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Ask yourself -- what object would be so massive and heavy and yet needed with such immediacy that a company would be willing to pay millions -- perhaps beyond t
by digdigdag 6y ago
Ask yourself -- what object would be so massive and heavy and yet needed with such immediacy that a company would be willing to pay millions -- perhaps beyond the cost of the object itself -- to ship in a sub-orbital manner? Large and critical infrastructure components like generators, large piping and ducts, etc. are already transported at a fraction of the cost by the likes of the AN-225 Mirya within a matter of hours. What would shaving 15-24 hours in shipping times do for a project?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jessriedel 6y agoMilitary definitely. Commercial passenger travel possibly.
- astrange 6y agoThis could be a case of supply creating its own demand.
- neaanopri 6y agoI mean there's not _no_ market, but I agree it's specialized. I could see this capability making sense for high-value, time-sensitive construction projects, such as oil rigs or wind turbines. Also, the "global" nature may lend itself to container ship salvage or search and rescue. Esp. if the Starship doesn't need to turn around immediately, I can see a market for that. All of these seem like they will need special-purpose custom Starships operated by a non SpaceX entity.
- inglor_cz 6y agoYou are concentrating only on speed and possibly cost. But there is another thing to consider. For military use, the fact that you do not need consent of third states to use their infrastructure and can support operations on the other side of the globe directly, is golden. Remember the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Everyone who helped Israel was subject to Arab oil embargo, AFAIK including countries that just allowed American Israel-bound planes to land and refuel. Similar things may happen again somewhere around South China Sea.
- neuronic 6y agoConsent isn't a problem for the US. It's either allied with a nation or able to bully them into doing whatever.
- m_mueller 6y agopower station transformers? not sure if they are too heavy for starship, but loosing enough of those can take hundreds of millions of households offline for a long time. also, in a much darker turn of events: organs for billionaires and political leaders.
- m_mueller 6y agoreply to self: I wanted to write hundreds of thousands first and then changed my opinion to millions. hundreds of millions is probably hyperbole except for a solar storm or a global nuclear war.
- T-A 6y agohttps://warisboring.com/space-marines-with-jetpacks/ https://warisboring.com/space-marines-with-jetpacks/
- nexuist 6y ago> what object would be so massive and heavy and yet needed with such immediacy that a company would be willing to pay millions -- perhaps beyond the cost of the object itself -- to ship in a sub-orbital manner? The human ego. Rich people.
- perfmode 6y agoweapons/munitions in a war?
- Shivetya 6y agoDisaster Recovery/Rescue. Some major ecological disaster where what you need is on the wrong ocean