tater

Yeah, it seems like an entirely reasonable response. I absolutely think he's a big part of the problem with BO (not the harassment claims, I have zero information aside from that article), but what's he supposed to do, say nothing?

Thrust simulator removed, Raptors to pad for SN20.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/blue-origin-ceo-bob-smith-email-response-to-toxic-workplace-essay.html

Looks fake, lol. Very cool.

Except they do simulate everything, they don't just slap a rocket together then try it, they slap it together in the computer, if it looks like it's worth finding out how good the model is in the real world, then they fly to validate it. This isn't fanboy talk, there have been presentations at conferences (not by Elon) where the engineers show off their CFD code, for example. There was that interview with the NASA guy who worked on COTS with them, he mentioned it as well I think (EDIT: probably not). It's not just that they are willing to try/break things. I mean, why would anyone trying to cut costs not first use lower cost simulation, then bend metal? I have "faith" in exactly nothing. It simply makes sense. Center of pressure, mass, and thrust are all rockets 101 stuff they have to have down pretty well to be able to land. The sensitivity of the vehicle to payload mass and location has to be understood by them at some level. For all we know the only return mass to start will be the vehicle (plus landing props). Since they plan on a crew version (I'm not willing to be the ballast mass on that one until it's flown many thousands of times with zero failures) there must be some mass above the tanks that can land in their sims, because people/ECLSS/etc have nonzero mass. EDIt2: Yeah, just got to actually rewatch that (still skimming) he doesn't mention computer models, but loads of real life testing of things before building the actual vehicle. Still, it's pretty clear they are not just eyeballing stuff—as we have seen with parts delivered for the various SS iterations. Some very early looked rough, but every quickly the plumbing in particular looked very designed as it showed up on site.

First there would need to be a compelling reason for it I think. We can all argue about what SS can return to Earth, but it's not like SpaceX hasn't done all sorts of simulations of exactly that. We'll find out soon enough. If they get it working, and down mass has commercial value, I would expect to see it eventually on the Starship User Guide (P2P cargo is mentioned, but no mass). Dragon has a listed 3000kg return payload mass on their page.

True, though the aerodynamics are substantially different. Not sure if they still have room for large cargo pods under the skirt.

I'm personally fine with any comments. There are repeated comments on both sides of all the various vehicle/company/program debates that are dead horses, or unproductive... meh, so what. It's something to talk about. The SS will never leave Earth SOI comment is pretty much requires SS to fail to ever reach LEO, fail reuse, then fail propellant transfer for it to be an accurate prediction. All are possible. I think reaching orbit is certain at this point (might take iteration). Reuse is a long pole, highest chance of failure. I think refilling needs to happen for humanity to ever do anything at all interesting in space, it's not easy, but I think the probability of figuring it out is high. Reuse is the tough one. We'll see soon enough. Yeah, certainly a valid question, but I think that along with P2P cargo, it's out there in the future, it's not really a current use case. They're designing this to take cargo to Mars, not Earth. Return relatively empty. At hte point where the up mass justifies down mass, they could make a variant designed for that use case, right? The SS form factor might not be ideal, or maybe it can be altered, I dunno.

Gotcha. What needs to be brought back that has substantial mass, though? I want to say that Musk said during one of those talks that SS could return with the crew compartment plus ~20t of cargo. Presumably including the crew If you wanted to bring back 100t of cargo, say rare Earths from an asteroid—bring up some TPS and chutes, encapsulate cargo, deorbit it.

Ah, I think I'm with you. Any vehilce designed for say P2P with large cargo will probably be purpose built for that (CM alone would be a nightmare).

Yeah, I only read the original 3 in Foundation. I was not a huge fan, it was just OK to me.

Why does this matter even a little? The extra mass to LEO is, like every other rocket, mostly propellant. Nothing needs to be brought down that is any great mass.

MAI, I assume? I used to host students from there back in the CCCP days.

Will be interesting to see what the prices look like. A billion seems like a lot for a new space suit.

Do Russian movies have ratings like PG, R, etc? What will this film be?

Presumably a static fire.

I'm at 35° latitude (~DC) and have heard nothing from them yet.