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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   28614 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 7, 2024

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SpaceX just caught the booster of the Starship rocket, launching a new age of man made space exploration.

Despite this getting relatively little news in the mainstream media, I am convinced this development marks the beginning of an entire paradigm of space. The cost of kg to orbit should now go down about an order of magnitude within the next decade or two.

This win has massive implications for the culture war, especially given that Elon Musk has recently flipped sides to support the right. Degrowth and environmental arguments will not be able to hold against the sheer awesomeness and vibrancy of space travel, I believe.

We'll have to see if the FAA or other government agencies move to block Elon from continuing this work. If Kamala gets elected, I worry her administration will attack him and his companies even more aggressively. This successful launch, more than anything else in this election cycle, is making me consider vote for Trump.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with my assessment?

NOTE: I'm going to repost this tomorrow. If I forget, somebody pls steal it and repost for me.

If they manage to grapple the booster consistently, then we can talk about “inaugurating a new era of space”. But one lucky catch does not an industry renaissance create. And tbh I’m not even convinced that catching the booster is actually that reusable. Sure, it LOOKS more reusable than a smouldering crater on the landing pad or a rusting wreck on the seabed, but is it really? Given how anal the FAA is about testing each sprocket and screw a trillion times, I’m dubious as to whether the inevitable damage caused by just the Working As Designed rocketry stuff of having 15 tonnes of liquid methane lit on fire inside it will allow (physically or legally) a booster to consistently fly for a second time.

I really want my consumer moon vacations, but I’ve been burned so many times before by spess hype that I’m kind of a doomer at this point.

SpaceX already routinely lands and relaunches rockets. The difference is that this one is much larger. SpaceX has a ton of experience with this.

I think it's wrong to call that a "lucky" catch, but at the same time - so where is the new era of space exploration? Wasn't Falcon 9 already supposed be rapidly reusable? You're not worried that they haven't bothered putting even dummy cargo on the upper stage? Or the fact that they were supposed to be half way to the moon by now?

How much did it cost to put 1 ton of cargo in orbit in 2005 and how much does it cost now?

I don't know how to compare these, when the books for one are public, and for the other are not.

And if it's so much cheaper, where is the new era of space exploration? Weren't we supposed to be well on our way back to the Moon by now? Do you think we'll get there any time soon?

We're going to be back to the moon in the next 3 years. I'll bet you on that.

Yay, I love bets! $50?

And just to be clear we're talking "back to the moon on Starship", or at the very least one of SpaceX' rockets, right?

Also: this will either need to be a" donate to charoty " type bet, or we'll need to find a convenient way to send money anonymously.

Sure let's do $50 for SpaceX to the moon in 3 years.

We also have another SpaceX bet running but I forgot lol. Are you keeping track of these?

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