So with all the success Elon Musk is having, how long until this is a reality?
>>30114522
>spacex becomes a pmc
>depending on one person to make what you want to happen happen
OP, are you a woman? You seem to have an excess of estrogen in you. Use your non-shit degree find and organization that has defense relations and get it off the ground. Or go to a non-shit school and make friends with some venture capitalists, make a commercially viable version of this technology (fast response rescue, etc) and then the military version can be developed afterwards.
>>30114522
>but how does it take off again
>>30114561
Methane drawn from poor people's shit because poor people love shitting in streets.
>>30114559
>non-shit degree
>anyone on /k/
/k/ has a shit ton of criminal justice, history and art degree holders. Nothing of actual value.
>>30114545
>SpaceX becomes an independent nation on Mars
>>30114522
>naming things Icarus
I know the humanities are garbo, but do engineers really not know the story of Icarus
>>30114601
Probably one of the many reasons why it didn't get funded
>>30114559
>>30114574
OP here, engineering grad.
>>30114522
I don't want to reveal too much, but let's say I'm pretty qualified to comment on Elon's work.
Jesus Christ everyone, the personality cult around him needs to stop. He's a a great, hardworking businessman who struck gold in the software boom, and that enabled him to finance his later projects. He is NOT an engineering genius. The personality cult around him that hinges on that myth needs to stop. He has teams of thousands of insanely educated, insanely qualified engineers and scientists that take care of that for him. These teams are not unique to his companies, and any major technology company can match those assets. What's more, his company (namely SpaceX, since Tesla and SolarCity are another story entirely and are actually fairly impressive) gets most of its money from investors, not from contracts or fees. The entire company is a barely sustainable ego-masturbation device that is decades away from being commercially viable.
To answer your question, how long until this is a reality? Idk. 100 years minimum. At that point, the whole concept will likely be irrelevant to the future conflict landscape.
>>30114935
Not to mention in addition to Musk being a dedicated hardworking dude, he's also pretty well known as a slave driver for those who work for him. No doubt he's left an impact, but at that level of human progress and achievement it's never a one man show.
>>30114969
Yeah. He has a reputation for overworking and underpaying his employees, but that's OK since they're working for such a revolutionary company changing the world under the leadership of such a genius.
Also, he can be an asshole. Have you read the biography about him? On his wedding day, he told his wife "I am the alpha in this relationship." First of all, no alpha needs to assert themselves so blatantly, and to do so to your wife on her wedding day expresses a level of inconsiderateness and a lack of empathy that is appalling for anyone in his position. I believe she recently filed for divorce.
>>30114935
>100 years minimum
Probably never.
It's a lot like the whole giant combat mech concept: There's really not a lot of use for it in modern doctrine.
If you consider how dangerous re-entry is under even the most ideal circumstances, how expensive it is to reach orbit, and how totally unnecessary it is to deploy troops that quickly... it seems kind of dumb.
I think we're more likely to see large winged aircraft capable of loitering for days or even weeks before someone would bother orbital drop-ships.
>>30114583
>thousands of neckbeards buy tickets to go to space Rhodesia
>1,200 troops
Maybe with 30 of those.
