Re:Starship is still not understood
by vanattab on Thursday October 28, 2021 @10:04AM
(#29026266)
That's exactly my point. This guy is pissed that NASA is not planning properly because Starship will unlock the ability to send millions of tons all over the solar system but in realty starship is only one of hundreds (thousands?) of advancements that will need to be made before we can think of sending 100's of millions of tons around the system.
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The whole point is that Starship actually allows you to start thinking of the very problems you speak of.
Before you had it, suggesting mining a asteroid was just pointless and insane. Now you can actually think about.
And that is what NASA should do. Now getting stuff to LEO is 'solved' what can you actually do.
Re:Starship is still not understood
by chinathrow on Thursday October 28, 2021 @10:52AM
(#29026779)
> The whole point is that Starship actually allows you to start thinking of the very problems you speak of.
Thank you for pointing that out - I just realized that with Starship, we even could start thinking about putting some smaller asteroids out of a potential collision course with it.
I think it's reasonable to think NASA should currently being doing exploratory thinking about "how would we build something like a space station, lunar base, or Mars mission if Starship is available within the decade", though. Which is what I think the author is advocating; to get a few years out in front, rather than waiting until Starship reaches the point where it can't be ignored.
But isn't NASA already doing that? I mean SpaceX and starship was just awarded the solo lunar lander contract no? The first Artimis flights are in 2023 no?