Nekhrimah

Stated several times in the article are variants of [Tesla doesn't let non Teslas use the Supercharger network].

From memory, Elon has made it clear repeatedly that non Tesla vehicles would be allowed to use Superchargers, as long as appropriate costs were contributed. Clearly any arrangement making this happen can only really occur at the manufacturer level.

In fact, it appears that this has already happened for one smaller manufacturer [0].

So, while it may be likely that regulation is necessary to ensure that a fragmented charging landscape doesn't permanently settle into the US market, "only Tesla's can use Supercharges" is provably false.

[0] https://www.electrive.com/2020/12/22/tesla-superchargers-alr...

Anything placed at geosynchronous orbit will stay up there effectively forever. There was nothing up there until Humans placed things there. Therefore, there was no previous Earth based space faring civilisation.

Footage of the backlog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhSzxe0FuIE

Presumably in the Gulf of Suez.

In a similar vein, Napster was also a game changer for mp3 distribution.

In contrast to the famed Oprah car give away that actually left the recipients with a noticeable tax burden. [0]

[0] https://jalopnik.com/that-time-oprah-gave-276-people-free-ca...

Not a health professional, but seeing the success of the New Zealand lockdowns, I don't think I agree with this stance. Long lockdowns of many months surely have huge impacts to mental health, and business viability, especially when governments don't step up with financial assistance to allow people to stay at home.

But I can't move past the idea that if the entire world had just locked down, all together, for 2 months or so, we could have stopped this whole thing dead.

The height is almost irrelevant, as long as Starship is at terminal velocity prior to the re-ignition sequence. It's the landing sequence of belly-flop, flip and land that has never been tried before Starship.

Starship is being designed to land on Mars. Therefore it needs to land safely with only what comes with the vehicle. Note Mars atmosphere is 1% pressure of Earth.

I do wonder if Blue Origin's funding model of wealthy benefactor has affected delivery as well. I don't doubt that Blue has fantastic, committed, and talented engineers. But there is something to be said about "We need this in X weeks, or the company might fold" motivation.

> [Blue Origin's] second generation rocket, currently nicknamed New Armstrong.

Great post. Just clarifying that New Armstrong will be the third generation, behind New Glenn (second) and New Sheppard (first).

I've stuck with Firefox through thick and thin because another browser mono-culture is something I'd strongly prefer to not happen.

The "TD" call is wheels down on Mars. However, at that point the sky crane is still tethered to the rover. If the tether separation isn't successful, and/or the descent stage impacts the rover, then you can't say "We're safe on Mars."

Note that this edited video is compressed with the timeframe. The gap between the "TD" and "safe on Mars" callouts were longer as it happened.

If you're not aware, check out Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. [0]

This is an animated movie set to the album Discovery. No dialogue other than the music of the album. Done by Toei Animation, a notable Japanese animation studio.

You may have seen the music videos for One More Time and Harder Better Faster Stronger. They were just part of a full narrative arc.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qxe-QOp_-s

> I wonder if they have the time/it's in their plan to send [Perseverance] over to record where [the heat shield] landed

I was thinking the same, but more for the fact that surely the impact has made a hole of some description that could be interesting to look into. Take advantage of the already expended energy to penetrate the surface layers.

To fit [0] inside the circular shell of the heatshield.

[0] https://www.flickr.com/photos/24354425@N03/49953375668/

> Here's a breakdown: https://youtu.be/4TxkE_oYrjU

I watched the first 90 seconds of this. On the cost of re-usability of a falcon 9 point, the figures are shown as from Wikipedia.

So 1) not a primary source. 2) fails to calculate the percentage correctly between $62m and $50m as "around 10%". It's almost 20% on those figures. 3) and most importantly, those numbers are the cost to the customer, not SpaceX's internal cost. As they have no current competition in rocket re-usability, they are able to recoup the R&D cost for developing this technology.

I don't think I'll bother watching the rest of the video.

Any idea on the timeframe for unfurling the robotic arm? And doing the test drive?

Thanks for your efforts towards the fantastic result today.

And audio as well!

> that you couldn't monetize because people would run to the next platform

My anecdotal experience with ICQ in the 90's was the same. It was dominant, but when they updated to include a modest banner ad at the bottom of the message window, a substantial number of my friends took that as the last straw and moved (mostly to MSN). A shame, since ICQ was a pretty decent messenger for its time.

Primary discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151342

Did a bit of searching, and it seems the two most likely threads are:

Persisting as a solo founder https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24251403

Research Says Solo Founders Perform Better https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24148113

But neither clearly contains a reference to $20k being paltry. Sorry!