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SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

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Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#221

Post by zaroth »

ritchiea wrote: post #214
pharke wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you missed the decades before Bill went big on philanthropy and was much reviled as an anti-social workaholic, tyrannical CEO, and rabid monopolist.

And Elon Musk is not much of a philanthropist that I am aware of but is a guy who claims to care about the future of humanity so he builds luxury cars & rockets instead of doing things for humans alive today with difficult lives. Gates wasn’t always the Gates of today but whats good about Musk outside of the people who fantasize about living his life? The degree to which he’s any better for humanity than literally an…

This is such a bizarre take on Elon.

The man has no wealth outside the companies he has built. There’s no cash just sitting in an account that he’s withholding from the poor cowering masses.

He’s put every penny of his net worth into building companies which he believes will tremendously benefit humanity. From sustainable personal transportation, to clean energy, to space exploration, to human augmentation.

If you think other things would be good for humanity, I encourage you to devote every waking hour of your life to pushing technological progress in those areas which you feel would be beneficial.

If he never created SpaceX, Tesla, Boring, Neurolink, and just called it quits after PayPal he would have $180 million, let’s say he donates $160mm and funds the Red Cross for ~2 weeks. How is this better?

In the meantime he’s parlayed $180mm into over $150 billion of value by significantly advancing technological progress in several major areas of global human concern.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#222

Post by jiofih »

RivieraKid wrote: post #210
throwaway316943 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be an effective leader you have to be willing to take risks. Most of those risks are interpersonal in nature. You run the risk of offending people when you tell them they can do better than they currently are. You’re essentially calling them out for not working hard enough, or having wrong assumptions, or any of the other normal human failings that everyone is subject to. If a leader doesn’t call those things or t…

I agree with the first part. But you can have high standards, call out incompetence and fire people without being an asshole (or without being perceived as one). A good example is Ray Dalio. The thing is, Elon Musk is emotionally immature. He's extremely thin-skinned and narcissistic. He likes to take revenge. There's a difference between firing someone because it will help the project and doing it because you're ang…

Who is Ray Dalio?

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#223

Post by garmaine »

temporalparts wrote: post #78
bigyikes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

In the context of space launches, ridesharing means that multiple satellites share a single launch as opposed to the traditional 1 satellite 1 rocket approach. All Starlink satellites have been launched via ridesharing missions, with ~60 satellites per launch (and sometimes with satellites from other companies!).

> All Starlink satellites have been launched via ridesharing missions, with ~60 satellites per launch (and sometimes with satellites from other companies!).

Actually aside from the first couple of Starlink test units, it has been the other way around. SpaceX launches dedicated Starlink missions on a regular cadence using previously flown boosters, and offsets the cost somewhat by offering rideshare opportunities. There will be 60 Starlink satellites per launch, but sometimes less if they find a rideshare.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#224

Post by garmaine »

XorNot wrote: post #101
ckozlowski wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"Space Force" has become the butt of jokes, but when you actually look at the numbers it clearly is the future of American military dominance.

(Not that surprising, considering it was a bipartisan idea that predates Trump.)

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#225

Post by garmaine »

gpm wrote: post #46
Nowado wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm more curious who the smallest was will be.

A university cubesat team.

I look forward to the day Colorado School of Mines or University of Central Florida has their own Starship, and an undergraduate astronaut cadre.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#226

Post by ben_w »

mikewarot wrote: post #211
m4rtink wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should work, but it will likely not be able to safely launch again even if you managed to refuel it. The engine power needed to launch in Earth gravity, even with a small hop fuel load might be too much for engines so close to the ground & with thick atmosphere preventing the exhaust from dissipating.

Oh... I forgot about the noise from launch, which is loud enough that echos could damage the vehicle if not damped. Some form of tower to stand off the exhaust would be required.

Excellent point, that’s automatically easier on Mars and luna.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#227

Post by _ph_ »

zaroth wrote: post #221
ritchiea wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Elon Musk is not much of a philanthropist that I am aware of but is a guy who claims to care about the future of humanity so he builds luxury cars & rockets instead of doing things for humans alive today with difficult lives. Gates wasn’t always the Gates of today but whats good about Musk outside of the people who fantasize about living his life? The degree to which he’s any better for humanity than literally an…

This is such a bizarre take on Elon. The man has no wealth outside the companies he has built. There’s no cash just sitting in an account that he’s withholding from the poor cowering masses. He’s put every penny of his net worth into building companies which he believes will tremendously benefit humanity. From sustainable personal transportation, to clean energy, to space exploration, to human augmentation. If you th…

Fully agree and I think it is important to point out, that while he created $150 billion of value for himself, at the same time he created even more value for a lot of people, like any Tesla shareholder. Most of the value of Tesla is not owned by Elon, but by shareholders, often holding only small amount of stock and gaining directly.

Also, of course those companies pay salaries and other companies. A lot of wealth was created for society.

Not to mention the beneficial effects of the operations. Teslas have started as luxury cars, but they have clearly paved the way for electric cars for everyone. And while electric cars by themselves won't save the climate, without them, we could not save the climate.

Very soon a lot of people are going to enjoy fast internet across the globe, that is a very tangible benefit for every single customer and a lot of economic growth will be enabled by that, especially in countries which are currently lacking communications infrastructure.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#228

Post by betwixthewires »

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #131
betwixthewires wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PDF document we are discussing says 100 people in it.

The PDF document we are discussing was published in March; A lot has changed since then.

The plan for the Starship has been less than 12 meters diameter for many years.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#229

Post by betwixthewires »

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…

I think people that become prominent, especially businesspeople, get accused of being bad people for the rest of their lives. Their lives are scrutinized, other prominent people that control newspapers have friction with them, they do something not too nice at some point and can never live it down. It is easy to call someone a shitty human being, but is he a better person than say, your neighbor down the street? Have you ever done or said anything that, if you were to become prominent tomorrow, people would call you a shitty person for? I think almost everyone on earth has.

Re: SpaceX Starship Users' Guide [pdf]

#230

Post by betwixthewires »

ritchiea wrote: post #143
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 has Elon Musk done for humanity? He got extremely wealthy from a payment processing website. Now he runs a company that makes luxury cars and another one that is or aims to be a global military arms logistical network [0]. If I had to pick amongst the exorbitantly wealth, without any serious research I'd say we need more people like Bill Gates. 0. https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-building-military-rocke...

"A company that makes luxury cars" alright I'm going to ask you an honest question, 20 years ago would you have been on a website such as this, had it existed, talking about how we need electric cars? Or about how the US car industry is a cartel and we need new innovators to break into the industry?

Its easy to call them luxury cars now, in hindsight, now that Elon Musk started the tech revolution that brought us full electric cars and a disrupted auto industry.

That's not to point out that "a payment processing website" made the lives of millions of people easier, as will global wireless high speed internet and cheap, civilian access to space.

I think you have an axe to grind, and it is clouding your ability to think rationally. There's a rule on this site that you're supposed to add to the discussion. I kindly request that you follow it.

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