21 ms·

Amazing times, when a private company can launch 3 flights in two weeks, not even counting the Starship tests :). It is faszinating to see, how quickly Starlink

by _ph_ 6y ago

Amazing times, when a private company can launch 3 flights in two weeks, not even counting the Starship tests :). It is faszinating to see, how quickly Starlink is progressing, we are on the brink of global satellite broadband internet. This could be a substantial change especially in all the countries without a wide broadband availability. It will be interesting to see whether SpaceX can generate enough revenue to be able to finance large space projects on their own. Of course there is Mars, but also the Moon, perhaps a space station or asteroid mining.

taf2 6y ago
I agree I want to see Venus havoc mission. Floating a blimp in the atmosphere seems so cool
- aero-glide2 6y ago
  The Soviets sent a balloon to Venus, floated for a few hours I think. Would love to see such missions in HD.
  - m4rtink 6y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon Two balloons, about 46 hours of endurance, limiting factor apparently being running out of battery power.
- nickik 6y ago
  Would be cool, but SpaceX is not gone finance something like that. The next decadal survival is happing pretty soon. Unfortunately its unlike a large scale Venus mission will be picked. That said, there very well might be a couple small and maybe one medium class missions picked. Don't think it would be a blimp, more likely an Orbiter. Priority might end up being an lander for Europe style moon as a flagship. And further Moon and Mars exploration. My hope honestly is that we do a serious rethink and go back to the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter but for Neptune or Uranus. A flagship mission, multiple launches, large nuclear reactor, massive amount of propellant, launched on specialised Starship to get there faster. With some real large radar on it, and maybe multiple smaller landers. Should be able to operate for 20-30 years in those systems. This is how we need to think now for flagship missions. I also hope for further study of a Dark side of the moon radio telescope built from moon resources.
sterlind 6y ago
I'm more excited about the sustainable capability to put so much stuff in orbit than for Starlink itself! This feels like a step towards a mega-scale space industry.
nickik 6y ago
Interestingly we are now moving into a situation where producing the terminals seems to be the limiting factor. They seem to produce these sats at almost unbelievable rates. They are truly mass production. No like 'we build 70 over a couple years' mass production but more like motorcycles or something like that. SpaceX is doing like 70+% of global transportation to Orbit and launching most of the world sats. Its actually insane. And its really only been taking of since 2017, people will be suprised where they are in 2024. Not landing on Mars, but probably launching private unmanned missions to Mars. For the moon the have DearMoon and hopefully get selected as a NASA partner.

by _ph_ 6y ago

taf2 6y ago

I agree I want to see Venus havoc mission. Floating a blimp in the atmosphere seems so cool

aero-glide2 6y ago
The Soviets sent a balloon to Venus, floated for a few hours I think. Would love to see such missions in HD.
- m4rtink 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_program#Balloon Two balloons, about 46 hours of endurance, limiting factor apparently being running out of battery power.
nickik 6y ago
Would be cool, but SpaceX is not gone finance something like that. The next decadal survival is happing pretty soon. Unfortunately its unlike a large scale Venus mission will be picked. That said, there very well might be a couple small and maybe one medium class missions picked. Don't think it would be a blimp, more likely an Orbiter. Priority might end up being an lander for Europe style moon as a flagship. And further Moon and Mars exploration. My hope honestly is that we do a serious rethink and go back to the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter but for Neptune or Uranus. A flagship mission, multiple launches, large nuclear reactor, massive amount of propellant, launched on specialised Starship to get there faster. With some real large radar on it, and maybe multiple smaller landers. Should be able to operate for 20-30 years in those systems. This is how we need to think now for flagship missions. I also hope for further study of a Dark side of the moon radio telescope built from moon resources.

sterlind 6y ago

I'm more excited about the sustainable capability to put so much stuff in orbit than for Starlink itself! This feels like a step towards a mega-scale space industry.

nickik 6y ago

Interestingly we are now moving into a situation where producing the terminals seems to be the limiting factor. They seem to produce these sats at almost unbelievable rates. They are truly mass production. No like 'we build 70 over a couple years' mass production but more like motorcycles or something like that. SpaceX is doing like 70+% of global transportation to Orbit and launching most of the world sats. Its actually insane. And its really only been taking of since 2017, people will be suprised where they are in 2024. Not landing on Mars, but probably launching private unmanned missions to Mars. For the moon the have DearMoon and hopefully get selected as a NASA partner.