/sci/ - Science & Math

>>10930007
Musk entertaining the idea of an 18 m 600+ tonne second generation Starship suggests that he is reconsidering the idea of a space economy based on resource extraction of near earth asteroids, where a super cargo space ship will be required to transport refined valuable metals to Earth. The First Gen SS 9 metres 150 tones to LEO is more than enough to go to mars or complete Starlink, especially with refueling being a possibility . Musk isnt going let Bezos dominate the industrialization of Space, especially when he has a first mover advantage with rockets. Mars is just a cover for Musks true intentions. The infrastructure and economic of scale that an exhibition to mars will necessitate will have duel uses for a space economy driven by the extraction of valuable metals dound near earth asteroids, that is worth trillions of dollars. Musk is an evil genius.

>>9459614
If you source the materials from space based sources instead of from a big ass gravity well, the price becomes remarkably cheap
the vast majority of the costs of getting shit to space is hauling that shit into space

Asteroids have fucktons of iron and water in them, along with everything else on the periodic table in random quantities
ideally, pretty much the only things you'd need to bring up from earth are plants, animals, and people, all else you make on site

>>9385051
that'd be expensive as shit and not achieve much
would be better to put science on the backseat for a a decade or two and focus entirely on getting space mining and industry up
once that is fully functional, and we can start building ships and probes in space itself, then we can do science and exploration on a scale unimaginable because of the massive cost reductions it would bring

why spend all this time trying to make clown car probes that might wind up blowing up on the launch pad, when you can make full sized science ships with no risk of boom in space