Here is an idea for @elonmusk and three of his companies. Create a hybrid of the launch power of the Tesla Plaid car, utilizing Hyperloop technology with the Space X Starship rocket. I know what you are thinking. How would you do that? Hear me out and I will explain.
Railgun powered rocket
I realize that this is not a new idea. NASA supposedly has come up with this idea, but Elon owns 3 companies that could combine their skill-sets and pull this off! Basically, you would install a rail, I mean a really long rail, possibly a 2 mile long rail. You would angle it at 30 degrees. Utilize electro-magnetic propulsion to slowly increase the forward motion to a max of 3 g’s. I would imagine that lighting the Raptor engines prior to energizing the rail would be best to be sure that they all fire. Once the rail system energizes, slowly increase the throttle on the Raptor engines so that by the time the Starship hits the end of the rail, it has been released from it’s carriage and has enough velocity to continue it’s flight.
Less LOX, more payload
Utilizing this method, you could put more resources towards payload and less to propellant therefore making a shorter spacecraft due to the propellant/payload ratio being lowered.
Image by SiteSeerX
It is worth exploring, and who better at utilizing resources that are at hand than the Space X, Hyperloop, Tesla team!
Have you ever had a dream, only to be killed by a dream killer? Maybe it was someone that you looked up to, only to find out that they thought your dream was silly or stupid.
When a dream is in it’s infancy, they are very fragile. Sara Blakely of the product Spanx, made sure not to share her idea for a solid year. She knew that she had a great idea, but she also knew that well-meaning friends and family would shoot her idea down in the interest of “protecting” her from failure. Sara is now a billionaire thanks to her product Spanx. (Hey that rhymed! Thanks to Spanx, she laughs, going to her banks!) Eventually dreams need to be shared with others, especially if you need to bring others into your project for it to succeed, but take time to let your dream congeal and solidify before opening it up to others.
It was 1971. I was 15 years old. I had an uncle that I looked up to. He worked on Capital Hill and felt that he was in the know. I shared with him my dream of becoming an aerospace engineer and going to work with NASA. Hearing my dream, he told me, “The moon mission is over. NASA will be on the way out. This is a bad decision. Go with something else.” Right then and there, I gave up on my dream. I had been interested in rocketry and the space program for as long as I could remember. I would even stay home from school just to watch the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. With one sentence, I gave up on my dreams. He was wrong. NASA continued to develop programs. Do you remember the Space Shuttle? It went on way past 1971.
Ever heard of FedEx?
In 1965, Yale University undergraduate Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper on changing the logistics of expedited freight. He suggested creating a company that could deliver time sensitive items overnight. His term paper received a C from his professor. Smith’s professor was a dream killer. Fortunately for us that have benefited from FedEx over the years, Smith didn’t swallow the cynical pill that his professor handed him. He purchased controlling interest in a company called Arkansas Aviation Sales. He renamed it Federal Express and the rest is history
Are YOU a dream killer?
If life has handed you multiple disappointments over the years, it is easy to project this onto others. Maybe your job focuses on risk mitigation. We all want to minimize our risks, yet not at the expense of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Make sure when listening to someone’s idea or dream that you let them tell you all about it without giving them instant feedback on what they should not do. If you see them running head long into an important legal nightmare, simply tell them, “This sounds like a great idea, (even if you don’t think so) just be sure to look into X while you are developing your project.” What you do not want to tell them is, “I’ve heard about projects like this before. Let me tell you the problems that they ran into.” Your desire to “protect” them may just kill their FedEx idea as they continue to work in a job that they hate, watching their dream realized by someone else that had a thicker skin.
Keep your dream close to your chest
As Sara Blakely did, don’t share your dream with others until it is well seated within your being. Internally, work on your dream behind the scenes. You need to do the work that will give you the momentum to fight through the dream killers when you do go “public” with your dream. Even though friends and family want to “protect” you from failure or worse, a wrong word spoken in haste can kill the most promising dream.
It is better to have dreamed and failed than to keep the dream only in your mind and to never act on it. As adults, we have been told to face reality and not to dream. Dreaming is for children. Dreaming comes from the right hemisphere of our brain. As children, we spent more time utilizing the right side of our brain than the logical left hemisphere. Many of us have lost the ability or even desire to dream, having had them shut down by others. Dare to dream. Wake up that sleeping part of your brain and watch as dreams turn into reality, but watch for the dream killers. They creep about waiting to find yet another victim to add to the ranks of pragmatists.
I’ve felt that I was created for something extraordinary since I was a child. I don’t mean that I wanted to always be a doctor or an astronaut. I’ve just felt as though I was created to be something that was bigger than myself. I know what many of you are thinking. “He thinks he is Joseph with his fancy coat of many colors. Let’s throw him in a well.” Well wait, before you throw me in that proverbial well, maybe you have felt the same way at times in your life.
It started when I was young
It all started when I was young. My parents were musicians and artists. Maybe I got it honestly as they say. At a young age, I was put in front of people to play the piano, sing and act. I’m surprised I didn’t end up in vaudeville, but that was before my time. I do know that I had quite a vivid imagination. I always had projects going, either building underground forts, spaceships, digging a fish pond in our backyard, setting up all kinds of trails and rides. You see, I didn’t want to sit and watch TV or read a book. I wanted to do something that was worth writing about. I saw each day as an opportunity to explore, think of what the world needed, then go out and create it.
At age 14, things started to change
When I turned 14, my body started to change, my voice cracked, my outlook turned more introspective and I started to wonder what I should put my hand to in life. I had obtained my first job. We lived near farms so working on a farm was the easiest place to get a job. I worked 40 hours a week during the summer and this taught me the meaning of hard work, but this also took a lot of time from when I would spend thinking and being creative. It was then that I started to wonder what my destiny in life was. I know that I was quite young to begin thinking of this type of thing, but as I said, I was introspective. I tried a bunch of different things, but none of them really grabbed me like rocketry. I really wanted to push the envelope of what was available to kids in regards to model rockets. I wanted to discover new methods of propulsion. Unfortunately, I got a bum steer from a well-meaning uncle that told me that going to work for NASA wasn’t a good idea in the 70’s due to the downsizing of the Apollo program. It was my fault for listening to him. I don’t blame him.
Now that I am a few years older
Well, I’m not exactly 14. I’m now 62. No, I didn’t go to work for NASA. I started my own business and it has worked out quite well. I’m not complaining, but there is still that nagging feeling that there is something out there that I am supposed to become. It is now stronger than it ever has been. I don’t see my age as a hindrance. I see it as years under my belt that gives me the wisdom to go to this next phase of my life. I still love to learn. I started taking cello lessons, like to read about Physics and I’m open to new technologies and ideas. I get up early each day, looking forward to what the day has to bring, spending time reading, in prayer and meditation and planning.
Am I the only one who feels this way?
I don’t know, maybe I have a Joseph complex. It could be, but I really don’t think so.
C.S. Lewis said, “You are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream.” Do you believe this? Do you think you are too old to dream new dreams?
In the comments section, why not add your 2 cents or let me know if you have felt the same way about your destiny at any point in your life. Maybe they made more than one of these multi-colored coats!
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