Richard Bransons' trip to space

[AdamJL]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

It is only the carbon footprint of ordinary folk that counts...
Alex

yeah that's what I said it's going to be interesting to see how these companies navigate through the environmental concerns.

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by AdamJL

yeah that's what I said it's going to be interesting to see how these companies navigate through the environmental concerns.

They dont have environmental concerns because they buy a forest or carbon credits and therefore they are not doing anything to the environment ... So if you want to run a six outboard boat and fly your own jet to your helipad to access your hunting lodge you can have your accountant prove on paper you are actually saving the planet and almost certainly pick up a nice tax deduction as well.
The real problem comes from simple folk like me who can not understand that we need to ride push bikes and recycle our plastic bottles.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Oh look...

https://www.smh.com.au › federal
Web results
Richard Branson calls for Australia to back carbon neutral target by ...

And from Financial Post

"After years of work and billions of dollars, Sir Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos are hoping to prove that space tourism is a viable business. Both claim green credits for their endeavours. Branson’s space flight company Virgin Galactic says it has a focus on “environmental sustainability.” Bezos believes space travel provides a potential solution to climate change....

Now lets goggle what car (s) he drives..

Alex

[xelasnave]

All I can find is he talks a lot about electric cars but I could not find details on "Richard Bransons ten luxury cars" there was a link but no cars???..all electric ones you can bet, but did not get to see any..try if you can find them.

I dont begrudge the man his wealth but his pretence of green is perhaps a delusion...I dont know...it just seems to me if you use energy that it creates a carbon footprint and no amount of accountants magic can change that.
Alex

[AdamJL]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

They dont have environmental concerns because they buy a forest or carbon credits and therefore they are not doing anything to the environment ... So if you want to run a six outboard boat and fly your own jet to your helipad to access your hunting lodge you can have your accountant prove on paper you are actually saving the planet and almost certainly pick up a nice tax deduction as well.

Yeah but I'm still talking about when this takes off for ordinary people. If it becomes an affordable endeavour, and there are say, 20* of these launches happening a day around the world... who pays for the carbon emissions? Will I (or others) be able to offset the emissions? Is that how the company will get "around" the issue.

I'm not fussed what the super rich do for the moment, because the real impact is when joe public can do it.

*random number

[AdamJL]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

it just seems to me if you use energy that it creates a carbon footprint and no amount of accountants magic can change that.
Alex

I agree. Carbon offsets are a bit of a scam. Pollute the air, but grow some trees to say sorry. Does not compute.

I'm still in favour of space elevators instead!!

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

https://www.omaze.com/products/virgin-galactic-2021

Entered

[billdan (Bill)]

Originally Posted by AstroJunk

https://www.omaze.com/products/virgin-galactic-2021

Entered

Nah, I'm a scaredy cat!

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by AdamJL

I agree. Carbon offsets are a bit of a scam. Pollute the air, but grow some trees to say sorry. Does not compute.

I'm still in favour of space elevators instead!!

With current materials you could build a space elevator on the moon, mars is not yet possible with the materials we have and the gravitational field of the earth is too strong and we are a long way away from having the materials to build one on this planet.

Elon's starship if it works can lift 150 tonnes to orbit, a 747 freighter can lift just over 100 tonnes. Elon's starship is fully re-useable and if it works will bring down launch costs to around $250 per kilo, Elon is forecasting $10 per kilo, as opposed to around $10,000 per kilo for an Arianne rocket.

If starship works it will revolutionise space operations and we may not need a space elevator.

As far as a space elevator is concerned, the anchor point needs to be in a geo-synchronous orbit. Imagine if it broke, thousands of tonnes of material hitting the ground at 10 kilometers per second...

Launch costs for a starship basically are just fuel as it is re-useable and the fuel is only a few hundred tonnes of kerosene and some oxygen.

[Startrek (Martin)]

Starship uses Methalox ( Methane and Oxygen) for its Raptor engines