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SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

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Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#101

Post by XorNot »

ckozlowski wrote: post #54
toomuchtodo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DOD is already talking to SpaceX for rapid cargo transport applications. “A military team is working with SpaceX to flesh out the prospect of shipping routes that pass through space, the head of U.S. Transportation Command said Oct. 7.” “That group could demonstrate as early as 2021 whether quickly sending cargo around the globe via space is feasible, Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons said.” “Think about moving the equivale…

A C-17 load that doesn't require a ground stop in a foreign country or a tanker based in another country to refuel that same cargo plane. Advantage indeed.

Realistically this means Orbital DropShip Trooper as a role designation is probably 10-20 years out. Launch a Starship, kick out the drop pod "over" the target and then coast suborbital to landing zone (or go orbital and return to launch site).

A one-hour deployment capability anywhere in the world would revolutionise special forces.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#102

Post by lukeify »

betwixthewires wrote: post #99
HenryKissinger wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's not cheaper than overseas shipping or cargo aircraft, it won't work. It's basic economics.

Man, people have been citing "basic economics" at musk for over a decade. You can't break into the US automotive industry with an independent startup, you can't cut launch costs by an order of magnitude, there's no market for a global constellation of LEO networking satellites, you can't double the number of sattelites in orbit in 5 years, the list goes on. I don't bet against Elon Musk anymore. If you've ever paid m…

To be fair, SpaceX hasn't cut costs by an order of magnitude. They've made things significantly cheaper, but the list price for a barebones Falcon 9 is about $50-60m, while an Atlas V is around $100-120m.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#103

Post by _pmf_ »

betwixthewires wrote: post #91

Man, Elon Musk is awesome. Just putting the fact that I just downloaded a user manual for a multi planetary spacecraft in PDF format into historical context, if you think about how thus all came together it really is amazing. We went from "this guy is nuts" to "oh yeah this is probably going to happen." When Tesla first came into public view, the idea that a car entirely electric powered that drives itself developed…

> that I just downloaded a user manual for a multi planetary spacecraft in PDF

You didn't.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#105

Post by inglor_cz »

digdigdag wrote: post #50
Ballu wrote: post #44

"The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport." Why no one is talking about this. This will be game changer if can be done with bigger payload. There are models created earlier that using rocket technology/mechanism, LA-HK can be reached in 2 hours. This can have huge impact on avionics esp with trade.

Ask yourself -- what object would be so massive and heavy and yet needed with such immediacy that a company would be willing to pay millions -- perhaps beyond the cost of the object itself -- to ship in a sub-orbital manner? Large and critical infrastructure components like generators, large piping and ducts, etc. are already transported at a fraction of the cost by the likes of the AN-225 Mirya within a matter of ho…

You are concentrating only on speed and possibly cost. But there is another thing to consider.

For military use, the fact that you do not need consent of third states to use their infrastructure and can support operations on the other side of the globe directly, is golden.

Remember the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Everyone who helped Israel was subject to Arab oil embargo, AFAIK including countries that just allowed American Israel-bound planes to land and refuel.

Similar things may happen again somewhere around South China Sea.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#106

Post by cma »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #19
eitland wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US military. Besides cost and risk there's nothing preventing this from being used on earth, in fact I've already seen the use case mentioned here on HN.

DOD is already talking to SpaceX for rapid cargo transport applications. “A military team is working with SpaceX to flesh out the prospect of shipping routes that pass through space, the head of U.S. Transportation Command said Oct. 7.” “That group could demonstrate as early as 2021 whether quickly sending cargo around the globe via space is feasible, Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons said.” “Think about moving the equivale…

Isn't that going to trigger icbm monitoring systems? NASA works in concert with hem and schedules, etc., but military use that needed readiness like this seems like it would be asking for accidents.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#107

Post by numlock86 »

betwixthewires wrote: post #91

Man, Elon Musk is awesome. Just putting the fact that I just downloaded a user manual for a multi planetary spacecraft in PDF format into historical context, if you think about how thus all came together it really is amazing. We went from "this guy is nuts" to "oh yeah this is probably going to happen." When Tesla first came into public view, the idea that a car entirely electric powered that drives itself developed…

What really stands out is the impact of this guy, too. Imagine he just wouldn't have done those things. Imagine no PayPal, no Tesla, no SpaceX ... it's easy to say "Yeah, someone else would have probably done it then." but that's just not right. Otherwise we'd see a lot more of those things by now. Sure, there are some now, but most if not all are the result of him setting the bar in the first place.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#108

Post by m_mueller »

digdigdag wrote: post #50
Ballu wrote: post #44

"The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport." Why no one is talking about this. This will be game changer if can be done with bigger payload. There are models created earlier that using rocket technology/mechanism, LA-HK can be reached in 2 hours. This can have huge impact on avionics esp with trade.

Ask yourself -- what object would be so massive and heavy and yet needed with such immediacy that a company would be willing to pay millions -- perhaps beyond the cost of the object itself -- to ship in a sub-orbital manner? Large and critical infrastructure components like generators, large piping and ducts, etc. are already transported at a fraction of the cost by the likes of the AN-225 Mirya within a matter of ho…

power station transformers? not sure if they are too heavy for starship, but loosing enough of those can take hundreds of millions of households offline for a long time.

also, in a much darker turn of events: organs for billionaires and political leaders.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#109

Post by m_mueller »

throw0101a wrote: post #36

Regarding the PDF: Why does it seem so hard to get good looking justified text? It appears to me that only (La)TeX manages to get spacing 'correct' / aesthetically pleasing (IMHO). Going from the metadata, this file was generated by "Microsoft Office Word": you'd think MS would have the resources to figure this out.

Since you seem to have an eye for this, what about Apple Pages? The output of that always seemed pleasing to me.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#110

Post by ComodoHacker »

bigyikes wrote: post #14
ciarannolan wrote: post #5

All the references like "Please contact sales@spacex.com to evaluate how Starship can meet your unique needs" are pretty funny. I'd like to imagine some mid-level manager working on his little satellite project browsing this pamphlet, thinking, "Hmmm, this 'SpaceX' company looks interesting. Let me send them an email."

I had a similar giggle reading about the "rideshare opportunities" > This large deployable envelope allows for the design of novel payloads, rideshare opportunities and entire constellations of satellites on a single launch. I'm totally looking forward to hailing a Starship in the Uber app. (I actually don't know what they mean by ridesharing)

>looking forward to hailing a Starship in the Uber app

Not totally unreasonable, according to another quote:

>The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport.

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