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A comment on NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles above the surface. Parent comment

Re:NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles... by bryanlarsen on Monday November 21, 2022 @11:39AM (#33694534)
The rocket equation is far more forgiving to big rockets than small ones, and this is the biggest one yet.
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Re:NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles... by PointyFluff on Monday November 21, 2022 @01:06PM (#33695734)
Honestly, I think it's just silly that we are still trying to make these things on the ground.
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Re:NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles... by Vecr on Monday November 21, 2022 @02:43PM (#33696956)
In my opinion the ground is the best place to make them. It's much harder to do independent inspections of the work when you have to fly the expert who wants to look at the assembly into space and train them how to do EVAs.
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Re:NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles... by giantrobot on Monday November 21, 2022 @03:43PM (#33697667)
Yeah why don't we just place an order at the first available orbital facto...oh no such thing exists. Well we can order some aluminum from an asteroid mining smelt...oh that doesn't exist. Well I'm sure the useful payload entirely built in orbit is...oh.

There's no infrastructure in space to do anything. Even if you built a rocket in orbit that doesn't do you any good if the payload in sitting on a pad on the ground.

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Re:NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the moon, flying 81 miles... by dekhn on Tuesday November 22, 2022 @02:02PM (#33709659)
The two things I think would be interesting to demonstrate in space is aluminum extrusion production (standardized framing) and fuel production. To do either of those sustainably in space would be an impressive accomplishment.
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