ΔRobin→

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@lewisknaggs42 @Curiostyfilms @xdNiBoR @canraptor_ If you compare by cost per moon mission then I guess Electron is the winner since it launched Capstone for under $10 million. Its unfair to not factor in capability, scope, and cost when comparing rockets, and SLS loses in every metric compared to most rockets

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@lewisknaggs42 @Curiostyfilms @xdNiBoR @canraptor_ You're comparing 300-500 tons to lunar orbit to 27 tons. Starship is still at least 11-18x cheaper per ton to lunar orbit, assuming 300-500 tons wet mass in LLO and $4.1B price tag for both since you said its similar. Plus 0 tons to the surface vs 100+

[Christian Keil @pronounced_kyle]

They did it.

SpaceX has now launched more satellites than the rest of humanity, combined, all time.

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 "SpaceX twisting NASA's hand" and its just every other provider being unbelievably incompetent. Seriously, for COTS, Cygnus is more expensive than Dragon, and has less capability (no trunk, no downmass, less payload). Starliner failed 3 times. What are you even saying

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 Again, if SpaceX forced NASA's hand to give them this money for such a trivial task, why didn't anyone else do it first? I'm sure it didn't say it needed to be 10 tons of fuel in the milestone contract, another company could have earned it doing less. Maybe its not trivial?

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 Please link it then. Seriously I cannot find what you are talking about and I have seen all Starship talks, launch streams, EDA interviews, etc since SN9's suborbital flight. Same thing applies here though, Flight 1 didn't make it to reentry. They've had 6 reentries now

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 The talk you are referencing comes either from 2016 or 2018 from what I can gather. I don't know if you've noticed, but Starship (or rather ITS/BFR) has changed a little since then and has had some experience testing a large ceramic heatshield and propulsive landing

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 A larger surface area means heat is distributed over a larger surface area, drag is greater so quicker time to terminal velocity. Drag is also minimal on Earth entry peak heating. Total heat load is higher but of course it is, the vehicle is larger

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@mightbejell0 @BSF42069 @peterrhague @crackcobain__ Taking away all military funding would still leave the US in a deficit. DOGE might not have worked but its intentions were good

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@mightbejell0 @BSF42069 @peterrhague @crackcobain__ Please look into the actual budget items that take up the most spending. The military does not even break the top 3 despite being an extremely inefficient and corrupt money vacuum. Cuts across the board are necessary, including the military

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@mightbejell0 @BSF42069 @peterrhague @crackcobain__ Is it more morally outrageous if I donate to charity for a while and then stop? If that's the case, then you're arguing that charity is an obligation, the norm, instead of something to be celebrated. Any amount of giving is something to be praised, no amount is the norm

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@mightbejell0 @BSF42069 @peterrhague @crackcobain__ Yes I did. Money funds programs. Tons of charities fail each year, they could easily be funded by private citizens. This is an insane standard to hold anyone to, including the federal government. No one is entitled to anyone's money and unfortunately corruption and poverty exist

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@mightbejell0 @BSF42069 @peterrhague @crackcobain__ How is Musk contributing to oppressing third world countries. You made the claim so there has to be some sort of strong evidence to support it

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 They could also just propulsively capture and gradually aerobrake to greatly decrease entry heating. Mars’s atmosphere isn’t made of molten lava, it’s very much technically possible for a ceramic heat shield that can withstand Earth entry to survive Mars entry

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 Mars entry heat is not higher than high energy Earth entry. Starship's heat shield is being designed to handle high energy Earth orbit entry orbits that will be necessary for Artemis refuelings. Mars is possible with their design, even if they need to tweak it some more

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 Also, "miniscule" is a funny word here. It was atleast 10 metric tons of fuel and far surpassed what everyone else had ever done in terms of in-orbit fuel transfer ever. If it was so trivial, why did NASA give them $53.2 million dollars for it?

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @deltaIV9250 So what? Do you think that it becomes impossibly difficult as scale increases? The physics is the same and its not even that hard to do. NASA could have easily done it decades ago and many people pushed for it but it was brushed aside to avoid risk taking and focus on Shuttle

[ΔRobin→ @SpaceMan1324]

@GLoungeBT @unapologet26596 @deltaIV9250 NASA gave them injector designs they tweaked for Merlin. The turbopump for Merlin was made by NASA contractor Barber-Nichols and was similar to the FASTRAC engine developed by Nichols for NASA. Merlin has since entirely changed. Aside from that, what else did NASA "give" SpaceX?