a lot of payload for $300M, and you also get a bonus of double the mass or a much further delivery point.

It will take a little time for the market to react, since funding and build times are long on space hardware, but once it does there will be a lot of non-governmental groups trying stuff out in space – a true renaissance.

Windy just doesn’t get it – he would rather stay on the government-funded ATK dole.