3 ms·

Fuel is complex.

• salawat 4y ago
  So is getting that computer up into space, keeping it there, and running, and returning to service in the inevitable case of failover. ...All of which seems a little silly in comparison to setting up some solar powered, battery backuped wireless radios/beacons, and establishing a localized coordinate grid, no extraterrestrial equipment required. Or is cutting out a tractors width of field around all beacons enough to render a farmer uncompetitive as well? I just resent the implication that just because we have GPS satellites, that those are the only form factor such a solution can take. I always saw satellite GPS as A) a quick global win for the public and B) sort of an incentive to keep iterating on rocketry in parallel with establishing similar terrestrial nav gridding. I don't think it is wise to just not establish terrestrial nav grids because GPS. Always, always, always build redundancies.
  • politician 4y ago
    It's just that land isn't a flat 2D plain, and plots aren't quadrangles. It's more complicated than driving stakes into the ground at the corners. Then there's the matter of the ground shifting and weather affecting the beacons. I agree that redundancy is good, but if terrestrial nav grids with ~4cm resolution were operationally easy we wouldn't be having this conversation.