NASA aims for first manned SpaceX mission in first-quarter 2020

Re:NASA aims for first manned SpaceX mission in first-quarte... by 6gvONxR4sf7o on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:13AM (#21225149)

>Solar energy is "free", asteroids are "free".

The rocket equation says that if you want to do anything besides sitting in one place, it's super expensive. Moving mass around requires throwing huge amounts of mass away.

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Re:NASA aims for first manned SpaceX mission in first-quarte... by zipwitch on Friday October 11, 2019 @01:34PM (#21226555)

Or very small amounts of mass and a whole lot of time.

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Re:NASA aims for first manned SpaceX mission in first-quarte... by bdamm on Friday October 11, 2019 @02:04PM (#21226834)

I think you mean velocity. Lots of velocity.

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Re:NASA aims for first manned SpaceX mission in first-quarte... by Jwarder on Friday October 11, 2019 @11:52AM (#21225538)

My understanding is that it depends on how common/accessible water is in asteroids. If there is a source of water then it can be split into hydrogen and oxygen for "free" using solar power.

Throwing rockets' worth of water away seems wasteful, but if we have it then it isn't that expensive.

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