SpaceX to attempt a test today. https://arstechnica.com/science/201...-hop-its-starship-prototype-higher-on-monday/
that's more of a flying trash-can. Residents of Boca Chica should leave their homes when the siren is sounded prior to the test?
Impressive for a rocket propelled waste can. Without Space Cowboy along for the ride it's hard to tell the scale. Might be an Estes rocket Elon mocked up to look like his.
So, the Starhopper is powered by methane, not kerosene. Why? Because you can't refuel on Mars if you use kerosene. https://www.popsci.com/spacex-methane-engine-flight-test/
This photo shows how deceptively large the hopper is: https://www.teslarati.com/wp-conten...82719-NASASpaceflight-bocachicagal-3-edit.jpg
NASA releases images showing potential SpaceX landing sites on Mars. https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-starship-potential-mars-landing-sites-uncovered-in-nasa-images/
Spacex PR fest tonight 7 central (8 atlantic). This is beginning to resemble a 40's Robert Heinlein novel.
At some point, Musk is going to do his update. Right now, we're still waiting for him to show up. Over an hour after he was supposed to take the stage.
Jeepers. It is Rocket Ship Galileo. The next couple years are going to be amazing. The vid tucker posted is an hour and a half. First forty minutes are prepared speech with a fifteen minute break and then another forty minutes QandA. Well worth a watch if you're into it. Here it is again:
Elon really needs some training on public speaking. I was hoping for a few more technical details or an update on the Dear Moon program, for their usual standards this was a bit light. I was impressed that Elon seemed to be learning not to give date estimations until the Q&A, when he started talking about crewed launches within a year.
I dunno, I found his style charming. You could see the wheels turning when he didn't have a prepared answer, although his answers on life support seemed thin, something to the effect of, "Yeah, that should be easy."
When Elon starts talking about "adding rear moving fins", my sphincter tightens. He's assembled a pretty damn cool team to build a damn cool ship though.
More info on Starship: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/10/29/the-spacex-starship-is-a-very-big-deal/
Good article. Gives perspective. Its author, Casey Handmer is something of a rocket scientist (JPL wonk). linked in.
