SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#181

Post by dgritsko » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:13 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #119

WizardAustralis wrote: post #115

With all the positive talk on here, I shall present a contrary point of view on this. This is the YouTube channel Common sense skeptic, that seems to be doing a good job if trying to test Musks/SpaceX claims, typically it is not positive at all. It is clear they have an axe to grind with Musk but they seem to doing a very good job of backing up their criticism s. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgKWj1pn3_7hRSFIypunY…

No one cares about this shit anymore. Everyone and their uncle had a Youtube channel telling us why Crew Dragon would fail because they used electron for their interface or Tesla would fail because they don't understand what Real Car Companies™ do or Tesla is just a bunch of techies who think they can solve other problems because they can write software or Space X is doomed because their rocket exploded once. Well, i…

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#182

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

gok wrote: post #69

Squeezing 100 people into this thing for a multi-month journey continues to give me pause. It has smaller internal volume than the ISS, which has never had more than 9 people, and it was considered uncomfortably crowded when that happened.

If you think about how big many ocean going sail ships have been, its not that different. The Viking Dragon ships didn't even have decks and they went all around the world with them.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#183

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

peter303 wrote: post #61

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #6

I am so happy Elon Musk exists today. The world is a much more interesting place to live in. I was outside the other night on a walk and all the sudden I see a 60 satellite Starlink fleet above me and it honestly brought me to tears. He has made science fiction real and has progressed all of humanity more than anyone else alive today IMO. I can't wait for the Elon hate replies.

China too. When I lived in China I felt like I was in the Jetsons- 200 mph trains, gleaming airports more skyscrapers in Shanghai tahn in the Ten top US cities combined. Plus new mission to the Moon every year. In American I feel like the Flintstones- so backwards.

Japan is also very SF yet very fantasy/historicall all at the same time! 300 km/h trains, 30 milion people megapolises but also ancient shrines, temples and vulcanoes, often right next to each other (at least in Kagoshima :P)!

Still, I would welcome more ambitious space stuff being done in space in Japan. Hayabusa and Kibo is nice and cool, but we need more! :)

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#184

Post by Shivetya » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

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…

Disaster Recovery/Rescue. Some major ecological disaster where what you need is on the wrong ocean

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#185

Post by trey-jones » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

RivieraKid wrote: post #158

randomsearch wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realise that Musk has flaws and has received criticism for the spat with the cave diver, ignoring COVID, and labour issues. Want to add that caveat. But beyond that, I feel like in terms of what he's doing Musk is some sort of time traveller, back from the future to boost humanity's progress. Why is he such an outlier? What can we as individuals learn from him? And more importantly, how do we make more Elon Musks?

What annoys me that I would want to be a fan of someone like him but I just find his personality and behavior repulsive. After Jobs and Musk many people will now think you have to be an asshole to be successful and will try emulate the bad parts too. People are biased towards simple explanations of the world so they're biased towards either either Musk is amazing or Musk sucks. The reality is that he's a great enterp…

The personality and behavior that you find repulsive is probably the most conducive to progress. I am not one of those (if I do say so myself). I don't like to step on other peoples' toes or piss people off. I value the happiness of certain other people over my own, mostly. I am unwilling to sacrifice certain things (family) for other goals that I might have.

These traits (some might say virtues) are limitations on what I can accomplish. People without these limitations are often perceived as assholes, but with the right combination of other traits/virtues, they can really do great things.

That's how I see it anyway. I'm not making excuses for myself, and I still intend to do something great, but I don't have expectations of changing the world or being the greatest.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#186

Post by m4rtink » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:38 PM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #39

centimeter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the eventual goal is to add satellite-to-satellite links, to permit routing to more remote areas (albeit with increased latency).

Be curious how feasible this is in practice. a) None of the launched satellites will be able to support it. b) ESA Sentinel laser link is only getting bandwidth of between 1.8-7.2 Gbit/s which isn't all that much.

For the record the Iridium satellite phone network has been using (radio) inter-satellite links from 1990s.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#187

Post by the8472 » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:38 PM UTC

qayxc wrote: post #129

ComodoHacker wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Except totally unreasonable :) Rockets that size cannot be launched anywhere near populated areas, so they'd have to launch from off-shore platforms; outside of Australia, USA and Russia there are no worthwhile destinations that can safely host on-shore rocket launch complexes for that class of rocket. This poses quite complex logistical challenges that enthusiasts just love to handwave away. But there's even more to…

> would in reality consist of a 1 hour drive to the port, followed by 1 hour check-in and a 1 hour boat ride to the off-shore launch facilities. Next you'd have at least 1 hour of boarding procedures (limited elevator space, pressure suit fitting, seating) followed by fuelling (maybe another hour?). So after about 5 hours or so you are finally clear for launch

I see that the TSA mindflayers have not been kind to you. Many of those steps do not have to be performed sequentially. For example check-in and suit-up could be performed on the ferry. And if you're already throwing stupendous amounts of money at travel then you also don't have to pick a slow ferry, consider jet hydrofoils. And you don't even have to start at some port far from a city. If the city has a major river it could take up passengers in the middle of the city, travel down the river and on towards the launch platform. And if we're talking about strapping hundreds of people onto rockets then the safety margins on everything would have to be improved far enough that the dry-loading probably is not needed anymore either.

As far as logistics go it seems hard but possible. But you may be right that regulatory conditions could prove prohibitive since not everyone will just go along with musk's plans.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#188

Post by emteycz » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

Pelic4n wrote: post #163

DarmokJalad1701 wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop parroting debunked allegations. https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/iivbk5/elon_m...

We should tell the kids mining cobalt in congo that Elon Musk's family wealth is in fact, not from an emerald mine and that Elon is a good guy after all! I wonder why his family got out of South Africa as soon as the apartheid ended and hasn't got back since at least once tho.

I wonder if your family would've stayed

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#189

Post by ceejayoz » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:45 PM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #168

RivieraKid wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What annoys me that I would want to be a fan of someone like him but I just find his personality and behavior repulsive. After Jobs and Musk many people will now think you have to be an asshole to be successful and will try emulate the bad parts too. People are biased towards simple explanations of the world so they're biased towards either either Musk is amazing or Musk sucks. The reality is that he's a great enterp…

Edison was an asshole too. And Franklin.

Examples of assholes abound, sure.

Einstein was, by all accounts I've seen, a pretty nice fellow. Being an asshole isn't a required characteristic.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#190

Post by atq2119 » Tue, Dec 08, 2020, 4:46 PM UTC

cma wrote: post #106

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…

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.

This is a very good point. If transportation through space becomes routine, does that affect the ability to detect nuclear first strikes, and what does it do to the calculus of mutually assured destruction?

Hopefully this can be solved with comparable improvements in monitoring and/or adjustments to second strike capabilities.