3 ms·

The track record of experimental designs deliberately intended to push the boundaries of reliability really does not give us any idea of what to expect for the

• HarryHirsch 7y ago
  Spacecraft engineering is inherently conservative because of reliability concerns, you can't take a tow truck and mechanic in orbit to fix things when it turns out that you didn't understand the latest technology quite as well as you thought. Space isn't the place to push technical boundaries, also because of orbital littering.
  • adventured 7y ago
    > Space isn't the place to push technical boundaries Fortunately space, for over half a century, has routinely been the place to push all manner of technical boundaries.
  • manicdee 7y ago
    The inability to take a tow truck to orbit is exactly why you need to push the boundaries to find out what works and what doesn’t. Also note that “littering” is an irrelevant analogy in these orbits because of their low altitude. Atmospheric drag will cause anything in these orbits to deorbit in a matter of years to decades. Just don’t go doing stupid stuff like releasing hundreds of millions of copper needles in a three-thousand-kilometre orbit as part of a misguided attempt to provide a reflective surface to carry military communications around the globe. That would be actual littering, as would any test of an anti-satellite weapon.
  • HeadsUpHigh 7y ago
    Space is literally the place to push technical boundaries. It's this thinking that has condemned our space growth in the past.