domain:npr.org
FaibleEstimeDeSoi
24m ago
Reusability is not a fundamental advancement, it was always a question of whether it's worth the effort, and again, it's even less clear that it is, then in the case of electric cars, since we have no insight into the costs.
Launch cost per kilogram to orbit became 10 times less because of Musk. That's a enormous achievement and already enough to hold utmost respect towards him. Even if everything Elon's critics say about him is true, it doesn't change this fact.
Thunderf00t is a pompous simpleton, don't believe his click bait.
It doesn't matter how much fuel a rocket uses, or if the rocket uses more fuel to be reusable, because fuel cost are negligible in the grand scheme of things.
The propellant cost of a Falcon 9 is around $300.000 for liquid oxygen and $200.000 for rocket grade kerosine (you also need to buy expensive Helium to pressurize tanks, there is a statement of Musk that this costs as much as oxygen).
https://spaceimpulse.com/2023/06/13/how-much-does-rocket-fuel-cost/
So propellant cost is well under a million dollars. Even the Space Shuttle only used a few millions (but the Shuttle project cost billions every year).
Fuel is nothing. SpaceX sells a launch for $67 million.
Sure, there is the cost for ground infrastructure, but this is a fixed cost and is proportional cheaper the more launches SpaceX does. We don't know the cost for refurbishment, but not throwing the engines away alone must be a big win. The last time the company took investor money was in January 2023 (750 million). Their cost of business/revenue is now guessed as over a dozen billions. This is not possible if they are not cashflow positive. I am unsure if they are profitable altogether because they invest so much in Starship, they are building another launch tower in Texas and two other Starship towers in Florida, but this is just building the machine which builds the thing.
KMC
2m ago
So Germany has imported foreigners that are unwelcome, then they criminalize criticism, criminalize the parties that naturally start to address this issue, and criminalize grassroots expressions of dissatisfaction.
And they call this Democracy. The worst part is, they're serious. This is what democracy looks like.
BaronVSS
Sort by controversial
43m ago
I've noticed a trend in character creation along those lines - 'male' and 'female' in character creation are replaced with 'body type 1' and 'body type 2'
I have never understood this cope, they unambiguously code to "male" and "female" and if my memory is correct in ER they even correspond to a masculine and feminine voice when you select them.
FiveHourMarathon
You can get anything here except red ink
48m ago
There's no such category of thing as "opening a business." That description contains stuff that runs the gamet from Buying A Job like opening a real estate agency or a plumbing company, to startup entrepreneurship like trying to start a company around a new innovation, to entering a competitive field like opening a restaurant. Those are all going to have different expectations and definitions for success and failure.
I think a smart person can be fairly certain of success running a low end business if they can acquire the capital on terms that aren't crippling. But even an extremely intelligent person isn't going to be guaranteed to set the world on fire running a hedge fund or opening a nightclub in NYC.
FiveHourMarathon
You can get anything here except red ink
58m ago
Whether the initial comment is warranted or not, this kind of petty call out shit flinging never is.
ArjinFerman
Tinfoil Gigachad
47m ago
That still massively diminishes the size of the "conspiracy theory", and doesn't change the fact we don't have any audited numbers. Like I said, we'll see soon enough.
This reads to me, respectfully, as:
"A fundamental problem for the Wright Brothers is that there just isn't all that much demand for air travel."
The hope is that with Starship bringing the cost of sending mass to space down to earth (pun intended) that entrepreneurs will jump at finding new ways to monetize low earth orbit and, eventually beyond.
If it doesn't do so, I do fear we might be resigned to remaining a single-planet species
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