Space and Science BS Thread

Didn't look to see how close it was.

As for the incentives, that's a common thing. Usually it's done with things like tax breaks, or promises of streamlining construction. $15 sounds like a lot, but really it's nothing in comparison. Spacex has over 1,000 employees in Boca Chica now, and the average pay is 25-30/hr, so 15 Mil is less than what they pay their employees every few months, and now they're going to build a new facility that is going to employ another 3-500 people. IIRC Texas recently took the number one spot for states with the most fortune 500 companies, so their incentives, lack of income tax, reduced regulations, and friendliness towards business owners seems to be working.

 

I don't believe so, and that's the funniest part. Lex Luther was ragging on Branson because VG didn't go past the Karman line, but BO has yet to do that as well. I'm just happy Branson went up first.

 

Both VI and BO would be screwed if they had to adapt their current vehicles for orbital operations.

They’d be better off starting from scratch.

 

VI's space plane/rocket isn't spaceworthy?!

 

I don't believe it is capable of making it to or beyond the Karman line. It's literally just a rollercoaster ride, with a slightly higher chance of death. Though it must not be that high of a chance considering Elon has bought a ticket. Launcherone however can launch smallsats into orbit, but no people. At least it looks awesome, like a big missile on the bottom of a 747.

 

Mind you, I am not an aeronautical engineer….

I don’t think it’s orbit worthy. You need to get around 17,000 + mph to get to orbit. The VI ship doesn’t look like it could sustain those speeds or the heat generated upon re-entry.

Just my arm chair 2 cents.

 

and the fact basic services like power seem to fail monthly with those points just screams success lol.

Sorry but I agree those benefits are great but, as a non US citizen, Texas has its own issues too. I've heard lots of different viewpoints on Texas and the way they're attracting companies, some good and some bad.

 

Keep in mind Virgin was always just a project to grab those bragging rights from that first to space prize way back in the day, which they did. The only reason it's been pushed into a commercial application is because Branson wanted to be the first person regularly taking tourists to "space."

 

Yeah, but realistically that's the only reason Bezos started Blue Origin too. So that he could say he rode a rocket to space. Of course he told all the people he hired otherwise, but his limited spending on the company suggests it was never intended to be s successful company.

 

Yeah I was just commenting on why VI didn't put any thought into their design and high speed reentry. The goal was only the edge of space from the beginning and the new ship is just an upscale version with a different engine.

 

The thing is, the businesses are coming in. Infrastructure short comings are a problem that can be easily solved. Their main problems with electricity is the number of people and businesses moving in a short amount of time has exceeded expectations.

 

But then BO became ambitious and wanted to be a major player.

They entered into a partnership with ULA to supply the BE-4 and are currently screwing over them over with delay after delay.

When entering into the partnership, they said they wouldn’t compete w ULA for government launch contracts and then reneged on that.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if ULA drops their plans to use the BE-4 and goes with a fast track engine from AR.

BO should’ve just stayed with their suborbital Disney ride.

http://nasawatch.com/archives/2021/06/gao-blue-origin.html

 

They could go from having one of the worst, broken down supply system in the western world to having a state of the art, most advanced.

Of course this would need a high level of state government foresight & planning…

 

Doesn't Texas have problems with their electrical grid on a state-wide level?

Musk can also just take Boca Chica off the grid and put in a solar farm...

 

Our expectation is that Elon will drive in a couple Tesla's, plug them in and provide us with a state-wide battery backup system for our grid.

 

It's funny because Tesla is building battery power storage in Texas, but it's already been hinted at that it's for the tax break on building new private power infrastructure and will be used internally. I mean it'll be, "on the grid," technically but they can break that link anytime they need to.

I get the, "we will just build more once they're here," strategy but Texas power management has been brutal forever. Until enough people die from an outage that the Feds force the issue, nothing will change. I mean right now the power companies are trying to raise prices to pay for upgrades in storm protection that were already funded through state grants. They want to double dip for increased profitability. It's crazy to watch from afar.

Bottom line Tesla and other factories will just build their own power solutions at least short term. They'll be fine. The public on the other hand who works those plants might get the fun of rolling blackouts for a while once those plants come online.

 

Yes it's statewide. Texas has had a million people move in in the last 3 years. 4 million in the last 10 years. In other words, 22 states have a smaller total population than have moved into Texas in the last 10 years.

And Boca Chica already has a significant amount of solar panels. They're not the main driver in the electrical grid problems. From what I've seen however, I doubt he has enough to power Starbase. Most the shops i've worked for have paid 30-150k/mo for their electricity, and that's with them paying a FRACTION of what the average consumer does per KW. Manufacturers, machine shops, etc have massive power demands, and it would take A LOT of solar panels to power just 1.

At 0:35 that black strip above the tanks is a strip of solar panels on top of their shipping container wall. At 1:30 you can see more panels. And despite all those they just installed some HUGE generators at the fuel farm a week or so ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVHTrELoT4k

 

Never forget

https://twitter.com/nasahistory/status/1414713694349574150?s=21

 

And on a related note . . . as far as you know?

Anyone for a 0g mudwrestling requirement between Branson, Bezos, and Musk?

Oh, I don't wanna watch it. I just think these billionauts ought to be required to do it.

Winner gets to come back?