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

NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 1001 posts

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#171

Post by arthurcolle »

random3 wrote: post #168
namlem wrote: post #166

This would be such a dumb move on the government's part. "Lose the new space race" is ridiculous PR-brain. We are not racing to the same goal! China is trying to land on the moon, we are trying to establish a permanent presence. There is no value to merely returning to the moon to say we did it, and Starship is the only vehicle that can plausibly deliver huge quantities of cargo to the lunar surface.

What’s the main motivation for the moon? Is it a better location than the international space station? What’s the reasoning there?

I think the general idea is to set up a radio telescope there

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#172

Post by vrindavan1 »

random3 wrote: post #168
namlem wrote: post #166

This would be such a dumb move on the government's part. "Lose the new space race" is ridiculous PR-brain. We are not racing to the same goal! China is trying to land on the moon, we are trying to establish a permanent presence. There is no value to merely returning to the moon to say we did it, and Starship is the only vehicle that can plausibly deliver huge quantities of cargo to the lunar surface.

What’s the main motivation for the moon? Is it a better location than the international space station? What’s the reasoning there?

I think its to prepare for mars (sort of), its the closest place where we can build a self-sustaining civilization.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#173

Post by creshal »

random3 wrote: post #168
namlem wrote: post #166

This would be such a dumb move on the government's part. "Lose the new space race" is ridiculous PR-brain. We are not racing to the same goal! China is trying to land on the moon, we are trying to establish a permanent presence. There is no value to merely returning to the moon to say we did it, and Starship is the only vehicle that can plausibly deliver huge quantities of cargo to the lunar surface.

What’s the main motivation for the moon? Is it a better location than the international space station? What’s the reasoning there?

The ISS served all political purposes it could, and microgavity research can be served by private entities these days. (Especially considering that a Starship has half the internal pressurized volume of the entire ISS, at approximately one thousandth the cost.)

A permanent Moon base would allow research opportunities that private LEO stations can't: ISRU, low gravity research, the far side of the Moon offers unique opportunities for astronomy (any spectrum), etc. pp. Long term, who knows what additional opportunities it opens up.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#174

Post by peterfirefly »

virgilp wrote: post #65
peterfirefly wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a pretty good chance, actually. They are almost done with the hard parts of the Starship.

I wouldn't say "almost done" - orbital refueling is likely one of the hard parts, and it wasn't attempted yet.

It's probably a lot easier than the raptors, the plumbing, the launch tower, the launch mount, the belly flop, staging, and the catching. It's probably easier than the pez dispenser.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#175

Post by gradientsrneat »

Duffy is a Trump appointee, so this could be part of the continuing fallout of the Trump/Elon relationship. The Republican majority Congress has also attempted to partially defund NASA, and the government is shut down because Congress couldn't pass a budget. On top of that, space engineering is hard. So, of course there are delays.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#176

Post by prewett »

reactordev wrote: post #126
inglor_cz wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, yes, but in this specific instance, groundbreaking research or its lack isn't the core of the problem. This is mostly about the new human-rated lander, which is an engineering problem. Notably, the US never had a reasonably safe spaceship, although Dragon may yet prove good. Both Apollos and Space Shuttles, developed under NASA, were pretty dangerous to their crews.

As evident in Challenger and Columbia… You’re absolutely right. Astronauts sign a last will and testament before every flight. We think it’s routine because we’ve nailed down orbital science but in reality, we lack the quality assurance that space flight demands. It’s one thing to send up robots and satellites, it’s another to send up humans. The ISS is crawling with bacteria. We lack the physical protection for long…

> The ISS is crawling with bacteria.

So is your skin. Everything related to Earth is crawling with bacteria. The concentration and species of bacteria on the ISS are what is relevant.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#177

Post by dotnet00 »

the__alchemist wrote: post #136
dotnet00 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were serious, they'd properly look into ending SLS after the ones that are being built are launched, cancel the upgrade, go after the company that spent the entire launch tower budget before even starting construction, open up bids for rockets to fly Orion (probably Vulcan or New Glenn IIRC), and sort out their space suit issues. Maybe also seriously threaten Boeing with cancelations and restrictions for thei…

I wonder if we'll get a demonstration from China in the next few decades.

I think it's pretty much guaranteed by now, assuming that they don't get ravaged by war/internal strife, that China will have landed people on the Moon by the 2040s, and, to be fair, I'd say the same for the US having landed people there again, assuming that they stay on path instead of constantly canceling and replacing programs as they have been doing.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#178

Post by ls612 »

random3 wrote: post #168
namlem wrote: post #166

This would be such a dumb move on the government's part. "Lose the new space race" is ridiculous PR-brain. We are not racing to the same goal! China is trying to land on the moon, we are trying to establish a permanent presence. There is no value to merely returning to the moon to say we did it, and Starship is the only vehicle that can plausibly deliver huge quantities of cargo to the lunar surface.

What’s the main motivation for the moon? Is it a better location than the international space station? What’s the reasoning there?

It's Mars but with training wheels, since if there are problems stuff can be sent to/from the earth at any time as opposed to waiting for a transit window to open. With water ice in Shackleton Crater at the South Pole a permanent base should be very feasible with today's technology plus an operational Starship.

Re: NASA chief suggests SpaceX may be booted from moon mission

#179

Post by Forgeties79 »

rkomorn wrote: post #151
Forgeties79 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering their contract just went back up for grabs I’m not sure how true that statement is. > you need to keep two things in your mind at the same time This was unnecessary and patronizing.

> Considering their contract just went back up for grabs I’m not sure how true that statement is. TBH, with this administration, I wouldn't trust whatever either NASA or SpaceX say or do as a sign of anything.

That's fair too
Post reply on HN