If SpaceX landing and reusing rockets is not impressive to you then what is?
Short answer economics. Long answer a reusable rocket platform reduces the cost per launch to a fraction the price of traditional launches. That reduced the price per kg of mass in space making far more possible in space. I think ultimately its selling the idea that humanity can be a multi planetary species where we shall own the stars.
Well, at least the one star 😉
I read that nasa can't even make saturn v rockets anymore. that the design documents and manufacturing techniques weren't properly archived and everyone that worked on them has died by now. idk if any of that is true.
It is true that we cannot make Saturn V rockets anymore.
The drawings are preserved, and even if they weren't, we have a few examples of unflown ones on display to study. There has been some institutional knowledge lost, several components were made by welding techniques we don't use anymore. Also, many of the components and materials used in the Saturn V are not manufactured anymore and are not available.
Building another Saturn V isn't entirely impossible, but the amount of retooling and re-engineering we'd have to do to the designs to get a flyable rocket we might as well just start over and call it a clean sheet design. Like Falcon Heavy, which put a sports car into solar orbit, or SLS which flew an Orion capsule around the moon in 2022.
People like space and his company is doing a lot of space
first of all, allow me to State my opinion of Elon musk in one short sentence.
second of all, I will answer your question.
A lot of people pointed out a lot of firsts, huge cost reductions, regular flights, but let’s look from the opposite direction …..
Mass to orbit. SpaceX came from nowhere not too many years ago, jumped ahead of established manufacturers, until now they launch most of the worlds satellite mass to orbit, with an unparalleled success record, even with the recent failures. And this is with a rapidly growing space market
Everything they’ve achieved has not only let them scale up far surpassing the rest of the industry across the world, combined, but with reliability and cost to attract all that business
I don’t know what it would take for you to call it a revolution, but the impact on space business is revolutionary
Both are doing impressive things, but only one is deliberately using media to build hype.
They are also very different organizations with very different goals.
NASA is focussed on science, they are trying to learn as much as possible about our solar system and the universe.
SpaceX by contrast is focussed on engineering. They aren’t trying to find life on Mars, they are trying to build the ferry service to it.
When NASA built rockets back in the 60’s, space flight was a science problem. We needed to figure out if it was even possible to do so. Can we even get a capsule into space? Can humans survive in zero gravity? Nowadays space flight is an engineering problem. We know it’s possible, we know the math, but can we actually build those things?
Also, economics of the equation are important. NASA is funded by american tax payer money, so politics gets involved. SpaceX is a business, so normal ameircan capitalism applies here.
NASA makes extensive use of contractors. The moon hardware was largely designed, built and tested by private companies.
Building your qualifications to teach advanced courses in being blasé?
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