Elon Musk - Visionary, Madman, or both?

[Jubal]

Okay, this is the news that SpaceX, an American company, is getting closer to being able to claim a contract for haulage to the ISS. Elon Musk, the company's CEO, is claiming that over the next few years (perhaps even by 2014/15) SpaceX will be able to get haulage costs to orbit down to $1000 per pound of payload lifted. That's two orders of magnitude lower than at present, an incredibly impressive claim. It gets better, though; apparently going to Mars could be achieved for half a million dollars within twenty years. SpaceX hasn't demonstrated any of this yet of course, so the real question is how feasible their plans are...

Here's an article on the company including an interview with Musk that's well worth a listen:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17439490

[comrade_general]

I'm sure he is exaggerating and being quite optimistic about it right now, but I still like the sound of it.

[comrade_general]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47514404/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T7t03sW-0nk

This makes it a hundred times better:
http://www.startrek.com/article/doohans-ashes-launched-into-orbit

[Jubal]

Win!

Good luck to them.