# Tesla Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly event.



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

Tesla's Elon Musk tested his space rocket yesterday with spectacular results. He called it a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly event.

Wonder how Tesla will open on Tuesday?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOL2iueV_2U


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

SpaceX and Tesla are separate companies, so I wouldn't expect it to have any impact on Tesla stock.

I also read that the landing was actually better than expected (they expected they'd completely miss the barge, and in actuality they almost landed on it).


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## BCouto (Dec 13, 2014)

It was a test for a reason. They didn't expect it to go perfectly. This won't affect Tesla in any way, mainly because it's completely unrelated to the company.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

Considering they are taking a metal tube flying at 4500 km/h and bringing it to a controlled touchdown on a barge at sea, even falling over right at the end is fairly impressive...


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Spacex accomplished their primary mission objective-to launch a resupply mission to the ISS. They are using launches as opportunities to test new functionality, such as reigniting the engines and propulsively guiding the first stage to a precise location, with the eventual goal of landing it. They learned that more hydraulic fluid is required to maintain guidance. I think the test was actually quite positive for SpaceX as it showed they are quite close to being able to recover the first stage, something no other launch company is even close to being able to do, with huge cost advantage implications.


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## NorthernRaven (Aug 4, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Spacex accomplished their primary mission objective-to launch a resupply mission to the ISS. They are using launches as opportunities to test new functionality, such as reigniting the engines and propulsively guiding the first stage to a precise location, with the eventual goal of landing it. They learned that more hydraulic fluid is required to maintain guidance. I think the test was actually quite positive for SpaceX as it showed they are quite close to being able to recover the first stage, something no other launch company is even close to being able to do, with huge cost advantage implications.


It will be interesting to see how reuse goes forward - there's two big considerations for cost effectiveness. One, any extra weight devoted to reuse (fuel, hardware) is parasitic on their payload capacity to first-stage separation, so reduced the economics somewhat there. And of course it depends on what it costs to recover and refurbish the stage.


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

I'm more interested in hyperloop.

Maybe Bombardier should ditch the CSeries and look into that.. Elon Musk doesn't believe in patent protecting his otherworldly ideas.

Innovation is essentially paralyzed by the private sector patents and incremental update bs


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

I don't know. A lot of money goes into research and development that would never be done without patent protection. And most people don't know that patents expire after 17 years and cannot be renewed.

This means anything patented before 1998 is now free to use and since every patent includes full disclosure you can look up the details at any time.

So, if you have been stymied from building something good you only have to wait a few years for the patents to expire.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

I have no problem with patents in general. I dislike overly general patents, particularly in software. Patents should be for particular implementations of ideas, not of the idea itself. Copyright is the real injustice. Copyright used to be reasonable, but now extends far after the death of the creator, essentially keeping our culture locked in private hands.


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