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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Aug 18, 2018 - 10:10am PT
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Nasa developed a re-usable payload (Shuttle).
Guess what? Space X developed a re-usable rocket (Falcon). And continues to use a reusable payload (Dragon)
There, fixed that for you.
Sure, the solid rocket boosters on the sides of the shuttle provided the majority of the lift in the first minutes of flight.
But you do realize, don't you, that all the fuel in that giant external gas tank attached to the shuttle was burned by the space shuttle's 3 rockets on the way to orbit?
Also, there are two other parts sent up. Fairings and second stage, both of which have plans for recovery/reuse
Well, great. I'm glad they are pushing things along to hopefully reduce launch costs.
Again, I'm not arguing against his company's engineering skills.
I'm just in a losing battle pushing back on claims of visionary revolution.
NASA developed the technology to get a rocket vehicle in space and bring it back to the ground in a manner that it could then be used again.
I just don't see the visionary leap of faith required before one can start asking is it cost effective to bring other parts of the rocket back to the ground and re-use them. Kudos to him for having the engineering skills to be the first to bring back and reuse a first stage rocket.
It seems like an excellent example of incremental evolution.
Cheers
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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Aug 18, 2018 - 10:25am PT
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So show me a controlled landing of a booster.
Yes, he is first to get a first stage rocket back to earth.
But as was already pointed out, NASA did a controlled vertically landing on the moon. Lower gravity and no atmosphere, sure. It was also almost 50 years ago.
The Mars skycrane was a similar engineering challenge to a vertical landing of booster.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 18, 2018 - 10:53am PT
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The moon landings were faked. Just ask Werner.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 20, 2018 - 10:13am PT
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TSLA below $300 - Elon’s gonna have a stroke!
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Majid_S
Mountain climber
Karkoekstan, Former USSR
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Aug 20, 2018 - 10:53pm PT
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SEC is looking at Elon now
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FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
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Aug 24, 2018 - 10:24am PT
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Far more importantly Kalashnikov is developing a line of clothes.
In the U.S. we scrap about 12 - 15 million cars a year - WTF are we going to do with millions of large heavy highly toxic dead batteries?
A real man wears Kalashnikov undies.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 24, 2018 - 05:11pm PT
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You really don’t know what happens to car batteries after the car is trashed? This isn’t news folks. ASSuming it goes in the landfill or whatever is just like those who add up the energy spent in gasoline per year for transport and then directly transfer that to electric energy they ASSume must be needed to transport electric vehicles. FYI, they are 80% + more efficient, no heat or noise. So they use 1/16th the energy. So you don’t have to make as much electrical energy as is used burning gasoline. That’s not counting the extraction, refining or transport costs of gas.
On the other hand, used battery packs are used for energy grid storage among other things with lower demand uses. Or the modules can be reused. Or the cells. Or they can be recycled. Too much value to throw them out like rusty motors.
Plus, longevity of electric cars is surpassing ice. Check out the vehicle logs of Tesloop to see what happens at 4-500,000 mi plus.
FYI, not all americans are so ignorant about this subject and I’m surprised at climbers lately. Usually the ones I hang out with in the mountains are fairly well educated and care about our environment. I feel as if Trump himself keeps tweeting up here from some of these comments!😂
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 24, 2018 - 08:29pm PT
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Nothing Musk has done that I couldn’t have done with a new coal mine and centralized power for the country - Trump
Just because he is your current leader doesn’t mean you have to imitate his bad qualities. He won’t give you a medal if that’s what you are after.
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FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
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Aug 24, 2018 - 10:08pm PT
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Not as easy as you think.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 25, 2018 - 05:46am PT
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Not easy but already doing it and making it into useful non polluting product. What about nuclear waste. Doing anything with that? What about coal and natural gas and fuel emissions. Doing anything useful and clean with that? NO. All the current byproducts are harming the environment and you are against the one that actually works because it’s hard? What a lazy outlook.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 25, 2018 - 05:49am PT
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Staying Public
Elon Musk August 24, 2018
Earlier this month, I announced that I was considering taking Tesla private. As part of the process, it was important to understand whether our current investors believed this would be a good strategic move and whether they would want to participate in a private Tesla.
Our investors are extremely important to me. Almost all have stuck with us from the time we went public in 2010 when we had no cars in production and only a vision of what we wanted to be. They believe strongly in our mission to advance sustainable energy and care deeply about our success.
I worked with Silver Lake, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who have world-class expertise in these matters, to consider the many factors that would come into play in taking Tesla private, and to process all the incoming interest that we received from investors to fund a go-private transaction. I also spent considerable time listening to current shareholders, large and small, to understand what they think would be in the best long-term interests of Tesla.
Based on all the discussions that have taken place over the last couple of weeks and a thorough consideration of what is best for the company, a few things are clear to me:
Given the feedback I’ve received, it’s apparent that most of Tesla’s existing shareholders believe we are better off as a public company. Additionally, a number of institutional shareholders have explained that they have internal compliance issues that limit how much they can invest in a private company. There is also no proven path for most retail investors to own shares if we were private. Although the majority of shareholders I spoke to said they would remain with Tesla if we went private, the sentiment, in a nutshell, was “please don’t do this.”
I knew the process of going private would be challenging, but it’s clear that it would be even more time-consuming and distracting than initially anticipated. This is a problem because we absolutely must stay focused on ramping Model 3 and becoming profitable. We will not achieve our mission of advancing sustainable energy unless we are also financially sustainable.
That said, my belief that there is more than enough funding to take Tesla private was reinforced during this process.
After considering all of these factors, I met with Tesla’s Board of Directors yesterday and let them know that I believe the better path is for Tesla to remain public. The Board indicated that they agree.
Moving forward, we will continue to focus on what matters most: building products that people love and that make a difference to the shared future of life on Earth. We’ve shown that we can make great sustainable energy products, and we now need to show that we can be sustainably profitable. With all the progress we’ve made on Model 3, we’re positioned to do this, and that’s what the team and I are going to be putting all of our efforts toward.
Thank you to all of our investors, customers and employees for the support you’ve given our company. I’m incredibly excited to continue leading Tesla as a public company. It is a privilege.
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MikeL
Social climber
Southern Arizona
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Aug 25, 2018 - 08:17am PT
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tooth,
There are a great many things wrong in the economic world we live in, in addition to waste and pollution.
Research has shown that people will pay an additional 15% premium for products and services that are produced by environmentally conscious companies—but not much more than that.
Sorry to say but in the last analysis everyone’s purchasing decisions are invariably a question of price, associated with a given level of quality (if they can measure it).
We all love visionaries, but they must make good on the sale of their visions to stakeholders.
Investors and buyers almost never understand a new technology nor have firm handles on new market segmentations. Everyone is betting on the come. Since no one really knows what will happen in the future, astute investors and buyers (imagine VCs’ investment decisions) will default to the perceived character of leaders and their leadership teams. When in doubt, buyers will go for proven brands, and investors will back “good management teams.”
Musk doesn’t always seem to understand these issues very well at times. The consistency and economic effects of his decisions (especially with regards to production, but now finance) have suggested to investors that he may not know what he’s doing. Furthermore, the ethics of his character has been tarnished. Musk has not been managing his and his company’s images adroitly.
As above, when people cannot readily judge the worth of new product ideas in new market spaces, they will make decisions based upon perceived legitimacy, credibility, and character. Musk and Tesla has problems in all of these areas.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 25, 2018 - 08:18am PT
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The true mark of an unbridled ego - making a fait accompli look a choice. Well played, Sir Elon!
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FRUMY
Trad climber
Bishop,CA
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Aug 25, 2018 - 09:26am PT
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I'm not against electric cars. I am against the naive attitude that we are recycling batteries properly. We are not. I've been in the auto repair & or manufacturing business my entire life. I know a little of what I'm talking about.
In the early 70's I work through high school driving tow trucks for the 2nd largest OPG in the U.S. I never had to put on a hazardous waste suite to get a car off the freeway. That is going to be standard equipment with these new batteries.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 25, 2018 - 11:07am PT
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Batteries used to have cobalt in them. You don’t have to evolve if you die.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 25, 2018 - 11:45am PT
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A better investment than TSLA would be in batt recycling.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 25, 2018 - 02:27pm PT
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If you ignore the fact that the largest battery manufacturer in the world has designed them for reuse and has their own recycling in-house.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 25, 2018 - 02:32pm PT
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LA Times review today of the new Jag I Pace says it is every bit as good as the Model X, and then some. Audi, Porsche, Merc, and Bimmer all due to bring their e’s out in next few months. They all know how to build quality rides AND make money doing it.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Aug 25, 2018 - 02:53pm PT
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Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy
How well do you think they are doing? What does the iPace and Bolt plus all these other new cars coming out say about their ten year old mission statement?
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