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

SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 273 posts

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#151

Post by trhway »

bobl wrote: post #94
leesec wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making rockets re-usable is a massive step forward and not about 'not regressing'.

I doesn't seem clear at this point whether re-usable will be significant for activities beyond earth orbit. Partly the excitement comes from being a workaround for humanities reluctance to spend money on space exploration. Believe what you want, but from what I can find this doesn't seem to be a significant part of what would e.g. make humanity interplanetary. At least not yet.

>I doesn't seem clear at this point whether re-usable will be significant for activities beyond earth orbit.

beside everything else, getting retro-rockets work well at hypersonic speeds is a key to landing on Mars (I really loved the de-facto SpaceX propaganda series "Mars". Even better than "Martian" for me. The only slight disappointment is the cop out at the very end).

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#152

Post by bmiller2 »

Klathmon wrote: post #31
beamatronic wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but it’s better than something like Dragon Crew D1 C D 1 (looking at you XBox)

I have a feeling SpaceX intentionally names things kind of weirdly just because it's almost a running joke among fans. The progression of Falcon 9 rockets is: * Falcon 9 * Falcon 9 V1.1 * Falcon 9 Full Thrust (also called V1.2 for a small period of time) * Falcon 9 Fuller Thrust (I think this one was renamed to Block 4 at some point, but I distinctly remember hearing it called "Fuller Thrust" at first) * Falcon 9 Blo…

They specifically used names with minor revisions or tweaks in some of those cases to discourage folks from thinking to recertify the whole vehicle. 1.1 for example was basically an entire new vehicle - physically bigger and revamped avionics throughout. No customer wants to be the first to put their three hundred million dollar satellite on an untried platform, but a 0.1 difference? Meh, that’s practically the same thing!

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#153

Post by adventured »

warp_factor wrote: post #124
isostatic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soyuz takes people to the space station every few months, has done for years. Why is this specific mission new?

Because spaceX Marketing and PR departments want you to feel this is new. There is also some American pride to be able to send people to space again without the need of the Russians. All of this creates this overblown achievement feeling. This has been done 40 years ago!

> This has been done 40 years ago!

What private company was sending people into space on reusable rockets 40 years ago?

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#154

Post by nine_k »

shkkmo wrote: post #142
javagram wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trade is required when the materials of subsistence cannot all be produced locally. A successful mars colony would need to have a plan to reach self-sufficiency through Martian plus asteroid resources.

> A successful mars colony would need to have a plan to reach self-sufficiency through Martian plus asteroid resources. Not at all. While there will be an economic and logistical incentive to reduce the dependence on imports from earth, it is not reasonable to expect the colony to fully duplicate the manufacturing capabilities of earth. There will be drugs, electronic components and human experts that will imported f…

I don't think any imports from Mars could be profitable. Except scientific data, of course. The colony will depend on Earth tech for a long time.

The only case for a self-sustained colony I see is some local political extremism. To prefer to live on Mars by one's own means would take some very strong Earth-incompatible views.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#155

Post by leesec »

whatislovecraft wrote: post #139
ricardobeat wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Starship is supposed to carry a couple hundred passengers. That would be a few hundred ships all launching at once; while I share the enthusiasm I’m not sure that’s realistic due to the [lack of] economic incentives involved.

> That would be a few hundred ships all launching at once Yes, that's the plan as described by Elon! Maybe not "all at once" but over the course of some days/weeks, yes. > I’m not sure that’s realistic due to the [lack of] economic incentives involved Every Mars thread someone pops in to say this, but it simply isn't true. There are major economic incentives to go to Mars, and selling tickets is #1 of hundreds. There…

Also worth mentioning is that 200k is much less when considering you'd be able to sell your house/car/everything to do so.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#156

Post by speeq »

lucideer wrote: post #147
whatislovecraft wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That would be a few hundred ships all launching at once Yes, that's the plan as described by Elon! Maybe not "all at once" but over the course of some days/weeks, yes. > I’m not sure that’s realistic due to the [lack of] economic incentives involved Every Mars thread someone pops in to say this, but it simply isn't true. There are major economic incentives to go to Mars, and selling tickets is #1 of hundreds. There…

You may be right that there are many ways to make money beyond tickets (I don’t know—curious to hear examples), but I don’t think your ticket math quite adds up. 200k might be an ok ticket price for some, but you’re talking about the overlap of: (a) people who can afford 200k and (b) people willing to risk a possible one-way trip. You’re talking about tickets as if this is space tourism: space tourism is a loop aroun…

"Musk thinks the ticket price could eventually dip below $100,000, cheap enough that "most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth and move to Mars if they want."

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#157

Post by clort »

api wrote: post #55
Klathmon wrote: post #4

Congratulations to the team at SpaceX! They are opening the hatch right now on the stream if anyone here wants to watch along https://youtu.be/21X5lGlDOfg

I really hoped they would hide a rubber face hugger next to Ripley, but I doubt it. Such a missed opportunity.

If I were those guys up there, I would check the chest cavity, just to be sure..

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#158

Post by lgats »

warp_factor wrote: post #122

Congratulation to SpaceX. That being said, we should take a step back and stop drinking the Elon Musk Koolaid. This has been done flawlessly by Russian Soyouz hundreds of times over the last decades (with almost no failures). This has also been done with the Shuttle.

22 failures / 786 launches

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#159

Post by z3phyr »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #43
zargath wrote: post #6

Fantastic, very impressive. But somewhere inside (my little star-wars/trek spirit), I wish that it was not so tricky. That we all could just travel and explore the universe. Everybody always talk about how difficult it is in space and how much better earth is. Wish the debate would be more about all the possibilities in space or on other planets. What can we do with zero gravity? For all the bad things with living on…

I honestly don’t see any benefits to living on Mars until every inch of space on Earth is used up. Everything about living on Mars is hostile to life. Doing anything there like mining and manufacturing will be orders of magnitude more difficult and for what? To say we are somewhere else that looks like the Atacama but infinitely more difficult to get to? It seems silly to be trying to rush to a place that wants to ki…

The benefit of going to mars is that it opens up knowledge and know how / experience upon the human race to go further beyond. Spreading our species gives an evolutionary advantage.

Re: SpaceX Crew Dragon Docks with International Space Station

#160

Post by marnett »

samstave wrote: post #99
kitsunesoba wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re perfectly capable of building electronics that can run for many tens of years without issue… it’s just that such things don’t get built because that’s not profitable for manufacturers. If an organization like NASA puts in an order for computers or handheld devices specifically designed to not break for long stretches of time, it wouldn’t be a problem to fulfill said order.

This is why I have such little respect for billionaires who leave no long-lasting meaningful impact at all. Gates/Musk may be the only ones who appear to desire to have a many-generational-positive impact on Humanity. Every one else are just egos. Unless I am not aware of some of the greater things that ilk is doing?

You mention billionaires and then list off new money entrepreneurs. Don’t conflate the two. There are jobless people born into billion dollar family dynasties that do absolutely nothing for humanity. They hide and live out their lives entirely for them.
Post reply on HN