Re:Starship is still not understood
by snowwrestler on Friday October 29, 2021 @04:30PM
(#29043218)
Only parts of the system are embarrassingly parallel. But you need the whole system to be available for every launch.
Poorly parallel parts of the system include regulatory clearance and accident investigations. There is only so much clear air space available each day. And if a rocket blows up (which they often do), they’ll all sit on the ground until there is understanding as to why. And then potentially sit even longer if they each require work to correct or mitigate flaws that are found.
Starships are still hand-built prototypes. And Musk has a history of underestimating the difficulty in scaling and automating physical manufacturing.
It’s way too early to be confident this can embarrassingly parallel. Parallelism is hard in general. It’s hard because often constraints aren’t obvious until you’re actually doing it.
Poorly parallel parts of the system include regulatory clearance and accident investigations. There is only so much clear air space available each day. And if a rocket blows up (which they often do), they’ll all sit on the ground until there is understanding as to why. And then potentially sit even longer if they each require work to correct or mitigate flaws that are found.
Starships are still hand-built prototypes. And Musk has a history of underestimating the difficulty in scaling and automating physical manufacturing.
It’s way too early to be confident this can embarrassingly parallel. Parallelism is hard in general. It’s hard because often constraints aren’t obvious until you’re actually doing it.