cubinator

Luckily the SpaceX program seems to be able to progress on its own.

Others build prototypes, but which of them build a skeleton planetship in a matter of weeks as a prototype? I think the scale and speed of the Starship test program, the concept of it being the fully reusable launch vehicle, and the tiny hint with each test that gets further than the last that it might actually work is what makes SpaceX more exciting.

Considering you can do it with a big book of tables and holding your hand up to the sky, I'd say all it takes is a sensor that can figure out which star it's looking at. I'd start it off with the sun for an easy estimate. Pretty sure spacecraft/people who drive spacecraft do this with the starfield.

That's kind of what I imagine for mass transport to Mars. Probably a crew of 12 astronauts could ride comfortably in one Starship, but for more you would need either a faster ship or a much bigger one. To colonize Mars, of course!

No, but I've heard of this "repulsion gel" they've been lining their tanks with.

Probably a little of that, but that system would require an entire new infrastructure which has never been built before. I think the battery-powered electric cars lend themselves as a simpler (though, of course, not perfect) climate solution - as you can plug them in to the existing electrical grid.

Yeah, the engineers seem really cool and they've apparently been working on all kinds of cool stuff in secret. It's not their fault the management throws a fit.

Isn't that how "network location" works to get your approximate location? Don't phones already do this (or something similar)?

Like a ground-based GPS backup? The towers are in known positions on the Earth, and so can be used as reference. Star tracking doesn't really need this, though, all you need is an accurate clock and a view of the sky. Even works during the day. "For what latitudes and longitudes is the Sun supposed to be as high as I measure it right now?" Repeat over the course of a few hours and you'll have your position.

Gordon Freeman with portal gun.

The counter-infographics on r/spacexmasterrace are pretty good.

Interesting that they've not yet fully tiled the ship. I wonder when they will do that, or if they're still working on making it resistant enough in those high intensity spots.

I saw the Hercules cluster and the Ring nebula a couple nights ago, along with one bright meteor.

Does Jeff Who not understand that he has enough money to build the moon rocket? Should somebody go explain it to him?

That's because they are using batteries that are not optimized for the job on B4. Those avionics will get a lot lighter.

This full stack should be called Starship 420.

Inspires me to work hard on my own rockets!

Concrete will crumble to pieces under the vibrations of a rocket engine. It's fine to build the launch pad out of it, or structures for your habitat, but not a rocket.

radiation

Going to space isn't about economics. When I go to Mars, I don't want to bring one dollar with me. I'm not going so that I can make some kind of "economy" or "monetary value" for anybody. I don't give a damn what money is up there, nor which country I'm from. I'm going because it's beautiful, fulfilling, challenging, exciting, and interesting. And because I think it will open up the opportunity for more people to get to do it too. So whenever I see someone point out the complete lack of economic reason to go to Mars, I think to myself, "Well, of course! We're not doing it for money, we're doing it because we want to! And all this will occur despite society's fixation on the mathematics of money, which is just one tool to help us keep ourselves organized while we go about our lives."

I think they are confident that an aircraft-like level of reusability is the tool that is necessary to send people to Mars. They are still absolutely aiming for Mars, but they are taking one step at a time and making sure to do each step right. I think that once they get orbital refueling working they will immediately start trying to land test articles on Mars.

They've said that the ground can't be deformed by the player - so, you won't be able to build your own hill or dig a tunnel, at least at first. However, that doesn't rule out caves.

I would like to see a compression based space suit instead of a suit filled with air. I think that would offer the comfort and mobility needed to spend long days working outdoors on the Moon and Mars.

And it will, in short order. If it blows up before it gets there, they will build another one in a couple weeks and fix whatever blew up the last one.

It "hops" to orbit. That's more than I can say of any rocket I've built. And they could very well put something more useful than a cheese wheel in the nose of that thing if they wanted to. They are just skipping the payload because they prefer to test to destruction several times as quickly as possible in order to improve the already partially-functional design.