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SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

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Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#121

Post by octaveguin »

zhoujianfu wrote: post #119
sabujp wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Future of space as presented in shows like the Expanse. controlled by trillionaires and their companies and powerful people in governments all killing each other over space rocks. We're a long way from Star Trek, that's going to take a more fundamental advance not at all related to technology.

For Star Trek we just need SpaceX + UBI!

The Expanse also has UBI on earth. With it, most people still lack opportunity and live a rather destitute, powerless life.

Seems like a pretty good perdition of our future, really. UBI recipients with no labor of value to offer won't have power to change their government for long.

It's unfortunate that the authoritarian future of Star Trek probably wouldn't lead to paradise. Or at least, that's how our culture's view of the future has changed.

Both fictions are a product of their time. I still wish we had the optimism of Star Trek now.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#122

Post by djaychela »

byw wrote: post #112
Robotbeat wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water tower was last year. This is a prototype using the same production technique as for the production versions. EDIT: More grain silo than water tower. ;)

Is it just me or does the workmanship look like a step up?

They've been interating on the construction process with each one built. I've been welding (DIY) for 30 years, and the first ones looked pretty bad to me - lots of distortion, and I actually thought the first one was just a mock-up. But the process is clearly improving with each build. I still think the nose cone looks like it will improve in the future, as it doesn't look as precise as the main body is now looking, but I'm sure they're working on it.

This, overall, is an amazing achievement. I watch every F9 landing that I can, and it never ceases to amaze me. The FH two-booster landing looked like straight out of a SciFi movie. But this... this is next level again. The 20km flight will be truly incredible.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#124

Post by [deleted] »

zhoujianfu wrote: post #119
sabujp wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Future of space as presented in shows like the Expanse. controlled by trillionaires and their companies and powerful people in governments all killing each other over space rocks. We're a long way from Star Trek, that's going to take a more fundamental advance not at all related to technology.

For Star Trek we just need SpaceX + UBI!

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#125

Post by octaveguin »

Mizza wrote: post #76
zizee wrote: post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

I recently read the screenplay to 2001. An interesting thing mentioned in the script, but not shown in the film, is that all of the images of beautiful space ships in the early sequence of the film are in fact space-based nuclear missile launchers, and that there are 27 nuclear nations with space weapons. I sometimes imagine what an alien visitor would think about us if they came to our planet and saw that we had suc…

They might see their own past.

It seems likely that all species that make it to space might have similar pressures because they have a similar environment.

See convergent evolution. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution

That is, if they exist at all. Maybe we all converge to the great filter.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#126

Post by zizee »

octaveguin wrote: post #121
zhoujianfu wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Star Trek we just need SpaceX + UBI!

The Expanse also has UBI on earth. With it, most people still lack opportunity and live a rather destitute, powerless life. Seems like a pretty good perdition of our future, really. UBI recipients with no labor of value to offer won't have power to change their government for long. It's unfortunate that the authoritarian future of Star Trek probably wouldn't lead to paradise. Or at least, that's how our culture's vie…

In The Expanse, the main reason for complaint from earthers seems to be caused by overpopulation which leads to difficulty in obtaining realestate and the benefits that landownership brings.

If UBI was implemented as in The Expanse (food, shelter, and meds are free), I would expect the population of the earth to plummet. The UBI would allow for more people to pursue learning and educating others. It has been shown that when people feel safe from threat of violence and starvation, and when they are more educated, the desire to breed decreases.

On the flip side, perhaps knowing that you are off the hook for paying for the expense of many children would increase the desire to reproduce?

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#127

Post by jkn »

octaveguin wrote: post #121
zhoujianfu wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Star Trek we just need SpaceX + UBI!

The Expanse also has UBI on earth. With it, most people still lack opportunity and live a rather destitute, powerless life. Seems like a pretty good perdition of our future, really. UBI recipients with no labor of value to offer won't have power to change their government for long. It's unfortunate that the authoritarian future of Star Trek probably wouldn't lead to paradise. Or at least, that's how our culture's vie…

Star Trek's society is collectivist (as all societies are, to a degree), but is it authoritarian?

I suspect that summarizing collectivism as authoritarian is like summarizing libertarianism as selfish: they go well together, but you can also get one without the other.

I don't know Star Trek very well, but as a utopia I guess they imagine a form of collectivism that largely preserves individual freedom? Of course most of the show centers on Starfleet, an authoritarian organisation like any military, which doesn't tell much about the whole society.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#128

Post by mpweiher »

zizee wrote: post #33

No one has seemed to have mentioned it yet, but the game changer of Starship will be full reusability of both the first and second stage of the rocket. Falcon 9's reusability of the first stage was a huge step towards making access to space a lot cheaper. If SpaceX can realize full reusability with Starship it will enable things like large scale moon bases, space hotels and mars colonization. They still have a lot of…

> game changer

Absolutely, and the quantitative analysis is just stunning.

In 2018 all of humanity launched a total of 111 payloads into space (out of 114 attempts). At around 5t per launch, that would be 555 tons.

Starship is supposed to have a payload to LEO of > 100 tons. So 5-6 launches would handle all of that, by weight.

But SpaceX says their goal is to fly these up to 3 times a day. So let's assume they can do this 300 days a year, that would be 900 launches per year. If they have a half dozen in operation, that would be 5400 launches per year. Of 100 tons each, or 540 kilotons. That's 1000x what the whole planet launched in 2018!

In other words, the entire current launch capacity of the whole planet is 0.1% of the capacity of a fleet of 6 active Starships.

And they're building an assembly line for them.

"Game changer" is absolutely right, but doesn't really convey the magnitude of the change. It's truly astounding.

Re: SpaceX test flight of Starship SN-5 [video]

#130

Post by sfjailbird »

Thank God for that guy in the corner helping me to know how to feel.

Seriously though, this has been an incredibly annoying trend for a few years, everything has to be tagged with some pre-packaged emotional reaction. Such a dumbing down of public discourse.

Someone linked the official video and it's amazing: https://youtu.be/s1HA9LlFNM0

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