Beyond the Bricks Week of 2/5

SpaceX Launches Falcon Heavy Rocket and Interplanetary Ambitions

The aerospace company’s launch marks a major milestone in modern spaceflight —  the first time a rocket this large has been launched by a private company and not a governmental space agency. Founder Elon Musk has had his sights set on Mars since the company’s inception. He envisions the red planet’s colonization someday.

“We want a new space race. Races are exciting,” Musk said in a conference post-launch. 

The launch sets up Musk’s Martian ambitions. SpaceX is currently designing a larger rocket, the BFR, exclusively for that purpose. Meanwhile, the Falcon Heavy will be used to compete for contracts to launch larger spy satellites. Some aerospace experts are encouraging NASA to use reusable rockets like the Heavy instead of larger ones being developed on site in part to take astronauts back to the moon.

The rocket’s payload was not the standard fare of satellites and scientific instruments. Musk’s electric motor vehicle company Tesla’s new sports model, the Roadster, piloted by a mannequin in a SpaceX space suit, occupied the nose of the enormous rocket.

“It’s kind of silly and fun, but silly and fun things are important,” Musk said.

The craft is expected to orbit the Sun for hundreds of millions of years. 

Stocks Plunge Ending Nine-Year Rise, Experts Blame Machine-Based Trading Strategies

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped by 1,175.21 points and The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) plunged 113.9 points shortly before markets closed last Monday. The indexes suffered another steep drop late on Thursday as well. The drops are the biggest on record for both indexes. The last largest point decline for each index came in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

In a market dominated by computerized high-frequency trading, things can become cataclysmic in a trivial matter of time. Roughly half of all trading is done automatically by computers, according to complex algorithms that aggregate data on changes in market prices or indexes caused by trading done by other computers.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchen said in an interview with the Washington Post that algorithmic trading “definitely had an impact” on Monday’s Dow and S&P drop. Algorithms pick up “sell” signals that can instantly shift the trading strategies that are fueled by billions of dollars.

Genesee River Corridor gets $50 Million Dollar Revitalization from Cuomo

Governor Andrew Cuomo committed $50 million in state aid to jump start an expansion of the corridor that includes projects to upgrade the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center, Blue Cross Arena, completion of the Genesee Riverway Trail and a redesign of Charles Carroll Plaza as well as Genesee Crossroads Park.

An advisory board that is yet to be assembled will work over the course of the next three months prioritizing projects and outlining a plan that focuses on the above projects collectively being referred to as "ROC the Riverway."

Many ROC the Riverway projects have been in the city’s pipeline for years. The potential to leverage private investment will be a high priority in their development. The area around Blue Cross Arena, the convention center and aqueduct are expected to have potential for the biggest impact.

“Transforming the riverfront will help bring businesses to downtown, which is what young people are looking for,” Mayor Lovely Warren said to theDemocrat and Chronicle. The state money is to be drawn from a $500 million dollar Upstate Revitalization Initiative award. It is seen as an initial investment.