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Don’t stage off Starship

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Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#11

Post by credit_guy »

Two aspects in favor of mini-starships

1. economies of scale: if you manufacture 12 engines smaller by a factor of 10, the total manufacturing cost is not going to be 20% higher, but most likely 2-3 times lower.

2. engineering knowledge: more smaller engines means more engineers. Some of whom would leave to start their own startups, or to join Blue Origin, or Skunkworks, or some other aerospace company. That's not necessarily good for SpaceX, but it's good for humankind. Maybe some would go and fix Boeing's problems :)

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#13

Post by Udik »

bobcostas55 wrote: post #8
drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

Buddy, we're gonna dysonsphere every sun in the galaxy. Mars isn't arrogant, it's just that we have to learn to crawl before we start running.

Should we wait until we get a warp drive engine? Because thinking of reaching anything further than our solar system with our current physics (not technology- that we can improve by building stuff) is more silly than trying to cross the Pacific ocean with help of a floating rubber duck.

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#14

Post by namaemuta »

drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

What a short-sighted attitude. Colonizing Mars opens the door to a lot of advances in many, many fields. At first it will be difficult and expensive as it has happened with every new advance in the past. Precisely because of it, people will think of ideas to improve all the process and related problems. And presenting those new problems that we aren't facing now can lead to solutions that could be used in other common areas that we are used to and are kind of stuck.

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#15

Post by ForHackernews »

bobcostas55 wrote: post #8
drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

Buddy, we're gonna dysonsphere every sun in the galaxy. Mars isn't arrogant, it's just that we have to learn to crawl before we start running.

Love the optimism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#16

Post by smoyer »

I have a few interesting questions ... to be fair, I've done no science or math to make a conclusion but there would certainly be a sense of irony involved.

1. Could the green-house gases produced to launch a civilization to Mars be the final straw that breaks our eco-system's back?

2. What are the moral implications of terra-forming Mars and moving a small population there, knowing that the population remaining on Earth is doomed?

3. If you're willing to allow an epic depopulation of the Earth, why not stay here and let it happen?

4. If any of the above are true, why would you expect the (current) larger population of the Earth to fund the colonization of Mars?

I realize this is a very dystopian view ... and that I read/watch too much science fiction, but if this is a novel (or a Netflix original), the Mars population moves back to Earth after it's "recovered"

EDIT: I'm not against the StarShip, SpaceX or Musk at all - in fact I'm a big fan as I was in elementary school during the Apollo missions and believe that SpaceX in particular has reinvigorated the passion for engineering and tackling big problems. This is only a Gedankenerfahrung.

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#17

Post by drenginian »

namaemuta wrote: post #14
drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

What a short-sighted attitude. Colonizing Mars opens the door to a lot of advances in many, many fields. At first it will be difficult and expensive as it has happened with every new advance in the past. Precisely because of it, people will think of ideas to improve all the process and related problems. And presenting those new problems that we aren't facing now can lead to solutions that could be used in other commo…

Sounds vague.

I’d say do like bill gates and put the billions directly into worthwhile causes instead instead of suggesting the trickle down will be unquantified but amazing.

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#18

Post by heavyset_go »

Udik wrote: post #9
drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

I think the idea of colonizing Mars only makes sense in the head of a teenager who read to much bad sf. Our whole idea of spaceships crossing empty space and founding colonies on other planets is just a projection on the past successes of the age of discoveries, when actual ships crossed the oceans and reached new continents. But those continents were perfectly habitable, with tons of resources, plants and animals th…

Musk isn't an engineer.

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#19

Post by [deleted] »

Udik wrote: post #13
bobcostas55 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buddy, we're gonna dysonsphere every sun in the galaxy. Mars isn't arrogant, it's just that we have to learn to crawl before we start running.

Should we wait until we get a warp drive engine? Because thinking of reaching anything further than our solar system with our current physics (not technology- that we can improve by building stuff) is more silly than trying to cross the Pacific ocean with help of a floating rubber duck.

[deleted]

Re: Don’t stage off Starship

#20

Post by anoncake »

missosoup wrote: post #10
drenginian wrote: post #5

Im no less a science fiction fan than the next person but the whole “colonize Mars” thing is stupid and wasteful and arrogant and really pounds the message that billionaires are deeply deeply out of touch with the rest of society. Not only will colonizing Mars never work, there’s no reason at all to want to. What a dead, barren place. And in the meantime back down to earth people are really starting to care about ine…

Of all the wealthy 'out of touch' people to complain about, you choose the one guy with a risky but rewarding vision that will benefit all of our species if achieved, instead of everyone else sailing on their super yachts and buying elections and molesting children?

The submission is about Elon Musk's company so it makes sense to talk about Elon Musk. Discussion about other billionaires would be off topic.
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