The Astronomy Thread

Helicopter launch is currently delayed until next week

Tuco said:

Meanwhile SpaceX can pick from the most promising candidates, grind them into the dirt and get more when they fall.

Click to expand...

Judging from my cousin's experience, this is absolutely the case. He likes the work and the perks enough that he doesn't really care at this point, but he's definitely devaluing his own time. That said, it's hard to fault him. If I were single in my mid-20's with his skills I'd put in some overtime to say that I got to send shit to Mars.

Tuco said:

I don't know how true it is, but I hear a lot of people are putting in a few years in the SpaceX grinder and then moving onto more balanced jobs where they benefit from their time at SpaceX.

Click to expand...

He hasn't expressed any dissatisfaction, but he's moving with his MD girlfriend to the bay area for her residency and doesn't seem overly broken up that SpaceX won't guarantee he can work remote from there. I think he's been there 5-6 years at this point? It's hard to imagine that with his resume (MIT BS in EE/CS straight to mission-critical stuff at SpaceX) that he couldn't get a job basically anywhere he wanted.

Still, I'd be conflicted about not getting to be there for the first Mars mission. That only happens once.

It's win/win for Space-X. They're committed to designing Starship anyways and the design variances between what is going to the moon and Mars are fairly minimal.

The funny thing is to get their plan to work, the full Starship system of both stages, and orbital refueling, will have to be mostly perfected (unless re-entry is fucky). Which basically means the platform is up and running and like you pointed out, what is the point of SLS at that point? lol

SLS and the capsule are sunk costs at this point, so presumably they'll get used for a time and then like you pointed out, if Starship is successful, that will pretty much be the superior launch platform. Especially the cargo aspect. Any moon or Mars settlement needs materials and the biggest draw of Starship is it can transport A LOT in theory at a lower long term cost.

I mean fuck, in theory the lunar gateway could even end up just being a Starship in orbit or the Starship could be doing the heavy lifting in terms of the station construction.

Tuco said:

As Artemis Moves Forward, NASA Picks SpaceX to Land Next Americans on Moon - NASA

NASA is getting ready to send astronauts to explore more of the Moon as part of the Artemis program, and the agency has selected SpaceX to continue

www.nasa.gov

Cancel the SLS, it's DOA.

Also disappointed they didn't have enough funding to give to the national team, just so we could have something to compare SpaceX's progress too as the national team runs a circus.

Click to expand...

One SLS exists already and they're gonna build more. My take is if they cancel SLS, congress critters getting money to their districts via SLS will cancel the whole program.

Sucks.

Ingenuity helicopter flight in a couple of days, that should be pretty cool.

I don't think they'll send any to Mars until the moon shit pans out. Right now, based on the moon mission, it is to serve as a lander craft that is already in lunar orbit. So they'll need the one to serve as the lander, and one/two to serve as refuelers for the lander (one in LEO, and maybe one in lunar orbit)

Moon will let them refine the cargo variant of the starship and also the refueling in orbit piece, which is going to be key because the primary purpose of the initial starships being sent to Mars will be to create supply and habitation. They'll also need to make sure the platform is safe for Earth->Space /w crew inside, so that will all need to be worked out before the #HelloMoon thing can happen, or any NASA missions on the platform.

The current Mars rover mission also has an experiment to test the feasibility of creating fuel from the atmosphere. The whole Starship to Mars plan hinges on the ability to create fuel on site, so the results of this experiment are going to be extremely important. Once they get that squared away/figured out, and figure out an ideal landing site for the first manned mission, then they can start launching Starships to Mars for the purpose of creating fuel and transporting supplies/cargo in prep for the arrival of humans. Probably send approximately 2 years worth of food, backup water supply and oxygen, habitat modules, modules to grow food, surface transport vehicles, power generation, etc. The initial waves will also need to autonomously begin to manufacture fuel for the return trip and store water/produce oxygen.