SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#261

Post by seventytwo » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:01 AM UTC

jvm wrote: post #119

throw0101a wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only in America things like this can happen. > A whole industry bootstrapping itself to make semi-conductors doubling every 18 months, going from exotic, mission critical hardware to commodity; Silicon Valley did not bootstrap itself. It received untold billions of dollars from the US government during the Cold War (and lots of stuff happened during the WW2 economy, when the US was the Allies' armorer). Do you thin…

This is such an annoying argument. The government gave $18B to the SLS and so far has vapor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System The government spent $211B on the shuttle program and got 133 launches. SpaceX will probably surpass that number this year at a fraction of the cost. NASA's record on rockets since Apollo has been abysmal. I don't think government is necessarily bad (the Russians did a much be…

It costs way more to be the innovator than the fast- follower or optimizer.

The government (US taxpayers) were the ones that did the initial work to level the raw earth and pave the road. SpaceX may be doing amazing work improving the process, but comparing the two as you’re doing is not appropriate.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#262

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:04 AM UTC

matmatmatmat wrote: post #116

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a swath of people who have adopted the position that it's best to let industry be the primary agent of regulation, largely for ideological political reasons. As we saw with the MAX debacle, such a position is foolish, as companies will always be cravenly willing to cut corners in the interest of short term profits. This is one of the biggest political changes I've gone through. In my early 20s I was much more…

It is unclear to me why anyone would vote this down. It's spot on.

There's a subset of this places reader's that are pretty aggressive with the libertarian stuff. If you know the quip about people thinking they're temporarily embarrassed billionaires, I think that's close to the root of it, something more tangible when you work in tech and the possibility of earning truly big money is more near at hand than most other vocations, even if still something of a luck shot.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#263

Post by lumost » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:05 AM UTC

allenrb wrote: post #232

How so many educated, intelligent people seem to think that we (as a species, or even as Americans) are so resource-poor that “space exploration” and “improving the earth” yield an either/or decision absolutely mystifies me. You want to free up resources for either one? Start with global military spending and the financial sector. Both have their place and both have grown far beyond it.

The economy isn’t zero sum. Particularly in this case where aerospace innovation has been largely funded by the military for the last 80 years.

Rocket engines, hypersonic vehicles, and orbital rockets have a dual use for missile technology ( both conventional and nuclear )

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#264

Post by xjlin0 » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:07 AM UTC

cblconfederate wrote: post #117

908B64B197 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only in America things like this can happen. A whole industry bootstrapping itself to make semi-conductors doubling every 18 months, going from exotic, mission critical hardware to commodity; SpaceX is doing the same thing with flight hardware. Contrast that with previous generation engines (the RS-25 comes to mind) with a sticker price of 125 millions... per engine! [0] [0] https://spacenews.com/aerojet-rocketdyne-d…

bootstrapping itself by extending tech designed decades ago? that doesn't sound right. Until today, the biggest rocket design was still the soviet N1 from the 60s. It's good to celebrate space achievement but rewriting history is annoying

Did N1 designed to be refuel/Re-ignition/reuse or fly to&back from Mars, etc? Please take a look which one is bigger? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship#/media/File:Su...

Wiki:

N1 LEO payload is ~95 t, weight 2750 t, height 105.3m

Starship LEO payload is 100~150 t, weight 5000 t, height 120m.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#265

Post by patagurbon » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:08 AM UTC

abledon wrote: post #136

matmatmatmat wrote: post #132

I'm stunned at the level of "optimism" in these comments. Guys, we're not going to be setting up colonies on Mars, we're not going to setting up heavy industry in space. There is literally no. point. at. all. Mars is less hospitable than even the least hospitable places on Earth. "Heavy" industry, pretty much by definition, means it's way cheaper to do it on Earth than in space (no amount of rocket development will e…

> because real problems are always more complicated than simple, inspirational ideas Colonizing another planet 'is' a real problem? Also, if we can 'just fix Earth' tell us how we convince all nations to come together and sing Kumbaya, put aside our resource differences and disarm all nuclear missiles (I'm looking at you North Korea)

North Korea is nowhere close to the major issue there.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#266

Post by colordrops » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:15 AM UTC

Talanes wrote: post #233

colordrops wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain what you meant by that comment then?

You said that GP "clearly" intended one thing, yet I've seen you in two other threads with people who did not share your reading of those words. It's fine to state your own reading of what they said and respond in kind, but dictating that your reading is universal when your comment is directly under evidence that it is not is a big leap.

It's basic English dude, let's not complicate it. It's very easy to see what was meant by that, and it's a common sentiment all over the internet that these "space barons" should reallocate their resources towards saving the planet.

If you insist on using 3rd party interpretation rather than 1st party intent to decide the meaning of a statement, I've got 16 upvotes on my comments here so others seem to be reading it the same as I.

But we don't need to vote to understand what "until after" means. It's not esoteric philosophical language - my 6 year old would understand it.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#267

Post by richk449 » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:16 AM UTC

systemvoltage wrote: post #177

asadlionpk wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tough times make tough people. But their next generation is usually soft sadly.

Meanwhile here in Oakland, this is what Mathematics teaching looks like in schools [PDF]: https://equitablemath.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/11... These people are actively undermining the American spirit - I am saying this as an immigrant to USA and a person of color. I am fine with understanding racism in USA, it is completely unacceptable to inject this into STEM education. The next generation is going to g…

I just skimmed through that document. Based on your description I was expecting a polemic. But actually about 90% of what they recommend looks like really good ways to improve math instruction.

The big problem to me is that teaching math is hard, and teaching math well, as recommended in that booklet, is really hard. You can write all the pamphlets you want, but in the end the answer will be about the same - get really good teachers. Which probably means paying teachers a lot more than we do now.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#268

Post by 908B64B197 » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:18 AM UTC

InTheArena wrote: post #235

908B64B197 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood why Canada would restrict international players from disrupting sectors like telecom (a commodity really) but didn't seem to have any problem with Airbus taking over the CSeries program for almost nothing.

Canada did prop up this program for quite a long time. It never achieved its sales goals. Moreover the money that they dumped into it was ruled illegal by the WTO. In true Trump fashion the White House overreacted and put 300% tariff to kill the program. Airbus rescued the program.

> Canada did prop up this program for quite a long time.

Like every other aerospace company

> It never achieved its sales goals.

Looks like they have years of backlog. And the whole program is profitable. They landed Delta as their North American launch customer.

> Moreover the money that they dumped into it was ruled illegal by the WTO

Wasn't it overturned?

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#269

Post by 908B64B197 » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:22 AM UTC

jollybean wrote: post #259

908B64B197 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Entertainment Never understood putting barriers and quota on entertainment (as well as government subsidies). Companies like Disney and Marvel both made billions simply by making content people want to watch. Canada is pretty much free to export its content anywhere and sell it. Why not simply compete?

It's interesting to even fathom that someone would put cultural domain issues entirely within a capitalist context. There are two fundamental reasons that content everywhere is subsidized and protected. They are of course related. First, more obviously is the cultural aspect. The things we believe, the stories we tell, are part of our identities. With critical mass and investment those stories some will take root. It…

> Once you add in language and cultural barriers, i.e. the fact that a movie about 'Captain America' will have a strong enough audience domestically, with some acceptance abroad, and you have insurmountable competitive advantage. (Nobody is going to watch a film about 'Captain France', or 'Captain Japan' - or rather, many fewer).

That explains why Parasite and Money Heist flopped.

> The new Dune film is Denis Villneuve, and his 'posse' of creatives are from Montreal. In some ways, it's a 'Canadian-led' film, but that just happens to be talent, it's not really part of the industrial base. Villneuve exists because Quebec strongly supports creative endeavours (and FYI for every Villneuve, there are 10 you've not heard of, 50 who never really had support or a shot, and 1000 who tried and failed).

From what I've been told, Quebec is the only place in Canada that consumes its own culture.

Re: SpaceX installed 29 Raptor engines on a Super Heavy rocket last night

#270

Post by nwallin » Tue, Aug 03, 2021, 3:24 AM UTC

emkoemko wrote: post #245

jvm wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such an annoying argument. The government gave $18B to the SLS and so far has vapor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System The government spent $211B on the shuttle program and got 133 launches. SpaceX will probably surpass that number this year at a fraction of the cost. NASA's record on rockets since Apollo has been abysmal. I don't think government is necessarily bad (the Russians did a much be…

and yet it would be nice to still have the shuttle program... so far nothing is capable of EVA like the shuttle was so any repairs in space are still not possible, like they did in the past with the shuttle.

The Space Shuttle costed $1.6 billion per launch. There's not a whole lot of things that would be cheaper to repair than to build a new one and launch it on a Falcon 9.

I agree that the Space Shuttle had a cool factor that nothing else does.