Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "Why Starship Is The Holy Grail For SpaceX" video.

@MyKharli Elon has never put any work into Hyperloop, that's Richard Branson who's trying to build Hyperloop. Not sure why everyone acts like Elon's trying to build it.
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@doylethelovely2555 not all Starships have blown up though. And that's part of the rapid iteration and testing process.
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@arizona_anime_fan you don't understand the situation very well I see. The environmental impact study that was done before was for suborbital testing and Falcon launches. SpaceX has changed the plans, and the FAA is currently deciding whether the changes are major enough to require the EIS to be redone from scratch, or if it's minor compared to the study that was already done. The FAA is who gives launch permits, and one of the conditions for a launch permit is that there is a valid EIS approval. So they aren't replicating what the EPA did, they are looking at whether the old EPA study is valid for the launch that SpaceX is asking permission to do, and that's totally within their perogotive.
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@commonsenseskeptic yup, a successful landing but with a sticky valve is such an insurmountable problem! Might as well scrap the whole thing. Back in reality, Elon has said that they gained enough data from that launch and landing to focus on preparing for a full stack launch, and so instead of spending more time and energy on hops, everyone is working on integrating everything for the orbital launch. If they still had things that needed hops to test or figure out, they would be doing more hops, but once you reach the performance goals for that stage of testing, why keep doing it? Of course you are a dedicated negative viewpoint, so you see any changes to the plan as proof of failure, when they are actually signs of optimism and success, that the team believes they are ready for an orbital flight on the next launch.
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@ChaJ67 what I am thinking about would not require much work to be done in space, and it would all be done from inside the structure so no spacewalks needed. And it could be refined further, maybe designing insulation into the walls to begin with, and building hvac ducting in on the ground, so basically all they have to do us unbolt some port covers in the bulkheads and roll out the string of lights. Considering the available payload capacity, you could do a lot of modifications on the ground and still have payload capacity left over. And I think it would be easier to make the tanks part of the habitat, then to have one where the nose cone seperated and the tank section becomes a deep space tug lol
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@saumyacow4435 what you miss though is that a lot of those 4 and 5 g cell towers in remote villages will soon be connected via Starlink. What self respecting telecommunications company will spend millions of dollars running (not to mention maintaining and repairing) thousands of miles of fiber optic cables to serve villages of a few hundred people, when they can spend a few hundred dollars and drop a Starlink dish on top of a tower and have instant service? And how many governments and aid organizations will sponsor the Starlink to be installed to give everyone free Wi-Fi access? In places where it's easy or economical to run fiber, it makes sense, but vast parts of the world it's not simple or cheap to run fiber.
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@johnkean6852 yet he's currently our only ride to space... Funny how illogical people like you sound compared to facts!
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@ChaJ67 you missed one simple change. Since the fuel on Starship is a gas, rather than kerosene, you could build a Space Station edition Starship where once in position you vent the methane tank, purge it with oxygen from the oxygen tank, and then vent that out as well, and then have some bolted on access ports through the tank bulkheads allowing you to easily turn the entire tank section into more habitable space. You can pre-build metal mesh platforms and such in the tanks without effecting the fuel flow, and then have rolls of insulation and tensioned fabric walls stored in the nose that can easily be deployed in the tanks and fastened to pre installed anchor points. Some flexible ducts to connect the life support hvac system into the tanks, or even pre installed ducts on the sides of the tanks, roll out the electrical cables, and you have a fancy station in one launch.
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