4 ms·
And then what? What's the use case?
by sfblah 5y ago
And then what? What's the use case?
- panick21_ 5y agoI guess you can listen to the presentation yourself.
- toomuchtodo 5y agoLifting enormous amounts of mass to orbit and Mars. Arguing the merits of these activities is beyond the scope of this thread.
- sfblah 5y agoSorry, I didn't realize we weren't allowed to discuss the point of the presentation.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- toomuchtodo 5y agoI’m unsure there’s much to discuss in that specific regard? If you believe in cheap heavy lift and humans colonizing Mars, you agree this project has merit (and the costs and human effort involved reasonable). If you don’t, you see this project as superfluous and wasteful. Is that interpretation inaccurate? It’s somewhat, but not entirely, binary. From the presentation, development costs will be 5-10% of the Saturn V program (2020 dollars adjusted). Thats a bargain for the capabilities delivered.
- HWR_14 5y agoWhat if I believe in government run Mars colonies, but don't believe in private ones like one run as Musk's empire? Am I not allowed a nuanced opinion?
- krisoft 5y agoMars is a big place. If we have the tech to create colonies governments can pay SpaceX for a ticket to get whatever flavour of structure they wish there.
- chriswarbo 5y ago> private ones like one run as Musk's empire Where have you got this idea from? SpaceX are a haulage company: they currently haul crew and cargo to and from Earth orbit (plus a few deep-space probes, and one deep-space car); Starship will extend this further through the solar system (Moon, Mars, asteroids, etc.). At the moment, their main "destination" is the government-run ISS. There are no off-world colonies (public or private); there aren't even any private space stations yet. (NASA recently funded some private space station proposals; SpaceX made a token effort, which was rejected). Musk himself has stated that he wants humans to be multi-planetary, and doesn't care who does it; that he would be happy for someone to out-compete SpaceX, since that would mean the goal has been achieved. SpaceX will gladly help governments set up off-world colonies; in fact, that seems like the only feasible way to build them. The problem is the cost was too high, even for government; the point of Starship is to reduce that cost. The only reason Musk started SpaceX was because the Boeings/Lockheed Martins/etc. were happy to keep prices high; and Russia wouldn't sell him a Mars-capable rocket.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- fastball 5y agoMoon colonies, mars colonies, space stations in orbit for science, space stations for leisure, space stations for industry. Shipyards for building bigger spaceships in orbit. Mining asteroids. Etc.
- bjelkeman-again 5y agoMass to orbit gives you lots of options: Starlink completed, more telescopes like James Webb but cheaper, a moon base, radio telescope on the far side of the moon, orbital rotational space stations (for G forces), missions to asteroids, Mars, outer planets, are just a few things. Point to point transport on Earth, halfway around the world in less than an hour.
- bqmjjx0kac 5y agoSpace mining.
- senectus1 5y agofor building in space.
- monocasa 5y agoIt also opens up off planet manufacturing in a way that can snowball into self sustaining growth. Which IMO is how we're going to mint the first trillionaire.
- XorNot 5y agoAlso the only true way we'll save the biosphere IMO - doing it all somewhere there isn't one, and where your pollutants basically don't matter.
- Seanambers 5y agoIf this pans out and rapid and full reusability of the starship system is realized - which by all accounts looks more than very likely at this stage its more a question of when. Elon Musk will be the world's first trillionaire and he also got Tesla's FSD to pull out of the hat.
- vanattab 5y agoThe launch costs of James Webb were an insignificant part of the spending on the telescope.
- ksec 5y agoI am by no means an expert or even enthusiast. Space Manufacturing, New innovation possibility with near zero gravity. New way to harness energy from the sun. Or the real possibility of space tourism.
- boxed 5y agoCan turn out this will save all of humanity. This could make a sunshade feasible: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576521001995 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S009457652... If you don't recognize him, one of the authors of this paper is Swedens only astronaut :)