intercst
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After watching Musk at TFGās rally, I was instantly struck by how much he seems like he could move on to become like one of the villians in a Bond movie. I guess Iām glad that āheās on Americaās sideā, but I also guess that his allegiance could easily be bought. Musk is South African by birth, and we all know about the path they were on till apartheid ended. I have no doubt that from growing up in that environment, Musk has an authoritarian bent.
Fresh Air on NPR had a good interview about some of the billionaires who will be setting Americaās path, if TFG wins.
Itās not just Musk who will be setting the direction America will take, there are other billionaires lined up to tell the rest of us how we should live. Scary stuff. And billionaires will be an influence if the VP wins in November, so not just a 1-way path.
What Do Billionaires Like Elon Musk Want From Trump? : Fresh Air : NPR
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I have seen no evidence that he is on our side!
JimA
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Not sure how this would actually work. The trip would be one way if you are making a last minute launch. It would land in an unprepared area, not have any infrastructure and no way to refuel. We also have no idea if the starship itself can take off and get to orbit on Earthā¦which is why the booster section. This seems incredibly wasteful to just throw starships around for one time use.
Also, launching to orbit, then avoiding populated areas, and then making sure all debris (booster wouldnāt have chopsticks, and hot staging ring, and accidental bits) falls in correct places, and getting through any local flight paths, boat lanes, etc etc etcā¦
ā¦count me as extremely skeptical.
ps - professional project manager that is paid, partially, to identify risks. 
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If starship is stuck in Pakistan, how does it get to orbit to refuel? My understanding for things like Mars is they will build the infrastructure there to land at. The orbital refueling is most likely a thing for around the moon to get the ships filled up to travel across the galaxy.
huh, what does this mean ?
It is an example of a location of the USAF could send a starship to, so if it is sent there with cargo, it lands there to unload the weapons/troopsā¦how does it get back to space from Pakistan? ā¦ie - stuck.
I can see so many problems with this idea. For one, you canāt land at any kind of contested/hostile area. If it isnāt contest or hostile, why do you need to be there in an hour?
Another is that the payload is on the order of 100 tons, but I assume that means to LEO. I would guess you canāt both take off and land with that much. Another thing is that it costs about $2.7 million per ton to get to LEO. So that is one helluva an expensive flight to deliver not very much cargo.
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Good point on landing fully loaded, hadnāt thought of that one. Would require completely different landing gear and bigger fuel reserve to slow down/stopā¦
Why would they land in Pakistan ?
They would land on a military base or ocean ship where there is the landing station.
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4954550-musk-putin-alleged-conversations-nasa/
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called for The Wall Street Journalās recent report on āsecretā conversations between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin to be investigated.
Nelson first emphasized that NASA is ānon-partisan politicalā and praised SpaceX for its recent work in developing spacecraft, before saying that the Journalās Thursday report should be looked into.
Russia has installed Starlink terminals in its Iranian-designed Shahed drones, according to a Ukrainian media report, which would mark the latest upgrade to the destructive kamikaze drones long used against Ukrainian cities if confirmed.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down a Shahed-136 attack drone that was fitted with Starlink during aerial attacks overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, Ukrainian outlet Defense Express reported. Early on Wednesday, Ukraineās air force said it had intercepted 28 out of 32 Shahed drones launched from Russiaās Kursk and Krasnodar regions.
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IIRC, Musk has a top secret clearance. If you have one of those you are supposed to report contacts with foreign nationals. If he has had āsecret conversationsā with Putin then he either didnāt report them (a no-no) or he has reported them and the government didnāt care.
DB2
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What is you need to get to a military base in one hour?
Faster is always better. From Post Roads to the Pony Express, to telegraph and telephone, fax machines and internet, from Parcel Post to FedEx, faster wins every time.
And if youāre the military and have an unlimited budget thanks to the hyper-militarized cultural ethos and endless national dollars, heck, deliver Fritos and beer with it.
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Optimus, Soldiers, Guns, Ammunition, Missiles, Airplanes, Tanks, Food, Water
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Thatās turns out to be roughly $10,000/gallon of water. You can stockpile all the water you want for almost free. No wonder the DoD is interested.
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I donāt believe the plan is to achieve orbit. Itās more like an ICBM ballistic missile trip which would require much less fuel. But as others have pointed out, Elon Musk is currently landing an almost empty Starship. You would need more fuel to provide braking for a 100 ton cargo.
intercst
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The article says they want to get on site to a location, not travel to a base with all the infrastructure in place already, that defeats the whole purpose because unloading, caravaning, and then getting to a location could take days.
As for putting the facilities on a shipā¦there is a reason Elon isnāt landing the Starship on a boatā¦only the boosters from Falcons. The physics would be very difficult.