Big Frickin' RocketyMcRocketface
That's obviously what BFR stands for, right ?
I know there are a lot of mixed opinions about Elon. If you're more of the fanboy type, may I suggest watching this alone in a darkened room. If you're more cynically inclined, then this probably won't win you over.
Thing is, I reckon you're all right. Musk is a sort of cross between Reid Malenfant and Moist von Lipwig. He continuously raises the stakes, distracting from the fact that once-promising plans have now been abandoned for the umpteenth time. But the new message is always better and more inspiring than the one that went before, so all is forgiven. His nervous style of speaking lends him massive nerd-cred.
I'm not convinced that all of his nerves are genuine; some of the mannerisms of his oratory are pretty damn odd. It's like he tries to be inspirational, or wistful, but it falls flat. Rhetoric is delivered without force. Sudden thoughts occur in the middle of a speech as though it had just occurred to him. The tone varies between tempered enthusiasm and... well, a bit dull, in a very strange and unpredictable way. It's all so strange that it begins to feel contrived, at least sometimes.
Nor am I convinced that changing long-term plans so often and so dramatically is necessarily a very sensible way of doing things. But, dang it, the vision is there. Is it just the smoke and mirrors of a charlatan ? Probably some of it is - a wilful attempt to deceive and distract. But not all - re-usable rockets are now very much a thing, whereas not so very long ago they were a seemingly distant dream. Despite the continuous plan changes, Musk has a track record of getting stuff done - sometimes with radical departures from how he originally stated it, but the core of the promise is there.
In any case, this is worth 40 minutes of your time. Well, unless you don't like rockets, in which case I can guarantee that this isn't for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4FY894HyF8
Bold Flying Reusable lander.
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