The way they explain how advancements are possible by throwing money at it and ramping up man-hours doesn‘t sit right with me. That’s not how it really works. There‘s a reason why the US suddenly caught up to the technology in the mid 1940s. The engineers and scientists who joined their jet engine force weren‘t just random university grads that suddenly spawned.
Exactly, paperclip…
I mean… That’s basically how you accomplish this kind of thing. You throw educated people and resources at the problem for as long as it takes. Often you can do it faster with more people working on the problem. How is that not how it really works?
I mean you can certainly save time by looking over someone else’s shoulder, espionage and defecting engineers have of course led to local advances, but the process is generally the same. Development takes time and effort, and that equals money.
It gives an example of two British engines right after that, and the UK’s jet engines were both independent of Germany’s and better than them by the end of the war
I can’t respect anyone saying spaceX is in a category of their own. Not only have they merely replicated what MDouglas did already in the 90s, their costs are wholly subsidised by the US government in an attempt to become relevant in space launches again rather than subcontracting launches from ESA or Russia. Remove the subsidies and it’s far cheaper to use Arianne for the launches than any of the falcons. It’s the US usual playbook: If you can’t compete, claim national defense and subsidise to the wazoo against WTO rules.
No… That doesn’t add up. The falcon 9 didn’t get as many subsidies as you might think (and it only got that during development, it gets no subsidies now). And Arianne Space has some extremely expensive rockets. SpaceX is launching for 1/10 the price of their competitors (literally), and then they’re reusing the first stages…
Anyone who thinks SpaceX isn’t in a unique position right now isn’t being honest to themselves. They’re doing what was previously thought to be impossible, about twice a week.
I mean don’t get me wrong, Musk is a monster, an irredeemable human being. But spaceX is not just Elon Musk. And what they’re doing is something nobody has been able to do before and they’re doing it very well. If they can succeed at making a fully reusable rocket with their starship, they’ll have accomplished something truly transformative. The first fully reusable launch vehicle will usher in a new era for human civilization, I’m not exaggerating to say it’s one of the most important things happening on the planet right now.
“They’re doing what was previously thought to be impossible”
DCXA (am I a joke to you)
Elmo fanboy detected.
Nobody thought it was impossible, everyone with half a brain understands the math of launching rockets and figured out recoverable VTOLs don’t save that much money compared to traditional launches. Space X has pentagon contracts that allow them to practice dumping in the launch market. Anyone who thinks otherwise is not being honest to themselves.
edit:sauce
Heh, yeah they should have kept trying to get the Delta clipper to work. But they notably ended development of the program…
Nobody thought it was impossible
Everyone thought it was infeasible, especially after the Delta clipper proved unproductive. After that, nobody even tried because it would just be an endless money pit there certainly wants any active development in that area I know of when SpaceX started.
Elmo fanboy detected.
I explicitly said the opposite. I’ll admit to being extremely impressed with what SpaceX has accomplished, but don’t confuse that with musk worship, the man needs to just stop doing… anything.
It does say “with reusable rockets”, which is technically correct because as far as I know nobody else has reused theirs.
Well they are pretty big and also I don’t know how to build one
