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

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 926 posts

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#641

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #577
robotresearcher wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 2012 the SpaceX Dragon capsule has been under AI control for rendezvous with the International Space Station for grasping and docking. It uses computer vision to estimate its pose relative to the ISS and steers accordingly. Source: Andrew Howard of SpaceX, who is in charge of this software and has to endure the stress of each rendezvous. Screwing up could kill the ISS crew.

Between 'HAL' and auto-dock I can see some differences. Unless your connection confirmed that the onboard computer of the SpaceX Dragon capsule is sentient.

[deleted]

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#642

Post by steve_musk »

wallace_f wrote: post #446
hanbura wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of our space travel challenges are caused by the size restrictions and cost associated with putting spacecraft into space. Currently spaceflight is still very much an aerospace (literally translated as airspace) problem. In a theoretical world where we could just beam anything into earth orbit, unmanned interplanetary spaceflight would likely be an expensive hobby instead of something only governments attempt.

From '02 - '06 Musk dumped 100MM of his own cash into this, with uncertain outcome. Is it fair to say SpaceX was at least partially an expensive hobby, at some point?

From '02-'06 (or even '02-'017) did Musk send anything to another planet/leave Earth orbit? No.

Maybe you could argue the Falcon 1 was an expensive hobby, but interplanetary spaceflight is certainly not.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#643

Post by JumpCrisscross »

pilsetnieks wrote: post #425
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> this seems likely to be one of the most important launches in modern rocketry history SpaceX's Falcon project is the first major progress we've made in the field of human spaceflight since the Apollo program.

To be fair, I think the Space Shuttle was substantial progress as well. An evolutionary dead end maybe but still a lot was learned.

> the Space Shuttle was substantial progress

Marginal at best. The Space Shuttle lofted 833 astronauts at a cost of $209 billion [1]. In 2013, NASA was paying Russia $70 million per astronaut for a Soyuz lift [2]. That comes to $58 billion in 2013 dollars. That leaves $151+ billion, ignoring inflation, to justify everything else the Shuttle did. $150+ billion is 10x SpaceX's lifetime capital expenditures. (It's about what NASA expects it will cost to put humans on Mars.)

At first, the Space Shuttle (conceived as a shuttle to an American space station, the latter never built) was an expensive way to low-earth orbit. After the ISS, the Space Shuttle became an expensive way to the ISS. It pioneered virtually nothing and nowhere and was better at nothing than any other craft.

It was not worthless. But for the cost we could have achieved vastly more. Opportunity cost is real; the Space Shuttle set spaceflight back at least a generation.

It's not fun to trash these programs. But over time, I've realized it's necessary. We cannot correct failures we refuse to recognize. The Space Shuttle's dismal ROI was a motivating factor behind the Bush administration's support of COTS [3]. Without that programme, SpaceX wouldn't be what it is today.

[1] https://www.space.com/12376-nasa-space-shuttle-program-facts...

[2] https://www.space.com/20897-nasa-russia-astronaut-launches-2...

[3] https://www.nasa.gov/commercial-orbital-transportation-servi...

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#644

Post by tlrobinson »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #460
Jach wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed at BlueOrigin ~3.5 years ago, my impression was they're very old fashioned and secretive. Not necessarily a bad thing for such critical systems (though I think SpaceX has the better model/culture even if I know it's not for me), but I was applying for a backend role using Spring and hoping to get in on a program they had at the time where you could move around the various departments like avionics and s…

I interviewed for the superlative job title “Spaceflight systems avionics software engineer”. Contrary to your experience, I found the process to be very casual. They told me not to bring my resume, but to put together a PowerPoint presentation about my life. For one of my interviews the interviewing engineer didn’t even show up and his boss came in later and said (paraphrased): “you made it this far so I guess you’r…

> but to put together a PowerPoint presentation about my life

Wait what? This seems like a big red flag to me.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#645

Post by JshWright »

giarc wrote: post #625
jl6 wrote: post #621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was it just lucky that the core didn’t directly impact the drone ship or was it designed to aim to the side in the event of the landing speed being too high?

I read somewhere that the drone ship was damaged.

Elon mentioned in the press conference that two of the engines on the droneship (it has four, one on each corner) were damaged.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#646

Post by billfruit »

narrator wrote: post #389
aphextron wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm this was the greatest thing I've ever witnessed in my life. https://youtu.be/AGPH_i0ZlyM?t=56

I get a headache watching Star Wars like sci-fi where everything is manually controlled by the pilot. How did sci-fi get so disconnected from the actual future?

In the book The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe writes about some thing similar, the first astronauts in the Mercury program had nothing much to do, and NASA was considering choosing people like trapeze artists, who are used to stress and high acceleration for the role.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#647

Post by JshWright »

meatbags wrote: post #502
runesoerensen wrote: post #496

"That core booster approached the platform as planned, but it unfortunately hit the water going 300 MPH and was lost, because some of its return engines failed to light" https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/06/spacex-landed-two-of-its-t...

Thanks for the closure - I've been refreshing twitter all morning. I've seen the much-touted $90M price-tag for the FH launch, but does that take into account loss of the core or boosters?

The $90m price is for a fully reusable FH, yes. The cores in this particular flight, however, were not intended for reuse either way.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#648

Post by knowaveragejoe »

jpatokal wrote: post #629
51Cards wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right off the top of my head the medical data from long term space exposure will be absolutely critical to any future journeys. And I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to perfecting long duration systems design, technology proofing, etc.

Actually, much of our medical data & tech proofing from really long term space exposure belongs to the Soviets/Russians and Mir, not the ISS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Te...

Hopefully the proof for this assertion is not simply that the majority of the ten longest spaceflights were conducted by the USSR/Russia, and rather the most impactful information was gathered from them.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#649

Post by robotresearcher »

jacquesm wrote: post #577
robotresearcher wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 2012 the SpaceX Dragon capsule has been under AI control for rendezvous with the International Space Station for grasping and docking. It uses computer vision to estimate its pose relative to the ISS and steers accordingly. Source: Andrew Howard of SpaceX, who is in charge of this software and has to endure the stress of each rendezvous. Screwing up could kill the ISS crew.

Between 'HAL' and auto-dock I can see some differences. Unless your connection confirmed that the onboard computer of the SpaceX Dragon capsule is sentient.

I’m absolutely not taking a position on what is _real_ AI and was isn’t.

I was just providing evidence against the claim of the last paragraph of your previous message.

While you are waiting for AI that meets your specs, the world is flying real spacecraft with software that most people are happy to call AI right now.

Re: SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy successfully launches

#650

Post by Dylan16807 »

icebraining wrote: post #463
andrepd wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a good-faith reading of the parent commentary is that he was talking about the mannerisms and language and overall appearance of the person, not that he was white-skinned and a man. Immediately assuming he was saying he looks like an engineer because he isn't a women, or dark-skinned, is ironically a racist and sexist assumption.

No, recognizing the existence of sexist and racist stereotypes is not the same as being sexist and racist. Even if one incorrectly assumes that someone holds such stereotypical views.

If you're incorrect enough at spotting stereotypes, and then flatly assert their use, well...

There's now a stereotype being applied, and you're the one that did it.

Even if you're arguing against it, that's not a positive thing to do.

Post reply on HN