JoeSchmuckatelli

There is no artificial gravity. Sci-fi likes to paint that as a potential - but if it is, it's a LOOOOOOOONG way in the future. Centrifugal force capsules might be buildable... but there's nothing in the works - and they'd likely have to be built in space. Now - we actually do Mars Missions all the time (or rather, with some frequency) but if you are talking about a Mars Colony? SX is the only one seriously working towards that.

... - Okay - well, what about a mix of conventional and absurd rocket? A 'put the Germans to shame' large bore cannon built inside a mountain firing a discarding sabot for the initial push with the 'second stage' being the rocket? Don't fire from sea level -- ship the cargo by rail up into the Peruvian Andes - launch from 15000 feet... Propellant is cheap, right?

The 'Shiny One' might even say, what, exactly? Don't leave us hanging - finish the sentence! ... And how do you even know the Shiny One?

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/great-pacific-garbage-patch-scientists-find-surprise-coastal-life-rcna7292 The earth is resilient Life is tenacious --- also - - - https://www.sciencenews.org/article/southern-ocean-human-carbon-dioxide-emissions-sink-climate Southern Ocean still a CO2 sink... Acidification concern as @SunlitZelkova points out makes this a 'mixed news' rather than a 'Good News, Everyone!' thing. Zoidberg

"Early next year" - such a relative term. Anyone taking dibs on a date before May 32nd?

I think it will be interesting to see what they do differently - and what they retain

@SunlitZelkova-I hear you, but sadly I think that ship is about to sail. Listen to the RocketLab Neutron video. They want to get into the big, reusable rocket game specifically because satellite constellations are forecast to be a highly profitable service to provide. China is talking satellite constellations. Russia. So until and unless the observatories find a tech that can ignore the satellites (perhaps like the Apple photo editor) in the foreground - science teams will have to take advantage of the increase in launch capability to push bigger orbital science stations out past leo That's really cool... And thanks for the stuff about the nuke rockets - always (idly) wondered what they were!

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/great-pacific-garbage-patch-scientists-find-surprise-coastal-life-rcna7292 The earth is resilient Life is tenacious

"SpaceX bid a modified Starship, but did not really expect to win an award as part of this competition" They should sue!

Thanks - I wasn't aware of the reentry profile of either (although, tbh, I assumed neither actually reenter (or leave) the atmosphere, figured the second stage did the atmospheric exit.

The reentry profile shown in the vid looks very Kerbal. Or rather, like some of my reentries where I fogot to put a stage separator between my command capsule and my rocket body and just used the engine as a heat shield (some of which actually worked!). They demonstrate an almost entirely tail-first flight. Contrast this with the SX belly flop. The SX approach makes sense to me as you have a lot of surface 'sharing the load' as it uses the atmosphere to slow it down to terminal and then landing velocity. OTOH, the narrow end-first design looks like it would not be as efficient at using the atmosphere to slow the rocket. (Analogy of throwing a javelin sideways vs properly) Anyone think their method looks doable - or have I missed something?

This quote from Tim Dodd has me wondering something: The 'carbon fiber (Rocketlab) vs stainless steel (SX)' debate is not only about materials & performance in all the things a reusable rocket has to do... its also about cost. So - what's the 'coverage weight' difference between the two? If steel is heavier than carbon fiber for a given area covered (at the required thickness), how close would the actual completed rockets be in price to manufacture? (Steel weighs more than CF, thus for the same weight you get a bunch more coverage with CF... ) . .. . (I've tried googling to figure out how much SS weighs per square foot at 4mm... but my fu is not good today... and I have no idea how thick the CF would be for Rocket Lab per square foot to then try to guess 'skin' costs. Anyone already done the heavy lifting on this?

Brings new meaning to 'Grease Rocket' Urban Dictionary: Grease Rocket

I plan to evolve into 'Q' by that time. Red Giant should be like a nice puffy bath of warm air, right?

@DDEWhat was it pooping out the back before the chute deployment? Was it trying to light an engine that failed? That's interesting. I've only seen them before / after sunrise & sunset - and thus presumed that's the only time they are visible. Wasn't until I read articles about observatories complaints that I thought about it again... So - I guess it's safe to presume that unless the satellite is in the Earth's umbra, it's illuminated. That's a whole lot of sky. Makes Webb that much more important!

Everyone enjoys a good game of 'chicken'

Now I am going to have nightmares. Thanks. A lot.

Observatories complain that SX's constellations of satellites interfere with their long exposure observations. When I see satellites, they're always visible just shortly after sunset. Obviously I am using only the Mark 1 Eyeball, and during this post-sunset to EENT period I can imagine that high tech equipment might get satellites running across their imagers. But. Do observatories have problems with satellites interfering with observations after EENT?

Interestingly, I see several nation's coastlines define the sea. Vietnam, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan and, of course, China. Shouldn't we call it the South Asian Sea?

Part of my 'deleted' from the above admitted that I'm pragmatic about what to expect. Student of history and all that. Will point out that South China Sea is international waters, as is the Baltic. and Black Seas.

This is awesome as well - found by @GuessingEveryDay and now I can steal his glory! The sheer variety of colors is unexpected

That is fascinating! Really cool. Thanks for sharing!

Ouch.

I never said you could drive around with a bomb in the car!

They just asked "How much stuff can you blow up in South Texas, before people start getting grumpy about it" ... Ummm... Have you been to Texas? (You can blow stuff up there for fun!)