Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week and settle Mars

Post by addisonl » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 3:46 PM UTC

Miraste wrote: post #92

addisonl wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> years designing, simulating So trial and error, but virtually. You're telling me we went to the moon on the first try? We went into space on the first try? The Wright brothers were successful on their first flight? No, it was all trial and error.

Simulation is not the same as trial and error. There's no such thing as a perfect simulation, and imperfect simulations without real world testing and iteration result in disasters. There are many examples, but the Mars probe that crashed because of a unit conversion error comes to mind.

Post by de_watcher » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 3:46 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #81

I respect the clarity of the vision and the drivenness to make the vision a reality. I disagree with the vision. The best analogy I can think of right now is high school kids renting a hotel for a party and trashing it and then doing the same thing next week. That’s humanity right now. There is no Planet B until we build a mutualistic relationship with the one that created us. And yes when I say “there is no Planet B…

Post by krapp » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 3:48 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #73

krapp wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, due to Mars' lower gravity and lack of a magnetically active core, not only can it not hold a substantial atmosphere to begin with, any such atmosphere would inevitably be blown away by solar winds. So there's that. Maybe we can put a big dome around the whole thing like Planet Druidia.

The timeline for that process is millennia, so if we come up with a continual process for replenishment that works on shorter timeframes, it's maintainable. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-mission-reveals-spee... > MAVEN measurements indicate that the solar wind strips away gas at a rate of about 100 grams (equivalent to roughly 1/4 pound) every second. "Like the theft of a few coins from a cash register ever…

Post by dangus » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 3:49 PM UTC

Post by hwc » Thu, Mar 05, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

derekp7 wrote: post #91

KineticLensman wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rocket equation [0] disagrees: "In what has been called 'the tyranny of the rocket equation', there is a limit to the amount of payload that the rocket can carry, as higher amounts of propellant increment the overall weight, and thus also increase the fuel consumption" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsiolkovsky_rocket_equation

I'm having a mental blockage on this, as you can always launch 10 rockets at the same time and get 10 times the payload. Having those 10 rockets strapped together should not change the payload of them flying independently. What am I missing here -- I'm sure I'm overlooking something.