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Science and exploration are not “needless bullshit”. They are the most important and meaningful that thing humans do.

by Dig1t 3y ago

raffraffraff 3y ago
Agreed, science and exploration are important and meaningful. But sending rockets up and down every few days is more like engineering. He hasn't built CERN. The word "SPACE" seems to make some people go weak at the knees and start daydreaming. This is basically like a gigantic haulage truck and a private jet rolled into one, but it's not bringing useful cargo anywhere (most of the time). It's far more wasteful and far less useful. All they'll discover is how to get a little better at sending rockets off earth "a bit". But fundamentally new science? Nope. This isn't going to lead to the warp drive. And they're not going far enough to bring back a magic rock or an infinity stone, so what's the exploration? We can see further with telescopes. And are SpaceX they going to share all this frighting new knowledge with mankind? Hmmmmm.
- avmich 3y ago
  Starship can be comparable to CERN in space exploration. While CERN builds the tip-of-the-spear accelerator - the modern incarnation of a roughly 100 years old technology (i.e., engineering, even though there's plenty of science in CERN), the Starship promises (and Falcons to a degree already demonstrate) to qualitatively change the traffic to space. That is, we'll have the ability to do science in space in much less restrictive environment, from technical, organizational, financial standpoint. We still haven't studied large centrifuges and their effects on health. We could afford much better space telescopes much cheaper. We could significantly advance material science - how materials behave under different gravity levels. We will be able to launch interplanetary unmanned probes with vastly superior capabilities. Even help with climate crisis on Earth. Spaceship will likely be far less wasteful, even per launch, and per kilogram on LEO it's going to be less wasteful by a decimal order or two of magnitude - e.g. around 30 times. Starship can be enabler of exactly that, fundamentally new science, coming from significantly improved tools - not only in capabilities, but also in availability. For example, SpaceX could be paid to launch a telescope with a bigger mirror than JWST, which will be owned and operated by a science-focused organization, without concerns about will SpaceX share anything or not. Yes, rockets produce CO2 today, even though comparing to other industries - like intercontinental aviation - the amounts are rather small. Yes, planned Starship launch rates will significantly increase that. We can work on this, while also having benefits of a quite more advanced LEO delivery system. It would be sad, to say the least, to have this significant engineering achievement closed down just out of fear of assumed drawbacks.

Science and exploration are not “needless bullshit”. They are the most important and meaningful that thing humans do.

by Dig1t 3y ago

Science and exploration are not “needless bullshit”. They are the most important and meaningful that thing humans do.

Agreed, science and exploration are important and meaningful. But sending rockets up and down every few days is more like engineering. He hasn't built CERN. The word "SPACE" seems to make some people go weak at the knees and start daydreaming. This is basically like a gigantic haulage truck and a private jet rolled into one, but it's not bringing useful cargo anywhere (most of the time). It's far more wasteful and far less useful. All they'll discover is how to get a little better at sending rockets off earth "a bit". But fundamentally new science? Nope. This isn't going to lead to the warp drive. And they're not going far enough to bring back a magic rock or an infinity stone, so what's the exploration? We can see further with telescopes. And are SpaceX they going to share all this frighting new knowledge with mankind? Hmmmmm.

avmich 3y ago
Starship can be comparable to CERN in space exploration. While CERN builds the tip-of-the-spear accelerator - the modern incarnation of a roughly 100 years old technology (i.e., engineering, even though there's plenty of science in CERN), the Starship promises (and Falcons to a degree already demonstrate) to qualitatively change the traffic to space. That is, we'll have the ability to do science in space in much less restrictive environment, from technical, organizational, financial standpoint. We still haven't studied large centrifuges and their effects on health. We could afford much better space telescopes much cheaper. We could significantly advance material science - how materials behave under different gravity levels. We will be able to launch interplanetary unmanned probes with vastly superior capabilities. Even help with climate crisis on Earth. Spaceship will likely be far less wasteful, even per launch, and per kilogram on LEO it's going to be less wasteful by a decimal order or two of magnitude - e.g. around 30 times. Starship can be enabler of exactly that, fundamentally new science, coming from significantly improved tools - not only in capabilities, but also in availability. For example, SpaceX could be paid to launch a telescope with a bigger mirror than JWST, which will be owned and operated by a science-focused organization, without concerns about will SpaceX share anything or not. Yes, rockets produce CO2 today, even though comparing to other industries - like intercontinental aviation - the amounts are rather small. Yes, planned Starship launch rates will significantly increase that. We can work on this, while also having benefits of a quite more advanced LEO delivery system. It would be sad, to say the least, to have this significant engineering achievement closed down just out of fear of assumed drawbacks.