totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[AckSed]

Local news reporting Kathy Leuders' statements on the extensive building they're doing in Boca Chica to support "a workhorse area": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diMvd2n7_6c

 

Edited May 19 by AckSed

[AckSed]

Also, the welders are scrapping one of the stainless steel tanks next to the launch site right now.

[tater]

34 minutes ago, AckSed said:

Local news reporting Kathy Leuders' statements on the extensive building they're doing in Boca Chica to support "a workhorse area": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diMvd2n7_6c

 

[AckSed]

35 minutes ago, tater said:

So help me, I am now imagining a bit where Kathy is the grizzled Starbase manager, Musk is the dorky rebel come to throw their weight around and Gwynne the loyal right-hand woman.

"Elon, we can't deal with Leuders. She shot you."

"Just a little bit."

[tater]

Who's Zoe, who's Kaylee, and who's Inara. (important... to me, anyway )

[tater]

19 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

I’ve found that to make it work, you have to copy the link from the little “copy link” icon, then paste it into a browser tab, then copy that link from the status bar and paste it here. You have to wait for it to pop up in the forum window before hitting “submit” too. 

This doesn't work. The trick is that the new links are to x.com. old links are twitter.com. If you change x in the url to twitter they work fine. The forum doesn't grok x.com.

[tater]

 

[Ultimate Steve]

Possible date for IFT-4? Not too far fetched given that the WDR was today.

[tater]

 

[Flavio hc16]

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1792629142141177890

"Starship Flight 4 in about 2 weeks. Primary goal is getting through max reentry heating. Worth noting that no one has ever succeeded in creating a fully reusable heat shield. Shuttle required >6 months of rework."

"2 weeks"

But this time it's trending toward accuracy.

 

I would say 2nd week of June.

Edited May 20 by Flavio hc16
Trying to figure out how incorporation works

[tater]

21 minutes ago, Flavio hc16 said:

But this time it's trending toward accuracy.

 

NSF thinks any time after Memorial Day (27th) is possible.

[cubinator]

That's quite the turnaround. Each flight will come quicker and quicker after the last.

[tater]

 

[Flavio hc16]

7 hours ago, tater said:

 

" Reusability is just a Gimmick"

[tater]

 

[magnemoe]

9 hours ago, Flavio hc16 said:

" Reusability is just a Gimmick"

An obvious good idea if you had the launch numbers. You need to launch 100 times for it making sense. It also has to be cheap, not like the space shuttle. 

[Pthigrivi]

"We file almost no patents, so nothing stopping competition from copying us."

That's kind of interesting. Its an interesting kind of dichotomy of secrecy, where they can be very transparent in many ways (video tours of the facility) but most of the really hard to develop solutions like full-flow engine start-up can be kept pretty secret. Obviously the CNSA isn't really all that likely to respect patents anyway. 

[Flavio hc16]

7 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

. Obviously the CNSA isn't really all that likely to respect patents anyway. 

That's the reason they don't patent hard stuff: you are giving the blueprint away, and in "what is a patent?" Nation that is the...blueprint to get copied.

[darthgently]

2 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

"We file almost no patents, so nothing stopping competition from copying us."

That's kind of interesting. Its an interesting kind of dichotomy of secrecy, where they can be very transparent in many ways (video tours of the facility) but most of the really hard to develop solutions like full-flow engine start-up can be kept pretty secret. Obviously the CNSA isn't really all that likely to respect patents anyway. 

I think if it weren't for ITAR (and the *necessity* for ITAR) we'd see far more engineering transparency from SpaceX.  I want to be clear that while more transparency would feel great in some way, ITAR exists for solid reasons, if not implemented perfectly

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

4 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

CNSA isn't really all that likely to respect patents anyway

https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/small-business/why-is-tesla-giving-away-all-of-its-patents/#:~:text=Electric car company Tesla has,our technology%2C" reports Wired.

Which is why you give away patents to everyone when you choose to work in the place that requires you to give them your patent so they can give the information to a local, recently formed totally not government funded independent competitor. 

[Hotel26]

8 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

That's kind of interesting. Its an interesting kind of dichotomy of secrecy,

Yes, any basic training on IP for engineers will cover not only patents but also Trade Secrets.  It's a tool in the corporate toolbox.  Nothing to see here. 

[Pthigrivi]

13 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Yes, any basic training on IP for engineers will cover not only patents but also Trade Secrets.  It's a tool in the corporate toolbox.  Nothing to see here. 

Oh I have no value judgement on this one. Ive not been shy in my criticism of Musk and SpaceX but this was just a casual observation about the calculus here. 

[tater]

Secret makes more sense than patents for reasons stated above. With both Tesla and SpaceX I think the idea is to simply move faster. Tesla has to actually be competitive at some level, but the how is less important than just doing it. SpaceX has no need to be competitive except maybe in the sat internet space, since launch as a business is chump change—unless there is a state change in access. In the latter case, competitors don't actually matter. If a new multi-trillion dollar asteroid mining economy is a thing, or whatever, then there's enough for multiple companies to make money.

I missed this eating a late dinner:

 

[Nuke]

you can make money in ways other than being a patent troll. being at the cutting edge even if you give everything away it will still take a competitor several years to make money on it, by which time elon and co will be working on the next thing.

[Deddly]

I remember watching an interview with Elon Musk years back when Falcon 9 was still in development and when they had an animation showing full reusability of both stages. We're talking pre-grasshopper time. The interviewer said, "And you don't patent any of this?". His response was something like, "Since all of our main competitors are national governments, patenting our technology would be... counterproductive."