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Starbase, LA

spacex.com

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Re: Starbase, LA

#431

Post by zamadatix »

phlakaton wrote: post #251
tristanj wrote: post #200

So this is official after months of speculation. Local realtors called this back in May https://x.com/SERobinsonJr/status/2051440979878559829 , and Ars Technica covered these rumors earlier this month https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-is-set-to-acqui... . The Louisiana location has two major benefits: Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) Access : Launches into SSO have a launch angle of ~98° relative to the equator…

I think you mean the Gulf of Mexico. It's poor form to let a crybaby bully have his way.

I'm not a fan of the guy myself but is this really the way we want to debate things here?

Re: Starbase, LA

#432

Post by WalterBright »

nrr wrote: post #417
WalterBright wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asking for evidence is not "willfully ignorant". People making claims have the onus of backing them up. Anyhow, the link to the canceled projects is: https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO?jnt... I looked at maybe a dozen at random, and only one seemed to have anything about scientific research. Of course, that is not a complete survey, but none of them looked important. I'm sure there are a few tha…

I might be biased, but everything under the Division of Mathematical Sciences in the MPS directorate is important. Math is one of those weird fields that tends to touch everything else even if not directly, and it's impossible to know prima facie which areas of research will be useful downstream to the sciences and engineering.

I can go for that, as long as the research proposals are actually about math research.

Re: Starbase, LA

#433

Post by keeda »

WalterBright wrote: post #394
jryan49 wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A quick Google search will show you... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/26/nati... You're just willfully ignorant

Asking for evidence is not "willfully ignorant". People making claims have the onus of backing them up. Anyhow, the link to the canceled projects is: https://airtable.com/appGKlSVeXniQZkFC/shrFxbl1YTqb3AyOO?jnt... I looked at maybe a dozen at random, and only one seemed to have anything about scientific research. Of course, that is not a complete survey, but none of them looked important. I'm sure there are a few tha…

Are we looking at the same link? I scrolled through a bunch of them and I could not find a single one that was NOT related to scientific research. The UI is horrible so I can't link anything on that page, but here's what I see when I click that link:

https://i.imgur.com/LzwDuKl.png

(Edited to add, these are the abstracts, because I can't fit both in one screen /facepalm: https://i.imgur.com/yQKHViO.png)

Maybe there's a different filter or ordering being applied somewhere?

Re: Starbase, LA

#434

Post by WalterBright »

nrr wrote: post #416
WalterBright wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was no test suite for it available that I could use for correctness checks, so I did what I could. I also implemented IEEE 754 floating point in asm. For that I did have an exhaustive test suite, and passed it 100%.

We didn't have this definition of correctness until 1990 (due to Steele and White), and it wasn't until the past decade or so that we got a published algorithm (most recently, I think, Dragonbox, due to Jeon when he was still working on his PhD at UCSD), with mathematical proof[0], that satisfied all of the requirements of being complete, being unique, and being deterministic. (Though, Steele-White expresses these sl…

I didn't know that! Thanks for the link to the paper. I've saved it for later reading!

Re: Starbase, LA

#435

Post by bix6 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #368
bix6 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think multiple contractors in multiple states are just filing liens for fun?

Anything at scale will have payment disputes. Did the work happen, was it for contract, did it run over? These types of questions are extremely common

Right so the article says they aren’t paying but should be. Do you have evidence to suggest otherwise?

Re: Starbase, LA

#436

Post by cesarvarela »

jongjong wrote: post #406

I have nothing against humans becoming multi-planetary but this is a luxurious desire at this point in history. We should solve poverty first. This is the kind of project which you do once there are no more problems to solve on earth.

Space exploration might help solve poverty, though. It will create new occupations, as new technology and discoveries always do.

Re: Starbase, LA

#437

Post by nrr »

WalterBright wrote: post #432
nrr wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be biased, but everything under the Division of Mathematical Sciences in the MPS directorate is important. Math is one of those weird fields that tends to touch everything else even if not directly, and it's impossible to know prima facie which areas of research will be useful downstream to the sciences and engineering.

I can go for that, as long as the research proposals are actually about math research.

The stuff in Airtable seems to be. The lion's share of what's there is research that has applications to, like, sensors and robotics and AI, even if the abstracts themselves don't state that, likely because the PIs behind those proposals aren't aware of those applications of their work.

(Just to illustrate how mathematicians can sometimes embody the archetype of Hans Guck-in-die-Luft: I had someone tell me once that there were no applications of ODEs or PDEs to the sciences or engineering.)

Re: Starbase, LA

#438

Post by thrance »

kulahan wrote: post #325
ryandrake wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talking about "science stuff" without even mentioning the political and human implications is pointlessly incomplete. It's like trying to talk about a programming language without mentioning variables. Everything is human and everything is political. To pretend that it is not is, in itself, a political stance.

Let's take the two pieces you put out there and just look at logical conclusions., because it's kinda hilarious to imagine you actually hold this actually-insane position. 1. Everything is political 2. Talking about something without mentioning political and human implications is "pointlessly incomplete" Topic: "Anyone wanna go swimming?" Normal people: "Sure." You, apparently: "Are you aware of how water is unequall…

Nice strawman.

Re: Starbase, LA

#439

Post by jayGlow »

rtkwe wrote: post #75
chasd00 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it doesn't fix everything wrong in the state but it's > 0. There's a lot of additional economic activity that comes with the construction too. Restaurants get busier, Walmart gets busier, lots of auto repair/servicing will be needed etc. Som e people will move for construction and end up staying there. It can be a shock to the local communities though but i think the positives still outweigh the negatives.

The biggest issue is these kinds of construction jobs are temporary. It's similar to but not quite as bad as datacenters where you get a very short term influx of skilled highly paid labor but those jobs don't stick around after the construction is over. Starbase will require more people on site at least.

aren't literally all construction jobs temporary? once something is finished you usually stop construction.
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