Scotius

See this thing? It's an actual building. Ryugyong Hotel - 105 floors, 330 meters of height. It stands in the center of Pyongyang, capital city of poor North Korea. It cost approximately 750 millions of dollars to be built, starting wayyy back in 1987. But... it's still unfinished because lack of money This pyramid shaped tower is like old egg - pretty from the outside, empty on the inside. Can you see the similarities? Relatively poor countries ruled by egomaniacs believing themselves to be gods, wanting to affirm their divinity by erecting epic monuments to their hubris. And i probably should stop here, before wrath of moderators comes down on me

That's how (more or less) Hatzegopteryx - biggest flying creature we found so far, would look. Notice that tiny Homo sapiens next to it? This enormous, giraffe - sized pterosaur weighted about as much as the man next to it. And it needed 10 - 12 meters of wingspan to fly. Anyone wants to carry equivalent of a boat sail on their back all their life?

You just need to solve engineering problems of having biological wheels as parts of a living organism... 1 billion years of organic evolution wasn't enough on Earth. Those guys, though...

Low gravity + thick atmosphere = non-breathable air. For humanoids at least. Secondly: humanoid bodies are not built for flight. We're not aerodynamic enough. We have dense, heavy bones without air sacks. Our respiratory systems are unable to provide enough oxygen for active flight. Even our skulls are placed on top of the spine in a way, that makes flying very uncomfortable after a while. Maybe, maybe one day genetic engineering will make necessary modifications possible - but IMO product of such changes would hardly be a humanoid. You want humans flying under their own power? Build a huge pressurized dome on the Moon, or another low gravity world

Welp, on to the next prototype. Frankly, i don't think anyone at SpaceX was terribly surprised something like that happened. There was a reason they built multiple prototypes

Fork and spoon. There's not much to be done there except stylistic changes. And maybe a bit of ergonomics.

Let's wait for... Great Balls of Fire!!! Burning off leaking hydrogen before the launch

Music start on stream We are a GO!

Salty clam shells

And wherever you live, i wish you all good weather. In my area there is 100% cloud cover and rain Joys of Polish autumn.

You are looking at it from the wrong side. Our ancestors got keen, stereoscopic, color eyesight first. It was important for arboreal primates moving along the branches, carefully gauging the distance to next tree and in the meantime scanning their surroundings for threats. And food sources - which would be colorful fruits or insects moving around. Then bipedal apes ventured into the grasslands, become scavengers and started looking for next meal. For example vultures circling above one spot - it would be a good indicator something worth checking is laying on the ground below. And so on, and so on - someone smeared some red ochre on their skin, liked the look - and the fashion started to spread. Someone made a necklace from a handful of colorful shells - pretty, said everyone. Let's look for more shinies. Ooohh, there is smoke rising from the hills - is it another camp? Can we trade? Are they hostile? Let's watch newcomers from afar for couple of days. And so it went. With every evolutionary step reinforcing our reliance on good eyesight. We learned how to make additional light to offset our poor night vision. We developed lenses to see better at long distances - or better see very small things. We even can pretty well estimate the temperature of glowing hot object by taking note of its color. Smell, taste, touch don't even come close to equalling the importance of good eyesight for a developing industrial civilization. For example - how would you even have astronomy if you would rely on smell mostly?

Perhaps military safety norms are better suited for spaceships than civilian ones?

A lot of work for dubious gain. Are you planning to irrigate potential fields with seawater? If not, it would be simpler and cheaper to build nuclear desalinization plant on the shore and pump fresh water to hydroponic farms built in the desert. Less water losses and no problem with ground salinity.

In many cases captives in hunter-gatherer tribes were also prospective members of said tribe. After period of integration they were essentially adopted. With high mortality rates it was one of most efficient ways to keep the tribe thriving and ahead of competition. Not to mention, it was also a boon for genetic diversity of the tribe.

Apparently a fat cubesat. Or couple of those guys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Cube_One It actually can be advantageous if you want to place some sort of communication network ahead of inbound probe, but you don't want to pay (or wait) for a full-sized launch.