• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.worksOPM
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    6 days ago

    Starship (I hate that name, it’s not a fucking "star"ship)

    Same. Mars Colonial Transporter, Interplanetary Transport System, and Big F****n Rocket were more appropriate names.

    something like a VASIMR or other more advanced low-fuel engine

    I’d love to see some more advanced engines, but I think that the capability to reset the rocket equation in LEO has merit.

    • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      LEO reset does have merit, it just never gets away from the fundamental problem of lifting fuel into orbit.

      I would really prefer a space travel dev approach that doesn’t prioritize getting humans somewhere as the immediate goal. We already know we can shoot people to the moon and land them. We can use LEO to study problems of interplanetary travel such as prolonged weightlessness and confinement. I think we should be sending robots to the moon and Mars to mine and refine local material, print permanent structures, pressurize them and grow food in them. Then send people once they can just show up and live in them. Mere survival shouldn’t be their main task.