SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform space travel

Re:SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform spa... by qayxc on Friday February 18, 2022 @06:01AM (#30384300)

That wouldn't be possible - first, Starship cannot take off without significant support infrastructure, so it'd be a one-way trip.

Additionally, have you seen the hatch on the Lunar Starship? That thing is ~30m above ground and only has a small platform. Loading and unloading that thing would be slow and dangerous compared to simply dropping cargo from a flying aircraft that doesn't even need to touch down or just driving on and off the ramp in case of landed planes.

The concept of rocket transport isn't new either - it has been considered several times and always turned out to be a bad idea.

To see where some of this comes from, look here: [0]

[0] http://www.astronautix.com/i/ithacus.html

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Re:SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform spa... by freemint on Friday February 18, 2022 @07:27AM (#30384872)

> Starship cannot take off without significant support infrastructure, so it'd be a one-way trip.

Well it needs fueling infrastructure but if the mission is designed sich that there is enough fuel left to fly to some air craft carrier protected barge nearby the rocket might not be stuck there

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Re:SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform spa... by vimy on Friday February 18, 2022 @10:36AM (#30387075)

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/us-military-rocket-cargo-pro... I remembered wrong, they are looking at more than just Starship. You’re right but I’m assuming they want a militarized version that solves these problems.

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