avernon

7 ms·

31.
by avernon 6y ago
A lot of their recent launches have been for their internet constellation, StarLink. Given the nature of this constellation, they have to do a large number of launches before it is operational and can take paying customers. There is a large
32.
by avernon 6y ago
It is also important to remember that ERCOT does not have a capacity market like every other FERC regulated ISO. The added cost in places like PJM and CAISO is noticeable. Though having capacity markets does not seem to prevent blackouts.
33.
by avernon 6y ago
Obviously Tesla is getting a much larger bang for their R+D buck. That comes from the incredible amount of talent they are able to attract vs. legacy automakers. That is pretty close to what they do. Modern car companies mostly do integrati
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by avernon 6y ago
https://electrek.co/2020/02/07/tesla-aluminum-alloys-die-cas...
35.
by avernon 6y ago
Over several conference calls they have roughly answered this. Their biggest limitation to what they want to do is engineering talent. And they want to grow really fast. So using scarce engineering talent to improve an existing process slig
36.
by avernon 6y ago
Tesla is using a proprietary alloy to make this part be strong enough and cost effective to do.
37.
by avernon 6y ago
Tesla had to do the R+D on a new alloy of aluminum to make this work. None of the carmakers do R+D on basic materials and are limited by the commercially available alloy formulas. They have been doing aluminum castings but they are much sma
38.
by avernon 6y ago
One thing to think about is that the heating/energy is exponential. So doing the belly flop lowers the heating and the energy the rocket is carrying quite a bit. Planes make 90 degree turns all the time! And in actuality this rocket co
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by avernon 6y ago
If they can't obtain the cost basis then it should be zero. The vast majority of people have assets like stocks and property where records are maintained by third parties. And if its so old or so disorganized to not know, then a cost b
40.
by avernon 6y ago
There is a simple fix to this. You have to get rid of the stepped-up basis. Then anything passed down will be taxed at the prevailing tax rates. All these extra rules and tricks wouldn't be needed. This is extremely unpopular because t
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by avernon 6y ago
Maybe I'm cynical, but I would think this has more to do with the cost of ads going up so much. If you were already thinking of reducing spend on FB, why not get a little PR out of it? Also, since the cost of FB ads has been going up o
42.
by avernon 6y ago
One of the old Atlas rockets was stainless steel. The point is optimizing the entire rocket instead of a small section. Starship will spend most of its time being in high heating conditions (like reentry) or very cold because the rocket fue