Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Starship / Super Heavy

faa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 298 posts

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#21

Post by mrlonglong »

colechristensen wrote: post #19
londons_explore wrote: post #4

Why the desalination plant? Is there not piped water? Is it just another eco friendly sounding thing to put in the plan? Is it to hedge against newspaper headlines saying how much water spacex is wasting? Desalination has to be more expensive than piped water (both financially and environmentally).

The site has extensive solar power, I'm not aware of environmental concerns for solar-powered desalination. I would guess that it is driven by a real need for water and a hedge against environmental assessment difficulties.

What are they going to do with all the brine. It's quite toxic and I don't think it's a good idea to dump that back in the sea.

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#22

Post by kristofferR »

londons_explore wrote: post #4

Why the desalination plant? Is there not piped water? Is it just another eco friendly sounding thing to put in the plan? Is it to hedge against newspaper headlines saying how much water spacex is wasting? Desalination has to be more expensive than piped water (both financially and environmentally).

Boca Chica doesn't have piped water.

"There are no shops or restaurants or amenities of any kind around, including municipal water pipes; Cameron County regularly trucks in gallons of water, which is stored in outdoor tanks."

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-x-...

The whole piece is worth a read btw, great article.

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#23

Post by AYBABTME »

mrlonglong wrote: post #21
colechristensen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site has extensive solar power, I'm not aware of environmental concerns for solar-powered desalination. I would guess that it is driven by a real need for water and a hedge against environmental assessment difficulties.

What are they going to do with all the brine. It's quite toxic and I don't think it's a good idea to dump that back in the sea.

Is it? I'd guess putting the brine back far enough in the water, away from the seafloor, would provide plenty of dilution. I'm doubtful that they'd desalinate at such a rate that would drastically change local conditions where they return the brine.

I'm just guessing here, but that's my half informed idea.

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#24

Post by AYBABTME »

hinkley wrote: post #7
londons_explore wrote: post #4

Why the desalination plant? Is there not piped water? Is it just another eco friendly sounding thing to put in the plan? Is it to hedge against newspaper headlines saying how much water spacex is wasting? Desalination has to be more expensive than piped water (both financially and environmentally).

They have plans for building launch sites offshore. They're presumably exercising their muscles on as many of the end-game problems as they can. The bubble wall tech will probably be a big enough problem to sort out once they try to build them.

Can you expand on the bubble wall?

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#25

Post by AYBABTME »

jonplackett wrote: post #14
electriclove wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many others also have 'essentially unlimited resources' but it is the execution and quick iteration that is unique to both Tesla and SpaceX.

Lots of places seem like they should have unlimited resources. I would have thought VW would be pretty high on that list - but they have their resources tied up. SpaceX / Tesla seem to be more free to use their resources in daring ways.

Tesla can seemingly issue new shares and the public market just buy them all up at a huge valuation; I think that's what is meant by "unlimited resources".

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#26

Post by jccooper »

londons_explore wrote: post #4

Why the desalination plant? Is there not piped water? Is it just another eco friendly sounding thing to put in the plan? Is it to hedge against newspaper headlines saying how much water spacex is wasting? Desalination has to be more expensive than piped water (both financially and environmentally).

> Is there not piped water?

Not, there is not. All water is currently delivered, and the nearest municipal water is over 15 miles away.

Arranging for a water pipeline would not be cheap, but moreover would take a lot of time. Desalinization plant is plug and play; pipe is going to require a lot of bureaucracy besides a pretty fair capital investment.

Re: Starship / Super Heavy

#28

Post by [deleted] »

jonplackett wrote: post #11
DarthGhandi wrote: post #2

SpaceX's assembly and testing cadence is quite amazing. They're already putting together pieces of SN17!

In another article about Tesla VW CEO described them as having ‘essentially unlimited resources’. I guess spaceX probably falls under a similar category. Unlimited resources + not wasting ANYTHING is a killer combo.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN