• nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    Well, vertically landing rockets was a solved problem before Spacex was a twinkle in Elon Musk's stupid eye. He certainly managed to funnel a large amount of federal money into re-solving that problem, though.

    • Chronicon [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      I mean that was a one-off prototype and tiny. as far as I can tell it carried no payload, and even if it had been completed, would have had a payload like 1/8th of the very first falcon 9, which has since increased, and frankly is more impressive as a layperson considering its proportions. I get that we hate musk here but bringing that to fruition is a big accomplishment of all the workers involved

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        3 months ago

        Landing vertically is the problem, size is just a question of scope. It was a testbed. The project got shitcanned because of lack of funding, if the same amount of money had been dumped into it as into Spacex then vertical landing rockets would have been in production much earlier. All Musk has done is be the conduit through which money flows.

        • Chronicon [they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Nobody here is giving any credit to Musk. Saying "hey this is a nice building, the engineers and architects and builders really did a good job", is not giving any credit to my landlord, we all know he's just a guy with money. Check your reading comprehension. We all hate Musk, he's up there with the worst of the worst, I get it

          Yes, this probably could have been done much earlier, and if it was we'd say the same things about the engineers and crew that brought that hypothetical project over the finish line. It's cool to see things progress

          edit: also I said proportions not size. Tall shit wants to fall over more than short stubby wide shit

              • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
                ·
                3 months ago

                Pretty sure I wasn't shitting on anybody but Elon. The workers at Spacex have done good work, but it's not some earth shattering change, it's just a progression of already existing technology. They didn't invent self-landing rockets, and at this point people can make self-landing R/C rockets with off-the-shelf hardware.

                • Adlach@lemmygrad.ml
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  Literally all technology is a progression of already existing technology. I feel like you're being kind of persnickety.

                  • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    3 months ago

                    Coming up with a new thing vs refining a thing that already exists seems to be extremely distinct and easy to understand. Coming up with a completely new thing - landing a rocket on its tail - was done in the 90s. Refining that idea that was already come up with and then demonstrated as possible is just taking somebody else's idea and perfecting it.

                    I think it's very distinct and not persnickety at all.

                    This is characteristic of every single thing Elon is involved with. He does not invent ideas, he takes other people's ideas and then dumps truckloads of money into them while treating the people he pays like dogshit and pretending to be clever.

              • whogivesashit@lemmygrad.ml
                ·
                3 months ago

                Check your reading comprehension is an unnecessary comment on someone's ability to read, rather than just engaging with the argument at hand. If you feel like someone didn't adequately address your point, you can say that without insulting their intelligence.

                So check your comprehension of pig pooping on balls.

              • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 months ago

                We disagree, instead of acknowledging that they went directly for the reddit-tier "check your reading comprehension", which is extremely hostile so they got the pigpoopballs. I also blocked them because I don't want reddit hostility on my communist website, so it's a nice zero conflict result where I will no longer need to interact with them and vice versa.

                If getting ppb is too hostile for you, I dunno what to tell ya.

        • AnarchoAnarchist [none/use name]
          ·
          3 months ago

          Absolutely. But the engineers that worked on that project and the engineers that work on the falcon 9 both deserve our praise.

          The workers at spacex have done some amazing things despite all the hurdles in their way.

        • aaro [they/them, she/her]
          ·
          3 months ago

          size is absolutely not just a question of scope. there are qualitative differences that emerge from the accumulation of quantative change. bugs-stalin

    • AmericaDelendaEst [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 months ago

      before Spacex was a twinkle in Elon Musk's stupid eye

      I'm pretty sure that he bought space x the same way he did Tesla and the point of the above comment is that Musk sucks, but the workers actually doing things are cool and should be supported

      • nat_turner_overdrive [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        the workers actually doing things are cool and should be supported

        Sorry, I do not support capitalist endeavors. I don't think the workers suck, but I don't support their environmental degradation nor their abuse by a psychotic billionaire nor the products they create. Guess we have a difference of opinion.

        Edit: also Spacex was absolutely founded by Elon Musk, after his dipshit ass went to Russia to try to buy Russian rockets and a Russian rocket engineer literally spat on his shoes and told him he would never be able to use his filthy money to buy the Soviet rockets. That engineer deserves accolades.

    • zephyreks [none/use name]
      ·
      3 months ago

      Commoditizing something is harder than showing a demonstrator (even if it's less cool than the demonstrator)