Starship launch

[Crissa]

Not really relevant but my neighbors son is a PhD rocket engineer. He chose to work for NASA rather than SpaceX for job security. He was offered a job by both. I think he made a mistake.

Oh, if you can be hired by NASA directly, that's tons more job security than for the contractor. NASA is who is funneling alot of this money to Space X. At the contractor you'll be on a project, and only on that project until it succeeds or is canceled, which means there's always an end-date and then you're looking for a new job. Space X also doesn't do alot of the direct science, and until Crew Dragon flew ahead of Boeing's Crew module, it was a toss up whether Starship was going to get the funding it needed.

Working for a space project is very satisfying, but it does not come with job security.

-Crissa

 

[FutureBoy]

Not really relevant but my neighbors son is a PhD rocket engineer. He chose to work for NASA rather than SpaceX for job security. He was offered a job by both. I think he made a mistake.

Those SpaceX guys are amazing! Musk is a genius....

Whether he made a mistake or not has a lot to do with who he is as a person and the other specific individuals that he would be working with. Sure, there are elements that involve the progression of the different organizations but really the only person who can determine the “right” of the decision is him.

 

[Diehard]

start at 1:47. Amazing

A completely newbie question: I understand if you are landing on an asteroid or a new bumpy planet, this may be the way to go but if you have already built a runway on mars or moon (Titan) is there any advantage to this type of design over space shuttle? Something with a larger wing, could land with all engines dead. Any education is appreciated.

 

[Crissa]

A completely newbie question:

Atmosphere. Runways work because we have an atmosphere.

The thicker the atmosphere, the more efficient your wings are. The less thick, the more dead weight to structure they are.

Starship has the wings it has to traverse the atmosphere, but most of the time they're just air resistance. And rockets don't want air resistance.

-Crissa

 

[MEDICALJMP]

Not really relevant but my neighbors son is a PhD rocket engineer. He chose to work for NASA rather than SpaceX for job security. He was offered a job by both. I think he made a mistake.

Those SpaceX guys are amazing! Musk is a genius....

He went with the odds. Musk even said it himself, “My friends were asking me how to make a million dollars. Then they would say, ‘Well, you start with a billion and then start a rocket company....”’

 

[Eye of Elon]

That was the coolest thing I've ever seen. They skydived back to the landing site then flipped a 15 story building back to the vertical! I think keeping the fuel flowing to the engines should be a relatively easy issue to solve.