Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
This is their new strategy for handling whistleblowers. They don't fuck around anymore. Snitches get ~~stitches~~ escape velocity.
I hope they succeed. Access to space shouldn't depend on a single company, especially one owned by Musk.
While true, it's not like there's a monopoly on the market like in many other fields, I don't like Musk but he's a pioneer in many fields, besides SpaceX and Tesla he founded PayPal
He didnt found paypal, his company was merged with another one that became paypal. He was the CEO of PayPal early on, but was so universally disliked he was booted after 6 months.
He then took his Paypal money and did invest it in a fledgling startup named Tesla that had a working prototype of an electric sports car based on a Lotus frame. He later sued the actual founders so that he could claim he was a founder.
SpaceX is there because he had money to fund it and to entice Gwynne Shotwell, a renowed name in aeronautics, to his new space startup. Shes run it the entire time.
Musk is a "money guy" who lies a lot and has had some lucky hires. Hes a pitch man who has lived his entire life with a silver spoon in his mouth, which makes it easy to gamble on high risk projects.
Dont buy the hype hes selling.
Yep, he’s not anywhere near the visionary, the inventor, or the genius that he has made sure surrounds his persona in media.
He got handed money, invested it, and got lucky twice. A monkey could do that with a couple of levers.
I believed the hype as well, for quite some time. Then I listened to the bullshit he was saying and realized he’s just a copy of Donald Trump or Rupert Murdoch — people who happen to have money and are able to fool millions of other people that they’re intelligent because they happen to have money.
Different groups and people are calling SpaceX a dominant launch provider and even a temporary monopoly.
Space is different from other sector. That's doesn't make it immune from the risk of monopoly.
Well, to get humans to space today you have either the crew dragon on a SpaceX falcon 9, or a Soyouz.
And relations with Russia are a bit tense nowadays, so if you are not Russian, there are currently no other options than SpaceX.
Kinda looks like a monopoly, with another actor starting to compete (and SpaceX is historically very competitive on prices, so without huge government subsidies, I doubt Boeing would consider maintaining their crewed vehicle)
Looks like a monopoly because SpaceX invented that niche and others lag behind RnD-wise, companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and other companies behind the American space program are more in monopoly position and were more subsidized by the government than SpaceX ever was
I wonder if anything will fall off on the way 🤔
Just means the craft gets lighter!
Hey shhh if you point that out too loudly Mr Boeing will come and shoot you in the head for saying nasty things about his Aeroplanes
Make sure you don't get a windows seat though
sir, we are NOT russia, we ~~kill~~ suicide people here
Eh, Boeing airplanes may or may not have lost doors during flight due to crappy design and construction, and the now multiple ~~murdered~~ suicide ls whistleblowers don't add to my trust in Boing.
I would be shitting my pants in terror if Boeing were trying to take my body anywhere.
I never thought I'd say this but "I want other companies to succeed at space travel"
To be clear, I don't want any companies in space because they'll simply ruin space the way they ruined earth. You will never convince me there aren't executives salivating at the idea of exploiting ~~slaves~~ employees far away from earth and it's " limiting regulations" so they can do whatever they want including just spacing someone out an airlock if they try to strike.
But so far it's been more or less one company who's been tossing trash all over LEO and larger trash between earth and Mars.
I'd rather space travel be open and easy for everyone, including some random guy who just wants a quick trip around Saturn. Of course we're likely centuries away from that, and I don't think we have centuries left as a whole.
I'm rooting for Stoke and Radian to pull off full launch vehicle reuse.
I really want to see space agencies put out orbital debris cleanup bounties, especially for big things like spent upper stages and dead satellites.
Somebody please double check the door bolts.
Maybe give it a test launch with no people on board.
They've actually done 2!
The 1st, in 2019, didn't get to the ISS. Bad clock code made thrusters fire like crazy and run out of fuel.
The 2nd was on the launch pad in '21, but Florida air made valves seize. It launched in '22, had 2 thrusters fail, but still got to the ISS and back.
Before this crewed flight test, they've been replacing parachute harnessing and flammable tape.
Slightly off-topic, but what happened to the left astronaut in the picture? Looks like he hasn't slept in a month