News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on SpaceX will soon fire up its Super Heavy booster for the first time. Parent comment

Re:SpaceX will soon fire up its Super Heavy booster for the ... by Robotbeat on Friday July 16, 2021 @09:35AM (#27856076)
An acquaintance of mine who works in the industry (not at SpaceX) called Raptor a “scifi engine.”

For a lot of purposes, Starship should make it extremely cheap to send propellant from Earth. $10/kg in LEO. Cheaper than any lunar mining proposal I’ve seen.

That said, I hope we do make propellant off-Earth eventually.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:SpaceX will soon fire up its Super Heavy booster for the ... by SEJeff on Friday July 16, 2021 @08:49PM (#27862750)
Yeah if I remember correctly, I read that the solar panels required to ISRU make enough methane on Mars for a starship return flight would be two football fields worth and it would take them a few years to do it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:SpaceX will soon fire up its Super Heavy booster for the ... by Robotbeat on Saturday July 17, 2021 @10:37AM (#27866082)
Area is just not a huge problem on Mars or in space in general. It’s not really a relevant figure of merit, unlike mass and pre-deployed volume
[ Parent | on HN ]