931–940 of 1001 posts
After spending years as a kid seeing footage of these things on TV outside living outside of America, I finally got to see it live! Brought my camera and got a few good pics too! Very invested in this entire mission! Someone behind me kept whisper crying "That's it! Go baby, go baby go" like it was his child and was encouraging them on. Very emotional, loved it. Also when that engine sparked it really hit me just how…
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Each Artemis launch costs something like $4b (that's the incremental cost of a new rocket, it's much higher if you amortize the design costs). IMO the program is not optimized for cost or sustainability, it's optimized for creating jobs in various congressional districts. Of course that provides a certain amount of political sustainability to the so-called Senate Launch System. I just don't see a future where NASA ca…
> Each Artemis launch costs something like $4b Early launches, yes, because SLS is a garbage heap. Later ones, almost certainly not.
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Take note of a project that’s about 15 years behind schedule and many multiples over budget finally progressed because we lowered safety standards to just launch? I’m not sure how that’s proof the government isn’t gutted. Let me know what our schedule is for the next one and how that timeline has changed. Ignoring the projects that have been outright canceled… You’re currently the guy saying “ya, all you haters that…
Remember when DOGE tried to cut out the inefficiencies and failed miserably? The "inefficiencies" and "bloated budgets" are there for a reason. If Elon ran this project "without bloat", there is probably a 70% chance that the vehicle would have exploded, much in the way of his Starship and early Falcon vehicles.
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Starship "making LEO" is not a significant challenge--the existing flights have explicitly targeted a (very slightly) suborbital trajectory. They could have done otherwise at any point, but for now it's more important to guarantee that the stage comes down immediately. None of their current objectives require more than ~1/2 of an orbit. Starship v3 flying will be a significant leap, though. It's the first with the Ra…
How do they hope to make prop transfer work without a working heat shield to enable reuse of the tankers? Unless SpaceX pulls a hat trick, Starship is borderline useless.
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Strange that SpaceX doesn’t seem to be suffering from that limitation. Could it be that the real problem is pork barrel spending and government wastefulness?
What are you talking about? SLS is on the way to the Moon now. Starship is still in development. SpaceX only exists because of massive NASA subsidy. Any success from SpaceX is thanks to NASA.
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What a simultaneously cynical and boring and completely useless attitude. Is it your position that if this hadn't happened 100b of otherwise more important spending would have happened?
I think that $100 billion, spent effectively could have resulted in Von Braun Wheels in LEO. I think that it could have resulted in teleoperated lunar mining and smelting that would be allowing us to build human bases on Earth now instead of a single fly by that may end in the death of these four amazing explorers.
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While that might be true, it is on course to the moon now . Starship hasn't really done anything close. So while cheaper might be on the way, it doesn't exist now . When Starship can do now , we can talk about if the Shuttle Leftover System is ready to be retired
Starship is not designed for high-orbit deep-space missions; it is more like a cargo truck for low Earth orbit.
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Exactly what I mean. People who obsess over space are so egotistical they can’t imagine someone not thinking it’s “the best”. It’s interesting, but no more important than any other science or field of study. And no, I’d prefer we take care of our home planet and make it a sustainable place to live first. It’s ludicrous to think we have any chance of surviving elsewhere if we can’t stop ourselves from making our natur…
> People who obsess over space are so egotistical they can’t imagine someone not thinking it’s “the best” What? No I don't. Some people want to spend money on sports or making our planet sustainable before doing anything else. I think that's fine. It doesn't interest me, however, so I'm looking at this other thing. We can coexist without having to insult each other. > It’s putting the cart before the horse How many t…
> How many times in history did necessity create efficiencies versus ambition?
Literally all the time? There’s another saying, “necessity is the mother of invention”.
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In the private sector, risking astronaut’s lives when you know a problem exists can result in jail time - what will happen to NASA?
1. The entire mission is “risking astronaut’s lives”. 2. NASA employees don’t have criminal immunity.
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Going to the Moon or Mars is a trojan horse. Starship's true purpose is to compete with airlines in trans oceanic flights. Musk has said so many times but then he intentionally obfuscates it with all the Mars and Moon talk. But remember that you heard this before it was widely realized to be true; Starship isn't about going to Mars. Starship is about going to China.
Far too dangerous and noisy for that to ever happen, surely. And too fragile/explodey for niche military uses (long range troop drops?)
Falcon 9 is clearly proving that doesn’t have to be the case.