Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 273 posts

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#101

Post by KineticLensman »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #91
leesec wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making rockets re-usable is a massive step forward and not about 'not regressing'.

In the past we even had space ships, which could start from ground, go to space, do stuff, come back and the could be reused. Having just a rocket isn't that much of an improvement. That said: All the constraints on making it reusable and safe for humans are also a key factor why Space Shuttle was so expensive. With SpaceX's rockets not all parts need to resist the stress of reentry etc.

> In the past we even had space ships, which could start from ground, go to space, do stuff, come back and the could be reused

The 're-used' aspect of the Shuttle involved massive re-fits which took months for each vehicle. It was like having to send your car back to the manufacturer for a total rebuild (often including engine change) every time you went for a drive. SpaceX is a massive improvement in this respect.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#102

Post by avmich »

isostatic wrote: post #90
ncallaway wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The commercial crew missions by both Boeing and SpaceX are new and interesting for a number of reasons: - This will be one of the first vehicles developed by a private entity to launch people into space, rather than a nation. That represents a huge step "down" the ladder of who has access to space. First, it's only nations. Later, it's large companies and entities. Down the line a little bit medium-sized companies wi…

It's a step, but not a first step - it's the second step along the nations/large/medium/small/people road Nor have they actually put anyone in space. The first stage landing is great, but again it's not new -- SpaceX have been doing this for a few years now. Last year's Falcon Heavy, especially the two rockets landing simultaneously on live tv, felt very futuristic. This isn't anywhere near as impressive as that from…

That's in a large part subjective. For some until we have truly groundbreaking physics with applications which allow doing something considered strictly impossible with previous science, it's not worthy of consideration. For others, just watching slowly unrolling results of decades of development - in electronics (hardware on board of Falcons), computers (organization of that hardware into bigger complex structures, software), organization of enterprises (venture capitalism able to support risky ventures, accumulation of wealth to individuals, ability to optimize for non-immediate or non-financial goals, cooperation with government), methods of material tuning (heat shield, tank bodies, engine) is demonstration enough of the progress being made.

We can easily, within few years forget how hard is a particular achievement. Remember how fast Apollo flights started to be considered boring. Or we may turn to those who work on complex problems as we speak, imagine how hard would it be for ourselves doing that and appreciate and honor actual work which leads to these demonstrations. The choice is definitely ours to make.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#103

Post by rapind »

samstave wrote: post #99
kitsunesoba wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re perfectly capable of building electronics that can run for many tens of years without issue… it’s just that such things don’t get built because that’s not profitable for manufacturers. If an organization like NASA puts in an order for computers or handheld devices specifically designed to not break for long stretches of time, it wouldn’t be a problem to fulfill said order.

This is why I have such little respect for billionaires who leave no long-lasting meaningful impact at all. Gates/Musk may be the only ones who appear to desire to have a many-generational-positive impact on Humanity. Every one else are just egos. Unless I am not aware of some of the greater things that ilk is doing?

Bezos wants to turn space technologies into commodities with the hope it will transform (create) the industry.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#104

Post by simonh »

russdill wrote: post #67
simplicio wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, I think a good demonstration is Antarctica. Antarctica is both much more accessible and much more hospitable than Mars. But there's very little human activity there. It's hard to imagine there's an economic case for Mars or the Moon while Antarctica remains undeveloped.

Not necessarily true. The artic and Antarctic destroy structures over time. It's also dark for several months at a time.

No light for part of the year vs no air ever. Hmm, let me think about that one for a minute.

I think settling Mars will and should happen, but anyone who doesn’t realise it will be thousands of times more expensive, risky and dependent on external support than eg Antarctica I think isn’t really grasping the difference in scale of the problem.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#105

Post by rapind »

simonh wrote: post #95
goshx wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those plus climate changes, lunatics in power, etc.

Bioterrorism, rogue Nono-tech, rogue AI, hyper-stable authoritarian government.

Pretty sure we would bring all of this baggage with us to Mars.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#106

Post by avmich »

rayiner wrote: post #36
Klathmon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It costs about $81 million USD per seat round-trip to go to ISS on Soyuz. SpaceX is doing the same for around $58 million per person (last I read). That alone is a HUGE deal. And that cost is expected to drop as SpaceX gets more comfortable with launching humans, whereas Soyuz has been raising prices. Not to mention that it's increasing the number of countries and rocket designs that can send people to and from the I…

A cost reduction of less than 50% for something that the Russians have been doing routinely with 1960s technology is akin to Magellan setting sail? I like SpaceX but man the spin is blinding.

Hopefully Crew Dragon will not only provide alternative to Soyuz, but also allow bigger crews and payloads both to and from space, nicer atmospheric returns in terms of accelerations and ability to fly on a shorter notice - it takes 2 years to make a Soyuz today.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#107

Post by amazingman »

bobl wrote: post #94
leesec wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making rockets re-usable is a massive step forward and not about 'not regressing'.

I doesn't seem clear at this point whether re-usable will be significant for activities beyond earth orbit. Partly the excitement comes from being a workaround for humanities reluctance to spend money on space exploration. Believe what you want, but from what I can find this doesn't seem to be a significant part of what would e.g. make humanity interplanetary. At least not yet.

Overcoming blockers is always significant.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#109

Post by fooker »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #43
zargath wrote: post #6

Fantastic, very impressive. But somewhere inside (my little star-wars/trek spirit), I wish that it was not so tricky. That we all could just travel and explore the universe. Everybody always talk about how difficult it is in space and how much better earth is. Wish the debate would be more about all the possibilities in space or on other planets. What can we do with zero gravity? For all the bad things with living on…

I honestly don’t see any benefits to living on Mars until every inch of space on Earth is used up. Everything about living on Mars is hostile to life. Doing anything there like mining and manufacturing will be orders of magnitude more difficult and for what? To say we are somewhere else that looks like the Atacama but infinitely more difficult to get to? It seems silly to be trying to rush to a place that wants to ki…

We do not have the technology to settle every inch of space on Earth in a sustainable manner. We also do not have the tech to live on Mars.

There is a good chance that creating the tech for the later will make the former possible, but not vice versa.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#110

Post by mhh__ »

brianwawok wrote: post #70
jononor wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now we can keep X% of the knowledge of humanity on a portable device. That should help.

Unless that device breaks? What hardware that we have today will still work in 100 years? Books you can make it happen. Phones are broke within 10. Desktops within 20.

ASCII on Punched tape, easy. Standard format, readable at whatever rate you like
Post reply on HN