Bill Nye on the Remarkable Efficiency of SpaceX
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Bill Nye (The Science Guy!) opines on the pros and cons of NASA and SpaceX manufacturing. In a congressional move of either genius or ignorance, the decentralization of NASA facilities has resulted in remarkable resilience... at the expense of efficiency and cost control, that is. Bill closes with some off-the-cuff fantasizing about his own trip into space. Don't miss new Big Think videos! Subscribe by clicking here: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Read more at BigThink.com: http://goo.gl/D9oVRm Transcript - So SpaceX is a response to the history of space exploration. This is my point of view. So one of the magical things about NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration here in the U.S., is the administration has stayed about the same for, 1958, what is that, 56 years. The reason is Congress had either the ignorance or the genius to put a dozen NASA centers in 13 different places around the US. And when you try to close a NASA center in Congress, people come unglued. You can't close a NASA center. This is how people got to the moon. When John Kennedy was shot, which was an awful thing, any idea to cancel the moon program was squashed. As soon as Kennedy was shot we couldn't not, not go as the expression goes. So humans went to the moon, the space program existed, changed the world in a great way, however, it made things expensive. When you build rocket engines in Alabama and you get the fuel from Utah and you test them in Mississippi and you then send them to Florida and control all that from Texas, with some drop testing done in Cleveland and all sorts of material science research done in California, some flight tests done in the desert in Arizona, when you do all that you just add cost. When you go to SpaceX, the material, the stainless steel and the aluminum come off the train cars. It goes through the factory like this. We make our tanks. We make our space frame or airframe. We make our rocket engine bells. We hook up all our plumbing. It goes back this way. We do the wiring and it goes back on the train car and goes to either Vandenberg Air Force Base or Cape Canaveral because it's all made in one place. But the way NASA was established in 1958, it's not set up that way and that was good and bad. So it is to be hoped that SpaceX, Sierra Nevada Space, Blue Origins, that these companies will emerge and lower the cost, especially of taking stuff to low earth orbit. Keep in mind everybody, for all the free market libertarian let's go laissez-faire people, SpaceX has taken at least half a billion dollars, $500 million from NASA because NASA wants to develop this capability. When you buy an Atlas V rocket or a Delta IV rocket those are commercially made gizmos, and so is going to be the Falcon and Falcon Heavy. These are commercial rockets and NASA has gone to great lengths to develop that business. It's all good. It's all good. I would go to space like that. I applied to be an astronaut four times. I would love to get a view of the earth from space. And right now the price is $200,000, it starts to come down into the 10th of that I could imagine doing it. If you've never jumped out of a plane with a parachute, that is cool. I don't do it full-time but I get it. It's exciting and you do see the world in a new way and you're in the air. Everybody's dream is to be able to fly. You're flying for a few moments. I get it. I can see how people get hooked on that. And I think space exploration would be the same deal. Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Dillon Fitton
Comments
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So, Bill Nye is poor?
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At long last a topic that Bill Nye can talk to and not be completely out of his training. Then again, it's not hard to talk of the efficiency of a reusable rocket....
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It's all gewd
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He makes the best argument for free market vs government. Although government has waste inherent within it, smart government can provide good solutions, but it is like swimming upstream.
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Space x is awesome
Bill Nye is a corporate pawn hack and is an arrogant know it all who speaks only to what his puppet masters let him !
Space X doesn't need any compliments or promotion from this worm of a man :( -
What an idiot.
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Bill Nye isn't a scientist. He is an actor playing a scientist.
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Let's go to Mars mah humans!!! We can do it!!!
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!:01 "couldn't go" means couldn't go. "Couldn't not go" means must go. "Couldn't not not go" means couldn't go, which is what Bill said. JEEZ if you're going to play with multiple negatives, get it right.
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if i jumped out from an airplane i'd probably pass out but atleast i'd be flying so thats a plus yea
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Bill Nye "the lying guy" attention spacex, nasa, star trek, star wars fan boy's. Put the dope down stop dreaming we never went to space!! there is no "outer space" we live on a plane of existence not a spinning planet!! there is no way out of here except Jesus Christ it's the only truth in this life God bless !!!
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but...WAAAAYYY cheaper than government can do it.
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Bill Nye the propagandist guy: " Tax people and give the money to bureaucrats, Elon Musk and people like me"
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World is flat, this guy is just an actor same for Tyson, nasa & space x are both shows & fantasies for the masses, moon was a hoax, #hoaxathon
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we would all love to get a view from space....LOLOL we would also love to get a picture from space...other than fake cgi or composites...
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this guy doesnt make videos anymore
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I take exception to his characterization of Space X as "Taking money from NASA". In what way? Perhaps it's something he needs to elaborate on. I see Space X existing at all as a near total FAILURE of NASA. If NASA had delivered on it's promise to the American people.. and perhaps if we didn't have an administration that doesn't give them the organizational expertise to become more efficient..we wouldn't see Space X or any of it's competitors.
Now that they have emerged, NASA isn't just playing catch up.. they are actually being shown the door as far as delivery vehicles are concerned... and rightly so.
So my complaint about Bill Nye's statement is mostly that NASA doesn't deserve that tax payer's money.. so they lost it. A subtle but important difference here. Now that they have lost it.. and my trust in their ability to deliver.. I personally don't think they should get it back. I think that Space X or any contractor should get the entire vehicle budget for NASA based on their ability to deliver. -
Bill Nye The Science Guy
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until then im stuck on the ground playing KSP
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Salaam Bill Nye when I get my space company off the ground remind me to hire you right away as an astronaut.
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