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Doing things at a Harbor Freight price point that have never been done at that price point before basically always winds up being uncharted engineering territor
by dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Doing things at a Harbor Freight price point that have never been done at that price point before basically always winds up being uncharted engineering territory. Anyone can build something that works when you don't care about cost.
- rayiner 8y agoNo doubt SpaceX is solving lots of cool engineering problems. But portraying those cost-optimization efforts as “pushing the limits of spaceflight technology” is a triumph of marketing. And it obscures how little real progress has been made in aerospace over the last half century.[1] (Also, your last sentence is obviously not true. The physical sciences are a harsh mistress. Lots of things never work.) [1] Even with computer aided design, composites, laser sintering, etc., the thrust-to-weight ratio of a Merlin engine is a factor of two better than an RP-1/LOX engine from half a century ago. That’s about the same factor improvement as we achieved in subsonic jet engine performance over that time period. Aerospace technology moves very slowly, there is no reason to be hopeful and optimistic.
- dsfyu404ed 8y agoPushing the cost floor lower certainly falls within the scope of "pushing the limits" to me.
- rayiner 8y agoThen you’re really cut out for a happy life as an industrial engineer!