[shkkmo]

I find the starship news exciting, but given the incremental nature of starship development, it really isn't the most exciting stuff happening today with space exploration as there is all kinds of other cool stuff happening and being discovered.

One example off the top of my head:

https://earthsky.org/space/final-parker-solar-probe-flyby-of...

[rbanffy]

Starship is an enabling technology. We can easily imagine the things it will make possible.

[shkkmo]

Which is why I find it exciting and am stoked every time I see progress made.

Howevever, it's hard to view an announcement of the next launch with some minor additions to the experimental flight, as the most exciting space news today. Future launches, once they get the license updated, will he more exciting.

[righthand]

Please list them because right now it is a hugely costly project that has shown no significant capital advancement for society beyond propping up Elon Musk and a “someday the average man will walk on the moon” dream. If anything of capital gain comes from it, it will never actually benefit the financial bottom line of the middle and lower class.

[shkkmo]

Space based technology has massive impact on every day life. From GPS to weather prediction to communications, space infrastructure is critical to modern life.

Launch costs significantly reduce what we can build in space and what research we co do there. Decreasing launch costs makes our research funding more effective and reduces the capital costs and projected profit margins needed to build space based infrastructure.

SpaceX has already enabled significant economic growth and innovation with the launch cost reductions brought by the various falcon rockets and their reusability.

If Starship can accomplish it's reusability goals, an ever greater reduction of launch costs is possible. This would jump start an even bigger space industry boom than the one we are in today.

[righthand]

None of that listed technology comes from building reusable rockets.

The rest of your statement only indicates that Starship is indeed a fat pig when it comes to budget. This “boom” is all private for profit companies spending investment money. Not a “boom” in the sense that any man can get involved and benefit in the tangible future.

Pretending that everyone is going to be better off because of this space dream delusion doesn’t really answer my question.

[shkkmo]

> None of that listed technology comes from building reusable rockets.

Lower launch costs are a force multiplier for all of those technologies and more.

> This “boom” is all private for profit companies spending investment money. Not a “boom” in the sense that any man can get involved and benefit in the tangible future.

It sounds like your issue is more with capitalism than space...

But lower launch costs decrease the capital needed to particpate is space, so you point still doesn't make sense.

> Pretending that everyone is going to be better off because of this space dream delusion doesn’t really answer my question.

Everyone is already better off because of the soace dream. You don't seem to actually want an answer to your question.

[righthand]

Please explain to me how lower launch costs will help weather prediction.

Please give me the benefit of the doubt and help me understand what lower launch costs help with the average american today. I am asking an honest question to a different poster who originally indicated that the benefits were easily imaginable.

> We can easily imagine the things it will make possible.

I am trying to imagine how building reusable rockets leads to improving GPS and weather systems that decades of other fields that use those technologies couldn’t improve on already. What is this special low cost rocket sauce that enables it?

I can see the blind Marvel-movie-like fandom of “but it’s science” and “its our destiny” and “imagine all the wonderful things but don’t let me tell you ;)” but I do not see the actual details of what this will enable besides allowing Musk et al to hollow out planets for mining operations for their own gain.

Why would I want to answer my own question when I don’t understand what the original poster was suggesting?

You seem at a loss for these easily imaginable ideas.