Recent content by fj.torres

1- Space based solar panels work 24 hours a day, with constant solar input and without the atmosphere muting sunlight, can be more efficient. Also, not seasonal. 2- Ground based panels are *currently* cheap because of chinese dumping (not guaranteed to continue for reasons economkc and...

That's what the factory is about. Even if reuse takes weeks to refurbish like Falcon, mature Starship (circa 2030?) should be doing at least one mission a week.

Have you heard of the Dear Moon and Polaris 3 projects? They depend on crewed Starships. Look to Vulcan as to what it takes; just a few flawless launches.

Musk talks a lot of Mars but if you look closely at what he's developing, the near term use for Starship and its variants is CIS LUNAR space and commercial lunar development. As he's said, the engine to take people to Mars to stay won't be a Raptor. Sorties, maybe. Colonization? No. Similarly...

Starship + booster won't (soon) launch people to Space stations; they will launch entire space stations. And space telescopes. Lunar bases. Solar power platforms. However, Starship 3.0 might surprise. A couple years back, Musk was asked on Twitter if a nine engine Starship might make it to...

Two systems is good. Two systems with different tech is better. Anything but old space boeing would be best. They should've gone with SpaceX and Sierra.

Dunno. Russia has been planning/promising great things in space for decades and delivering very little. And their chronic leak issues don't speak well of their modern quality control. That in turn brings up the question of why China, which has been doing well enough on their own would feel the...

That you're asking those questions answers most of them. 😇 As for "revolutionary", well, IIRC most space landing systems rely on radar, lidar, or both and are mostly altitude-focused. Hitting a specific hundred meter area (say a landing circle or a drone at sea) without a homing beacon, from...

The plan announced is for a *temporary* takeover for the duration of a single mission, presumanly for operational security (mission tracking and control), legal issues, and precisely to keep at bay charges of SPACEX itself being militarized. Unsaid but implied, USSF would gain institutional...

A first step. If STARSHIP even approaches the cost and turn around times Musk dreams of, the Space Force will end up buying a handful of full stacks to run their operations. In times past, USAF Space Command tried to get its own independent space station and shuttle but the numbers never made...

Odds it is obsolete before launching? Non-zero, methinks.

Remember the DOD has two budgets. The $33M comes out of the public one. It establishes that Lockheed is doing something in that (ahem) space. It doesn't mean it's the only money they get. The real question is what DOD wants that for. The oficial answer is the high orbitals but what for?

The worm is okay...for a generic acronym string. But nothing conveys the agency's mission and spirit like the meatball.

Two is not a logical number; zero, one, and "many" are but not two. If two, why not three? Or ten, a hundred, whatever... And if they're not there, planet formation theories are in trouble. Oh, and the newest found is almost a mile in size. That's industrial size. As to looking in craters (on...

No need to go that far just yet. Earth's trojans are more accessible and screaming for visits.