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1. Embed this notice
   Clifton Royston (cliftonr@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 16-Mar-2025 23:52:11 JST Clifton Royston

   "Over 50 years ago, NASA was able to get its Saturn V, a rocket nearly as large as Starship, to fly without ever having a failed launch over its 13-launch, six-year operational lifespan. This was a rocket designed with computers less powerful than a Casio watch, built with far less accurate techniques and materials, with check systems and procedures infinitely less sophisticated than anything today. Yet, engineers were able to ensure it never had a launch failure [...]"
   https://www.planetearthandbeyond.co/p/spacex-has-finally-figured-out-why

   • Embed this notice
     wb x64 (wilbr@glitch.social)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:09 JST wb x64

     in reply to

     • GhostOnTheHalfShell
     • Gokul Das

     @GhostOnTheHalfShell @goku12 @CliftonR everything makes a lot more sense when you realize that Musk's main skill has always been convincing rich people and governments to give him money.

     Not engineering, not science... he's rich because people think he can make them rich.

   • Embed this notice
     GhostOnTheHalfShell (ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:10 JST GhostOnTheHalfShell

     in reply to

     • Gokul Das

     @goku12 @CliftonR

     And after an extended period in space, they would not be capable of handling even that reduce gravity, but of course we’ll have to somehow do a pressure suit and lower themselves from their nonexistent quarters down 10 or 15 m of a tunnel that has no accommodation for gravity and then lower themselves to the surface and walk around.

     The entire concept of the Mars mission isn’t just delusional. It’s psychotic.

     Minoru Saba repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     GhostOnTheHalfShell (ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:11 JST GhostOnTheHalfShell

     in reply to

     • Gokul Das

     @goku12 @CliftonR

     So supposedly individuals are supposed survive a nine month journey to Mars in what amounts to a beer can, with no waste management facilities, no exercise equipment to maintain body tone and so on and so forth.

     The people who would survive this journey would’ve survived several months breathing a mist of their own waste products without radiation shielding to arrive at a planet with no means to lower themselves to the surface..

   • Embed this notice
     GhostOnTheHalfShell (ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:12 JST GhostOnTheHalfShell

     in reply to

     • Gokul Das

     @goku12 @CliftonR

     These starship with people loaded onto them were supposed to be parked in orbit while the fleet of 1000 ships is assembled and provisioned.

     Supplying meals to people in space is extraordinarily expensive. I believe it’s on the order of tens of thousands of dollars per day. So months of that.

     But the volume of the second stage isn’t sufficient to carry 100 people, much less than 100 with all the requisite life support and supplies.

     Minoru Saba repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Gokul Das (goku12@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:13 JST Gokul Das

     in reply to

     @CliftonR The big red flag I see here is the SV mindset of 'move fast and break things' and 'rapid iterative design' applied to launchers. I have worked in both industries. This method works for s/w because you need to solve problems only once - even if the code is a big kludge.

     But it doesn't map well to rocketry where unlike s/w, safety margins are razor thin and nothing is repeatable. It may work someday, but I will be worried about the technical debt waiting to rear its ugly head.

     Minoru Saba repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     GhostOnTheHalfShell (ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 17-Mar-2025 06:51:13 JST GhostOnTheHalfShell

     in reply to

     • Gokul Das

     @goku12 @CliftonR

     And taking into account these rockets are supposed to be reusable, SpaceX design philosophy is incompatible.

     The original specifications have failed against design realities multiple times.

     The fantasy plan of delivering 1 million people to Mars is unachievable.

     Elon failed the basic math.

     If you divide 100 people per starship into 1 million, you don’t get 1000 spacecraft you get 10,000

     …

   • Embed this notice
     Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social)'s status on Tuesday, 18-Mar-2025 11:25:22 JST Minoru Saba

     in reply to

     • GhostOnTheHalfShell
     • Gokul Das

     @GhostOnTheHalfShell @goku12 @CliftonR
     Reminiscent of slave ships?
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_ship