Don’t know how many of you are really really really stuck in anticipation and ainx over the whole humanity on mars thing…
To me it is the most profound thing that is going to happen in my life… but the actual event of us landing is irrelevant in the face of what happens after. It’s something that I doubted would actually occur in my life. Now that that doubt is alleviated. I consider it super cool that I can validly daydream about a humanity that doesn’t just end with global warming or world war 3 or some dismal end that could occur in a variety of others ways…
That and all the other new tech involved… just all around… starting to enter from theory into reality after 3 decades of witnessing the world’s speculation on the matter. Like electric cars… Electric cars that actually outperform gas equivalents…
Most of my psychosis did stem from total disdain for the state mass populace stubbornly clinging to what they were familiar with… instead of them seeing all the faults in more traditional ways of thinking always coming back together enmasse to doom the species (yet again.)
So yeah… TLDR The Starship mk 1 prototype has been completed… the raptor engines have been thoroughly tested off the unit… there was one real trial… The Star Hopper utilized one raptor engine to climb 150 meters and then land at a nearby pad… That’s a really potent jet engine… and some very well refined control schemes… Don’t know if you’ve heard the water tower jokes… but yeah… they actually used a water tower construction company to build the hull. (Just for prototyping). Video follows on that.
This is the star hopper… I gotta say this video tickled my mind to the extent I started watering up a bit… like super cool feelings over this.
If you were mildly interested in SpaceX’s program before this is a pretty exciting time to really tune into. Cause this is what is happening soon…
This is Starship Mk 1… Basically just a mockup hull, but it has full instrumentation and controls implemented… It’s only got 3 rocket engines… but that’ll be scaled up over the next prototypes.
This is the video from the live stream from last night sept 28th 2019:
Lot’s of details involved… but among them was the timetable for the Mk II, and Mk III prototypes… each one designed to test different aspects and test different implementations… and such… all to be recompiled into the 4th and 5th prototypes.
Most exciting about this is that Mk2 and Mk3 should be completed within the next 6 months… meaning we are going to be seeing a lot of tests… starting with the prototype on display above… doing a 12 mile climb to test out it’s re-entry control hardware. Just some general aerodynamics stuff.
Before I really started digging into what spacex was doing… I thought that they were really pulling off some unique stuff… but the more I learn on the subject the more I found could be traced back to other previously existing rocket tech… they just did a good job of pulling it all together… refining it… and unifying it into a minimalist’s approach to the challenges of rocketry…
The Falcon 9 if you will… it’s largely based on borrowed influences… and the Falcon heavy… Grid fins… and even vertical landing (which was apparently pattented by Blue Origin a decade before SpaceX implemented it.) (Blue origin also has pulled off vertical landing at this point… in a sub oribital vehicle the New Shepard.) ■■■■■■■ neat
Blue Origin is Jeff Bezo’s rocket startup… And they have plans for their own super-sized rocket…
Virgin Galactic has successfully gotten into sub orbit with their spaceship 2… hand’t heard much about that since a failed test that led to the death of one of their pilots… Though they are apparently still cracking away at it.
That’s 3 companies that are actively pushing to get human’s into space… and they are all finding success. I mean it’s happening… And for real this time… The private sector is about to topple the boundary that was previously exclusive to the realms of governmental powers…
So this is great… This is way more entertaining and enlightening than just plugging away at life in a world that seemed to have eased up on pushing it’s boundaries. Things are changing… FINALLY…
I’ve felt like I was somehow time-shifted out of living in a world that seemed appropriate to life at all… for a long time there… Like about since I was 10 years old… In college that dissatisfaction only grew worse… At that point these projects were still in the realm of just talk. The first Tesla roadsters were just rolling out of the factory… people still doubted that Elon could gain market traction let alone deliver what the real promise was, the Tesla model 3. The one we could all at least dream of owning on a realistic level.
I see Tesla’s on the road almost every day of my life. People in my town seem to love them. Just wait another 10 years and we will start seeing Electric cars really become common and in something that everyone has had experience with driving.
It’s going to be a profoundly different life experience… it will feel like significant change has taken place… and it’s just going to happen right before our eyes… Gas stations become relics… people are stucking waiting a few hours for their vehicles to charge. Even just visiting friends will be a different experience… cause no one will ever be out of gas… You know that needy state people slip into when they are the one’s on E.
Alright I’ve said too much… but that event last night was significant enough to mention on here I felt.
To the future… to a brighter future…
I really do think that Schizophrenics are strange people indeed… but I also feel like our sensitivities stem from our innocence… and our fears are the reflection of wisdom… we sense that something is wrong and that more could be done… we need the world to be a more promising, inviting, fair, and gentle place. It drives us insane to feel this disconnect from hope… or even comfort… and I think that is worse when it seems the world is stagnant and perpetually stubborn in the face of even the simplest lessons.
Humanity making it to Mars is like the metaphorical enema to the existence of this stubborn ■■■■ of dead endedness everyone is clinging to… You really can’t stop it from there. You can’t stop freedom… you can’t limit the idea of what humanity is capable of… you can’t shrug off and delay accepting the need for human progress (just because you can’t claim ownership or acclaim of the associated namesake.)
I just want to see traditional values dropped on their ass. I want to see this great handing off of the torch of facing human challenges to the new generation. It just means so much in so many ways. Against all the controls… all the doubts… all the genuine difficulties… all the desire for the challenge to be down played and disregarded… The new culture and I just want to say enlightened… a greater number of enlightened people coexisting… we are almost on a guaranteed track of pulling it off.
It is a transcendent action… to establish a permanent presence in a non-earth system.
It’s going to be great… Science fiction… true to the flesh in reality… A new chance, on new lands, to try again after all we’ve learned, to establish a new stage in human development.
