technology is usually, prob almost always, developed for application so do they "need" to relaunch stuff? maybe not, but do they want to? i assume so. as for what reason i cannot say as i know nada about the ramifications. however, i can't really imagine they were working on relaunch/landing without a goal in mind

CDL,

There could be improvements in satellite tv and internet. We could even have cool new space sports.

nah, I'm pro space travel. However, I am personally more interested in far flung space travel and hyperspeed travel (or any possibility of travelling beyond the speed of light if it proves scientifically possible) than orbiting the Earth or going to Mars. Sadly, I don't think I will live long enough to know if this is possible.

I just don't understand what the big deal about this is other than it increases efficiency and provides cost savings. Nothing else about it seems like a revolutionary leap like exiting the earth's atmosphere or re-entering or even getting a rocket off the ground on earth was yet it seems like people online (I haven't had real world interactions about this yet) are treating it as something as monumental as when we first landed on the moon which had farflung significance.

Like, I guess what I am getting at is that this doesn't satisfy any of my personal interests in space travel and doesn't seem like it makes anything we've done in space more technologically feasible only more economical. Can someone explain the benefit of the landing technology and its applications to our lives? Maybe that will help me grasp it, but as of right now it only seems to me like it makes space travel cheaper and can create shorter intervals between trips, but doesnt otherwise bring us any closer to our goals of going faster or further outside of the implicit gains that we can get from being able to save money and time on rebuilds of ships. I want to know what explicit benefits there are or if the benefits are all implicit in the cost and efficiency of reusable rockets?

In this episode of CDLbot, CDL feigns ignorance/stupidity as a trolling mechanism. Oh crap that was the last 100 episodes too

I bet CDL and Epipen would have gotten along great.

I was waiting for your take. And I hope CDL gets punched in the face by an alien

Looking at early Oscar odds. Looks like Leo is finally going to win for the Revenant at 4/9. Not sure I would bet on that, but the field looks weak, and it is time for him. Seems weird saying my favorite bet is a 1/5 odds, but if you can get Inside Out at 1/5 for best animated oscar absolutely unload on that and consider it an investment that will return 16% in 2 months. Inside Out winning best animated is the lockiest lock of all time.

brovada has it at -1000

Eh, I would still take it as a 9% investment over 2 months. I really do think Inside Out winning best Animated is as close to 100% as it gets.

2 months? don't they decide on january 14

If you've got about an hour and a half to kill, I highly recommend reading this if you're interested in SpaceX, the history of rockets, and why it's a big deal that we can land rockets.

You are not getting paid until the ceremony Feb 28

It's like the kardashian's of 2p2 . . . except the feigning part.

When costs to go into space go drastically down, we can do more exploration and learn what is needed to go for your far flung space travel

If you agree that running 100 iterative tests and trials is better than running 5 then you should see why this is a big deal...

Lol space travel

Thank you for reminding me to try and get my Son of Saul money down.

From the link.

"It’s hard to fully emphasize what a big deal this was. Ever since life on Earth began 3.6 billion years ago, no earthly creature had set foot on any celestial body other than the Earth. Suddenly, there are Armstrong and Aldrin, bouncing around another sphere, looking up in the sky where the moon is supposed to be and seeing the Earth instead. Insane."

Here's the part that just doesn't do it for me. If I can't understand this I guess I'll never get space travel. Just couldn't care less that we walked around on the useless moon.

All sports docs or other stuff as well?

I really liked Man on Wire, although now that they turned it into a JGL movie you may already be familiar with the story.

Yup

I'll try to answer this. I did some contract work with a small suborbital VTVL company. They're pretty small but still active today, got their first influx of money winning a lunar lander challenge, and have arguably some of the best landing tech out there right now. All of the work is on an old computer, but here's what I remember:

There is a good bit of research that gets done with microgravity tests right now, and a lot more that WOULD be done if there was a way to do it that didn't involve sounding rockets. Sounding rockets are essentially missiles with no explosive payload that get fired into sub orbit, allow for 20-60 seconds of microgravity, and then crash land into the ocean or desert.

Because of this they can only launch from a few places in the world and during very precise intervals. Also, the payload is essentially never recoverable outside of whatever recording device they've protected like an airplane's black box, and even then it can be lost some time. The going rate for a sounding rocket test was somewhere around a million dollars when I was looking at this in 2010 or so.

Reusable suborbital cuts that cost by an order of magnitude, allows for more payloads on a single trip, and can do multiple trips in a single day with slight recalibrations (versus months and millions of dollars in the current world). It will almost certainly open up a market that we can't even fully conceive of right now given how much cheaper and more accessible the technology will be.

There are a handful of other advantages as well that I can look up when I get a chance this afternoon.

All docs. I watched man on wire the night before and it didn't do anything for me. I turned it off half way through. It was boring the ever living **** out of me albeit I realize it's more of a me problem than anything else given everyone loves it

I watched bigger faster stronger the other week. Was ok. The guy who was narrating was an absolute dolt who kind of ruined it for me.

All docs welcomed. Not sure how hoop dreams hadn't been recommended to me. 3 hours was long but it was well worth it and wish it would have been longer tbh.

First of all, this take that the invention of something needn't require that it actually be invented because it will automatically spin off ELITE KNOWLEDGE BOMBS through meeting-room proofs of concept alone is the ****tiest take of the entire FACK this year if not decade, and possibly the ****tiest take to ever be defended over multiple posts in the history of the internet and, before that, within the Op-Ed columns of the worst newspapers or within the ****tiest, dingiest backwater scientific journals on the planet.

Second:

THINGS that are IMPORTANT about SPACE.

1. We live in space, actually.

2. The EARTH is actually NOT an infinite font of resources.¹ We will, at some point, some day, actually deplete or pollute the Earth significantly enough that we will require additional real estate in space. Perhaps you can think of space exploration like shopping for condos or something, I don't know man.

3. Some day, for what scientists agree will be like the 6th and more likely eighth or ninth time, something REALLY BAD will happen to the Earth, having nothing to do with us. When that happens we will, just like above, "require additional real estate in space." I'm being glib. What I'm trying to say is that it would be PRETTY COOL if we could survive an extinction-level natural catastrophe, and it appears that to do so, we kinda need to have a few of us who are NOT HERE FOR IT.

4. It turns out, shockingly, that the actual testing and utilization of technology tends to generate additional knowledge that in turn results in additional testing and utilization of newer technology, and so it goes. HEY MAN WE DIDN'T NEED TO BUILD THE IPHONE ONCE WE KNEW WE COULD. etc.

5. We are talking about the rudiments of the ability for humanity to expand beyond the Earth. I don't even understand how one can regard that as anything other than absolutely the coolest **** we'll probably even be alive for, but let's set that aside - how is this not "important"?

6. The resources stored in space will, for sure, eventually be commercially mined. Don't ask me when - I'm not smart enough to know because no one on the planet is. There are guesses, though, that aren't that far off. I would think CDL would love this part: if SpaceX WORKS HARD ENOUGH on LANDING ROCKETS, they can presumably figure out how to make commercial mining of SPACE commercially viable so that the more important TRADERS can TRADE RIGHTS IN THEM in myriad clever and fraudulent ways.

7. Also whatever I said here:

¹ I am aware that "fount" is arguably a preferred usage. It looks ****ty, so I don't use it.

~every 30 for 30 worth watching obv


the KU one sucked tho

In addition to everything I already said:

YES. SPACEX IS A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE THAT WANTS TO CONTINUALLY RELAUNCH EXACTLY THIS ROCKET, AND ROCKETS BASED ON IT, ALL OF WHICH ARE NEW TECHNOLOGY, IN ORDER TO MAKE A LOT OF MONEY, WHICH YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE. IT WILL NEED TO LAND AND RELAUNCH ROCKETS MANY HUNDREDS OF TIMES FOR THIS PLAN TO SUCCEED. THIS NECESSARILY REQUIRES THAT IT DO SO MORE THAN ONCE.