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

Starship Update [video]

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 348 posts

Re: Starship Update [video]

#31

Post by pageandrew »

anonporridge wrote: post #29
pageandrew wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> birth lottery There are plenty of people born into more favorable conditions than Elon Musk, who haven’t had 1/10,000th of the success that he has had.

Most people who achieve massive success are born into privilege. Being able to spend your time studying and getting exposed to cutting edge developments rather than struggling to just survive is a massive advantage. It's largely a necessary, but not sufficient condition for major success. People that rise from nothing to achieve massive success are the exception that prove the rule.

Yes, if someone is struggling to survive, that will limit their ability to become a world-changing entrepreneur.

That said, the average westerner is not struggling to survive, and the average westerner does not end up founding 3 world changing companies and amassing a wealth of $200 billion. Not even the average birthright 1%er achieves that.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#32

Post by kitsunesoba »

rtpg wrote: post #19
sillysaurusx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s helpful to remember it’s not a zero sum game. We can do all of that too. The tech for Mars would make it that much easier. No one wants to live in those places because currently they have a choice. But if our planet becomes irradiated, or hit by a meteor, or suffers a sun burst — all very realistic concerns — then those choices become more limited. And it’s good to have options.

The ISS is literally the most expensive physical structure we have ever built, and it's like 5 floating schoolbuses. Now I'm for walking and chewing bubblegum. But if you believe in opportunity costs and care about navigating that, it feels like the same problem. Our planet becoming irradiated is actually not a huge problem! It would still be easier to live on Earth than on Mars! An irradiated radioactive hellscape o…

The ISS was also the first of its kind, not built with cost effectiveness in mind even a little bit, and complicated by being built by so many different parties. A station or other space hab built by a highly vertically integrated company trying to keep costs down is almost certainly going to be much, much less expensive and more capable.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#33

Post by panick21_ »

The Raptor 2 engine is just an absurd. The original specs were already kind of insane. But Raptor 2 is an monster. They really pushed already significantly into a second generation design before first flight. Raptor 2 is not just a slight upgrade, its a huge upgrade.

If it can actually launch multiple times a day without any refurbishment, it will simply totally break space travel as we have known it. This engine makes everything else possible.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#34

Post by kortex »

I love how some folks are like "Elon isn't a real engineer!" and then he starts going on a tangent in the middle of a presser about how flanges are a PITA to seal once you exceed a few hundred bar (just over a few thousand PSI), and how welding improves the plumbing significantly.

Like, what!? That's not how C-suite bigwigs talk. That's primo enginerd banter.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#35

Post by anonporridge »

irrational wrote: post #6

This is the first time I’ve ever heard him speak. Is he always this awkward? Based off of the 5 minutes I watched, he clearly hasn’t gotten to where he is through charisma and public speaking skills. I’m just wondering if this is typical for him. Also, a million tons to Mars? If each starship lifts 100 tons, that is 10,000 launches. I think he said launch windows only come around every 2 years. He is either planning…

Honestly, I think this is a big part of his brand, to the degree that I wouldn't be shocked to discover he does it intentionally.

His brand really is the super awkward nerd who's somewhere on the spectrum but technically brilliant. This is part of what creates such enamor for him in the engineering/tech community.

He's the king of nerds, and to a community of nerds who are sick and tired of being led by wellkempt MBAs who don't have any deep understanding of the technology they make leadership decisions for, he's a breadth of fresh air.

I'm not making a judgement on whether this brand is actually accurate of who he really is, but that's true of any brand.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#36

Post by aradox66 »

anonporridge wrote: post #29
pageandrew wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> birth lottery There are plenty of people born into more favorable conditions than Elon Musk, who haven’t had 1/10,000th of the success that he has had.

Most people who achieve massive success are born into privilege. Being able to spend your time studying and getting exposed to cutting edge developments rather than struggling to just survive is a massive advantage. It's largely a necessary, but not sufficient condition for major success. People that rise from nothing to achieve massive success are the exception that prove the rule.

Well put.

I've never seen someone use the phrase "exception that proves the rule" non-ironically. Why is it more than just a class of exceptions? How does it prove anything?

Re: Starship Update [video]

#37

Post by flyt »

pageandrew wrote: post #31
anonporridge wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who achieve massive success are born into privilege. Being able to spend your time studying and getting exposed to cutting edge developments rather than struggling to just survive is a massive advantage. It's largely a necessary, but not sufficient condition for major success. People that rise from nothing to achieve massive success are the exception that prove the rule.

Yes, if someone is struggling to survive, that will limit their ability to become a world-changing entrepreneur. That said, the average westerner is not struggling to survive, and the average westerner does not end up founding 3 world changing companies and amassing a wealth of $200 billion. Not even the average birthright 1%er achieves that.

Oh, but they are. The average westerner (in the US, at least) is a $400 unexpected bill away from bankruptcy.

Also, Musk was not a founder of Tesla.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#38

Post by belter »

kortex wrote: post #34

I love how some folks are like "Elon isn't a real engineer !" and then he starts going on a tangent in the middle of a presser about how flanges are a PITA to seal once you exceed a few hundred bar (just over a few thousand PSI), and how welding improves the plumbing significantly. Like, what!? That's not how C-suite bigwigs talk. That's primo enginerd banter.

Which one of these personalities is he, when making statements about Tesla FSD?

Edit: The answer to this question will be highly relevant during the lawsuits that will follow, the first time the Beta FSD kills somebody.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#39

Post by mlyle »

rtpg wrote: post #13
sillysaurusx wrote: post #5

"It's gonna be cramped, dangerous, difficult, very hard work. You might die." -- Elon's sales pitch for Mars, in his own words. I wonder if any billionaire (or their children) will be doing the early work. It's an interesting game of "Who values their life the least?" knowing that their sacrifice will make for a better future. Of course, it's not a foregone conclusion that there will be a disaster. But over the cours…

Why do we need to fly 3 months to some inhospitable planet that is in worse condition than Earth would be (even after nuclear wars and global warming) to make progress? I suppose there's an idea we could apply everything done on Mars to Earth, but like... seriously, what we just took all the prep for mars and just put it in the middle of the Empty Quarter, the Saraha, Antarctica? People barely want to live in the arc…

So, I think it's worth it for people to go to Mars for exploration, and to build a base somewhere up in space or the moon.

I think we should figure out how to exploit resources in space: asteroid mining, space-based solar power, etc. Even if it's all woefully unprofitable and inefficient at first.

And I think we should figure out how to eventually get another self-sufficient lump of humanity off this rock, but that seems like it could be 150+ years out.

But there's no reason, other than the exploration of Mars itself, to go down the gravity well to Mars.

> I would love to see all the energy put into space exploration to simply be put in rehabilitating existing land.

It's not like these are really the same resources.

Re: Starship Update [video]

#40

Post by sfblah »

panick21_ wrote: post #33

The Raptor 2 engine is just an absurd. The original specs were already kind of insane. But Raptor 2 is an monster. They really pushed already significantly into a second generation design before first flight. Raptor 2 is not just a slight upgrade, its a huge upgrade. If it can actually launch multiple times a day without any refurbishment, it will simply totally break space travel as we have known it. This engine mak…

And then what? What's the use case?
Post reply on HN