JoeSchmuckatelli

Thank you for the post I randomly found on Reddit - kept my hopes up!

I enjoyed our previous discussions on this. The key, IIRC, is the stages of how this goes. Initially, LEO is king - with likely the killer app being worldwide uncensored fast access to the internet; that will be destabilizing and wonderful and same-as-it-ever-was all at once. In other words - more of what we're already doing for less. Second, likely is a combo: national outposts/research projects of large scale & expenditure to proof concepts of just how to build something on the Moon/Mars/LEO given the new capabilities, with some billionaire tourism. Continues the current meta , just more of it. The speculators / entrepreneurs will likely jump in trying to wild-west some kind of new thing like early commercial mining; most will fail - some will get rich Third - we have places up in space that are stable: large stations with manufacturing / science that offer real-world applications down in the gravity well and the stations/outposts become something like self-sustaining either through tourism or something new we haven't figured out yet. We're a solar-system species living on multiple rocks and pray we don't Motie ourselves.

Much as I love the idea (and we've been over this ground before...) I don't see Asteroid Mining being profitable except for off-planet manufacturing. Even if you brought back solid gold / diamond the cost per ton won't really shift the needle much on utility.

True- ish. If the cost per kg drops precipitously, the market for "Stuff" goes up. The 'launch market' becomes like the trucking and shipping industries; making money off of volume of tons shipped. The remarkable thing is that we might be seeing a moment akin to the Erie Canal. Yep - the 'huh, wot, Erie Canal?!?' canal. In its time it dropped shipping costs per ton-mile to the Great Lakes and Midwest by 90%. It changed history; moving the most economically important city in the US from New Orleans to New York. It changed how emigrants and Americans populated the continent. It made the spread of industry to the interior financially feasible. It created the conditions that enabled the North's dominance in the Civil War. And today? We barely think about it. Musk wants SS to be as reliable and common as watching planes fly. If he succeeds, we're in a whole new ballgame. (...and if History is any guide, it could be decades before we realize the world has changed)

All the "+"s. Good read!

Thanks for the reminder; It's late & I wasn't thinking about people, just stuff. Re: Starlink - I've been so focused on seeing them get the durned thing to work, I'd forgotten they have a use for it outside of Mars & NASA.

On yet another note - Starship Launched Starlink. They're already looking to have a money-maker to pay for launch capabilities. SpaceX Tips Gigabit Speeds for Starlink After Successful Starship Test | PCMag Like... if this is real, and relatively soon... does this mean Falcon 9 retirement? *Relatively = relatively. It was, IIRC, 2 years from Falcon 9 first launch to commercial worthiness and 9 before they started putting Starlink up. If it's 2 years to put up commercial Starship... they might just have Big Starlink waiting to go.

They started closing before the rocket was close - which is both cool and insane. In the animated renders we saw (RyanSpace?) just before ITF-5, one concern was 'bounce' from moving the heavy arms quickly. From what I can see in this, the rapid early partial closure took care of the bounce and allowed for a smaller ROM to catch without damage to the booster.

Pretty much due West from the launch site. (Equinox was less than a month ago.) Likely within 3-5 miles. horizon.pdf (washington.edu)

Reusability question: They obviously got 33 Raptors back that they can look at and learn from. Given that Elon said that some of the outer ring bells were warped, are any of those engines reusable? Doesn't seem like something you could just bang the dents out of... but maybe everything but the bell could be reused? And if its only the outer, leaving the inner ones relatively undamaged... when would they risk another booster with recovered engines? As early as ITF 6 - or would they have to go onto another vehicle later on down the line? (Speculation fine (unless you work at SX and want to give away Sekrets???))

Yeppers. Samples galore! We could also do a ride-share to various planets with a constellation telescope that just keeps getting better with every launch and new destination. Imagine having a radio telescope with antennae at Saturn, Jupiter, Mars & Earth. As long as the planets are not aligned - that's a big antenna.

Worth resurrecting; reminds us of what's been accomplished cost-wise. Cost, in the days of Shuttle was enormous. What's been accomplished in the last 40 years is remarkable. The next 10 should be fun to watch! What I really, really want to see is what kind of science packages folks can dream up. SX is clearly going to Mars - that will be amazing. But I'm now dreaming of a Super-Webb.

Probably missed this upthread - but what's the fire above the engines? Positioned so it looks like it might be part of the control systems - like a gas thruster or something. Also - with the fire burning after catch, the next thing that catches the eye is all the LOX condensation, suggesting quite a bit of LOX remaining in tank - and the possibility of a catch, burn, boom scenario. ...which begs the question; how do they safely discharge unused fuel/LOX?

I got to share it with my wife and kids. They're not as into this stuff as I am - but Wife appreciates what just happened as historic. Kids, on the other hand, have watched a LOT of rocket landings with me - so basically, since they've been paying attention, landing a rocket propulsively falls into the category of stuff "Humans Can Do". Thus, for them, it was cool, but not really getting the Historic vibe. More like an iteration of the already feasible. It's an interesting take on the different viewpoints. I'm shouting "We just caught a falling BUILDING!!!" and they're like "Okay, Daaaad, like yeah, of course they caught it... that was the plan."

Oh I had plenty - and my wife reminded me that my kids are still children and maybe some DIFFERENT words might be in order...

Um... It's 5pm EST and FAA is a Gov't agency. <looks at watch > [Thinks about CST] <crosses fingers >

TBH, you did say "relatively"

North Carolina reminds that moderation is key.

It's cool https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox56news.com/news/kentucky/geomagnetic-storm-could-bring-northern-lights-to-kentucky-hinder-hurricane-relief-efforts/amp/ Naked eye, I cannot really see it (in a city) but there is a vague purple cast to the north. Cell CCD does show more

That is my new favorite video

I'm a little frustrated with TradSpace b/c they keep leaning in on anti-competitive arguments / protectionism. The way you compete with Musk is to compete - not complain that they are moving too fast and doing too much.

Scott Manley does not say that in the clip you provide. He's reacting to the idea of catching with ITF-5. Do you have a better clip that supports your contention?

Who knew that work was a nice relief from the pressures of gaming?

Was a whole part of the magic and mystery of the story - showing joy in the world. Absent him in the story? Missing something key.

Ruh roh, Raggy... I've reached the point where paving over the world one square at a time has become grindy. My mega train station is presently 6 different stations with 5 working routes spanning the entire Dune desert. I still have not set up oil power (using the desert oil for plastic and training away petcoke for power /disposal at a lake. Have not set up the factory above - but ran out of found computers to make the signals work so I have a hand fed manufacturer making some... And I'm burnt. Structure looks like a... I don't know - it's not good. The coolest part is the working massive station - but setting up the factory system hides and buries it inside the building. Don't even have glass floors unlocked. Tier 5 and 6. Man it's hard to do it the way I want to...