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There's a nice writeup of what 100X more launch capability means for space missions on this blog: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-stil
by wffurr 5y ago
There's a nice writeup of what 100X more launch capability means for space missions on this blog: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-still-not-understood/ https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-st...
We'll see if SpaceX can actually achieve their cost-to-orbit goals. Progress so far is promising, but they have a long way to go still.
- Robotbeat 5y ago“ However, limited water, storage, crew time, and food preparation capability (e.g., add water, heat) restrict the crew to a limited choice of shelf-stable, single-serving food products either in their natural form or preserved by dehydration, retort thermostabilization, or irradiation.” So “limited water, storage, crew time, and food preparation capability (e.g., add water, heat)” all sound like things that can be addressed either directly or indirectly by “giant rocket.” And using a freezer for food (which a big rocket would allow) isn’t in the list of options they mainly considered. Deep frozen food is a very straightforward way of preserving food and high levels of nutrients for a very long time. And as far as SpaceX meeting their goals, I agree they haven’t done it YET, but in order for Artemis to work, they now have to achieve those goals. It takes on the order of 10 Starship launches per HLS mission, more than a Mars launch would require! And they’re only charging like $2.5 billion for that, which includes two HLS missions and HLS development. Starship working and meeting its goals (at least enough for initial Mars mission) is now something NASA is reliant on for the critical path for Artemis. NASA is effectively all-in on Starship now.