SpaceX Starship

[CascadeClone]

Breaking historical barriers isn’t safe. Being overly cautious is why NASA’s best accomplishments are decades ago

That has a lot more to do with taking calculated risks with the actual systems and mission profiles. Not the basic "construction" end of it.

I'm a big SpaceX fan, but it sure looks like they are shortsheeting this end of it and they need to get that under control. Feels like the wrong mindset of the mid-level management in charge - design engineers aren't any better at construction safety than they are at marketing & sales.

It won't really slow them down that much to have a safety culture wrt construction, welding, etc. Plenty of contractors and manufacturers do things fast without having anyone get hurt. They need to change their org structure to put some construction experts in charge of the construction side. My opinion, outside looking in, just having read the article.

 

[Sousaclone]

Breaking historical barriers isn’t safe. Being overly cautious is why NASA’s best accomplishments are decades ago

The blue collar guys on the ground fabricating and building stuff aren't "breaking historical barriers." You can push boundaries and build some impressive things without blowing apart pressure vessels while welding on them.

 

[Sousaclone]

Nothing gets done in Texas?

I didn't end that well did I? Not saying that things don't get done in texas (lots of **** gets built there), just that it's a lot easier for shady people/places to take advantage of a large portion of the workforce (granted that topic would get this thread caved). I say that as someone who worked on a large highway project for about 3-4 years in Texas.

 

[CloneIce]

Nothing gets done in Texas?

I think he meant in terms of improving safety for workers.

 

[CloneIce]

I am addressing the article's contention generally, not that specific incident.

Your argument that Space Xs success is due to poor worker safety practices and NASAs space program is held back by caring about worker safety is…. hilarious. That’s the nicest way I can put it.

 

[NateTheBoss]

The last hurdle has been cleared.

 

[NateTheBoss]

 

[Jeremy]

Elon's Mars rocket is nothing more that an ego vehicle and government subsidy vacuum.

Unfortunately, technology just doesn't exist right now to make them anything more than payload haulers. We can't get any meaningful distance in a short enough time with anything currently in production, so they're stuck being utility vehicles rather than exploratory vehicles.

I love the idea of space travel and exploration, but there will have to be some incredible leap in technology or understanding of physics to make any meaningful progress.

 

[Sousaclone]

Unfortunately, technology just doesn't exist right now to make them anything more than payload haulers. We can't get any meaningful distance in a short enough time with anything currently in production, so they're stuck being utility vehicles rather than exploratory vehicles.

I love the idea of space travel and exploration, but there will have to be some incredible leap in technology or understanding of physics to make any meaningful progress.

Yeah. That said, SpaceX has done a remarkably good job of getting reuseable rockets figured out. May not always agree with Elon, but SpaceX is doing some pretty cool stuff as a whole

 

[CascadeClone]

Unfortunately, technology just doesn't exist right now to make them anything more than payload haulers. We can't get any meaningful distance in a short enough time with anything currently in production, so they're stuck being utility vehicles rather than exploratory vehicles.

I love the idea of space travel and exploration, but there will have to be some incredible leap in technology or understanding of physics to make any meaningful progress.

If you are talking about exploring/travelling the galaxy beyond the Sol system, I would agree major new understandings of physics are needed.

That said, if a habitable planet was located within say 50 light years... that's a journey that could be made with a generational-type ship. Not today, but maybe 100 years from now. The biggest challenge would be that by the time they got there, technology and society on earth would have advanced so far that they would be like Amish once reconnected.

 

[Letterkenny]

Unfortunately, technology just doesn't exist right now to make them anything more than payload haulers. We can't get any meaningful distance in a short enough time with anything currently in production, so they're stuck being utility vehicles rather than exploratory vehicles.

I love the idea of space travel and exploration, but there will have to be some incredible leap in technology or understanding of physics to make any meaningful progress.

The progress is in making vehicle re-usable and significantly cheaper. But yes, the method of propulsion is still the same. Making rockets re-usable is still a big step forward.

 

[jaj040]

If you are talking about exploring/travelling the galaxy beyond the Sol system, I would agree major new understandings of physics are needed.

That said, if a habitable planet was located within say 50 light years... that's a journey that could be made with a generational-type ship. Not today, but maybe 100 years from now. The biggest challenge would be that by the time they got there, technology and society on earth would have advanced so far that they would be like Amish once reconnected.

Yeah I don't know. The voyager space crafts have been traveling since the 70s and they are only 19 light hours away. That's a lot of generations to go 18000 times further.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Yeah I don't know. The voyager space crafts have been traveling since the 70s and they are only 19 light hours away. That's a lot of generations to go 18000 times further.

Gotta be a worm hole. Time is always going to be the limiting factor in space travel. I doubt humans will ever advance far enough to figure those kinds of things out though.

 

[Letterkenny]

Yeah I don't know. The voyager space crafts have been traveling since the 70s and they are only 19 light hours away. That's a lot of generations to go 18000 times further.

It seems that in order to leave our solar system, we're going to need to discover a means of propulsion, or traveling that is beyond our current knowledge of physics. That's probably the easy part. The hard part will be the engineering to actually do it.

 

[Letterkenny]

Gotta be a worm hole. Time is always going to be the limiting factor in space travel. I doubt humans will ever advance far enough to figure those kinds of things out though.

Yep. For perspective. If a human craft were to accelerate at 1g, it would take that craft about a year just to reach the speed of light. Theoretically, you could maybe accelerate faster, since humans can withstand more than 1g. But I don't know if they can withstand more for a long duration. (What would happen to the human body if it experienced 2-3g for like 6 months?) I suppose even 1.1g would make a big difference in time, but we'd still be talking many months just to accelerate up to the cruising speed, then many many years just to reach the nearest solar system, then decelerate for another year, etc.....

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Yep. For perspective. If a human craft were to accelerate at 1g, it would take that craft about a year just to reach the speed of light. Theoretically, you could maybe accelerate faster, since humans can withstand more than 1g. But I don't know if they can withstand more for a long duration. (What would happen to the human body if it experienced 2-3g for like 6 months?) I suppose even 1.1g would make a big difference in time, but we'd still be talking many months just to accelerate up to the cruising speed, then many many years just to reach the nearest solar system, then decelerate for another year, etc.....

Not to mention everything grows old while you don't if you actually do achieve light speed. How do you stop? Or more curious, rematerialize in your previous form?

It's gotta be through worm holes in space time, which is basically time travel.

 

[NWICY]

Gotta be a worm hole. Time is always going to be the limiting factor in space travel. I doubt humans will ever advance far enough to figure those kinds of things out though.

Warp speed, Sulu

 

[JP4CY]

Looks like delayed until Saturday.

 

[jaj040]

Set your alarm clocks for 7 am if you are interested. Some live streamers are starting now if you're looking for 9 hours of pregame.

 

[JP4CY]

Set your alarm clocks for 7 am if you are interested. Some live streamers are starting now if you're looking for 9 hours of pregame.

Sounds like a good lead in to Gameday.