Yep, this time frame sounds completely nuts.
It looks like a death tube.
I like the guy, but really? Given that they can't get a single person to the space station yet, what is the wisdom in this timeline?
Who knows. We could be on the verge of seeing the rich people blast off to another planet, taking everything important with them.
Who cares, really?
If this doesn't include me in any way, which it doesn't, why should I care?
I don't.
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Rapid reusability is the key. If they achieve this, the cost of each flight will be far lower than any other rocket, all of which are currently fully or partially disposable. The need to match the size of the rocket to the size of the payload arises because disposable rockets are extremely expensive.
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If you have a semi that is cheaper to drive than your SUV, why wouldn't you drive it to the market?
As I understand it, the intent is for aStarship flight to cost less than a Falcon 9 flight.
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There is one place in the vast Universe where humans can live, Earth. Why? Because we evolved here. And our tenure is coming to a close.
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What is the carbon footprint of that big shiny bullet?
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F must be for Falcon.
Big Falcon Rocket.
Or, maybe not,
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I’ve been collecting stainless steal myself over some projects I have in mind (T he he he he)
Terraforming Earth is a better place to start.
It has oxygen already for starters. And that whole water thing is kind of handy.
Step one is to stop dumping where we sleep.
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Mars may still have life. Sending living things there before effective surveys underground have taken place would be a travesty. NASA has an office with full-time goal of making sure nothing living makes it to places that might already have life. Any other approach is an immense mistake.
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SpaceX is a waste of time. Musk can't even get an electric car on the road that is affordable for middle-class Americans. He has sunk so much money into the SolarCity debacle, Tesla is bleeding money, and his latest lark with brain-implanted artificial intelligence and the underground transit project are pure fiascos. He would be better off perfecting and doing one thing really well rather than making promises he can't keep, spending money he doesn't have, and promising to save the world. The so-called genius is a sham who has his shareholders being led by the nose.
@Birdygirl How does anything about Tesla prove that the lowest cost, highest volume launcher of spacecraft on the planet is worthless?
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@Birdygirl get your head out of the sand! (and the oil sands:) This is one of the few true innovators around- willing to put his own wealth on the line to help achieve sustainable energy and sustainable life for the human race! One day our polices will be driven not by the relentless pursuit of fossil fuels and soulless greedheads like we have now. Shame on you for attempting to denigrate a great american innovator!
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We need more big ideas boldly pursued!
One suspects that looking back to this moment 50 years from now, the Starship endeavor will stand as a much more significant event in history than the Trump impeachment.
Applause! to SpaceX!
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why take off from Earth, for Mars, instead of a space station or lunar station designed for planetary launches?
@sam beal Refueling in orbit addresses almost any potential advantages of docking with a space station before interplanetary flight without most of the added expense, complexity and risk.
Why would you land your expensive and heavy interplanetary craft on the moon bwfore launching again to fly to Mars. Bringing heavy objects to the bottom of gravity wells and lifting them baxk out doea not isially promote efficiency.
Great overview of current Starship plans. However, the article gives a misleading impression that Starship is Musk's white whale, lacking adequate funding. First, the "driving a Semi to a grocery store" analogy is backwards. Rather, we are currently shipping materiel to low earth orbit in sedans when we need Semis. With heavy cargo hauling, a true space economy will follow. Second, Starship already has a paying commercial customer, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. Third, there was no mention of Starlink, SpaceX's internet constellation. Making both rockets and satellites, the company is uniquely poised to take first mover advantage of this multi-billion dollar market.
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