Space In General

[CodeRedR51]

egs constitute mass that could be instead used for fuel/payload. Additionally, if you can catch your booster on the tower, then it's already in place where it needs to be to load the next starship onto said booster.

Exactly this and no other reason.

 

[wfooshee]

So do retrorockets...

Well, these aren't retrorockets. They are the same engines used for the boost phase. As far as I can think of, the last American manned spacecraft to use retrorockets (that were specifically retrorockets and nothing else) was Gemini.

Granted, they need to keep enough fuel to land, but the Falcon has had several launches with the booster expended so the landing fuel became payload weight. With the payload capacity designed from the start with that fuel accounted for, it feels like a non-issue.

 

[Famine]

Well, these aren't retrorockets.

They absolutely are. Any rocket that provides deceleration thrust is by definition a retrorocket.

(that were specifically retrorockets and nothing else)

An interesting distinction that I didn't make.


Also it's good to see a former resident here has recovered from their self-reported death.

Edit: Huh, weird reaction.

 

[Danoff]

America conducts the vast majority of the world's space exploration.

Missions like Cassini and Juno come from international cooperation, but primarily from NASA.

The exploration of our solar system is not just a stunt. From it we learn how our solar system formed, how our Earth formed, what the chemical composition of worlds looks like, and how it evolves. Planetary science within our solar system helps us learn about climate change, and the origins of our species. It is some of the most awe-inspiring and important research we do. And we may have peaked.

There is talk of the Trump administration, at the hands of Elon Musk, gutting NASA. Essentially turning it into a glorified contractor for Space X to potentially maybe someday do something with Mars. This would be a major setback for humanity. And as much as humanity is being set back by the Trump administration in so many ways, from women's rights and fetal and pregnancy research and medical development, to climate change, and well beyond, one of the things at stake is whether humanity has reached its peak in terms of space exploration for many decades.

There is an army of scientists and engineers that are all top of their field pushing at the very edge of what humanity can do. Inventing ion propulsion techniques to carry us to explore the corners of our solar system. It all gets gutted if Elon and MTG take a hatchet to NASA. And make no mistake, that is on their minds.

I don't know how much can be done about any of this. But what I do know is that this is one of many ways that the Trump administration threatens to take humanity backward, and will leave us wondering how long it will take to get back to where we've been for the last few decades. Where we're going does not look promising.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Where we're going does not look promising.

At least the world is less dependent on America these days. China's built a space station, they'll probably build a moon base first, they doing the reusable rocket stuff... Humanity will be fine. It might not be American humanity, but it still counts, right?