Tag Archives: Starship

Elon Musk, SpaceX, Tech

Musk vs Bezos: Judgement Day

Video

Federal judge quashes Bezos’ lawsuit against NASA over SpaceX contract In the ongoing and ever escalating feud between worlds 1st & 2nd biggest billionaires things just got meme-ier Sad, bad loser Bezos turned to the courts when his dick-rocket compensation company was passed over for the 2.9 billion $ manned lunar lander contract that was awarded exclusively to Musk’s SpaceX.

Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Tesla / Various Sources

Musk’s Twitter Feud with Bezos goes back to the early days of Blue Origin, when Musk dubbed the future penile manufacturer a “copy cat” and proceeded by lambasting his “blue balls” marketing campaign and then turning the focus to his full time career as a litigant in sour-grapes lawsuits…

The complaint was brought against NASA by Blue Origin via the government watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, claiming that the decision, which NASA said was made for reasons of budget, was “anticompetitive”.

Let that sink in, Bezos, the man behind amazon’s well known and all pervasive anticompetitive marketplace practices, which are currently under siege by the FTC and multiple governments around the globe, feels that it’s “unfair” that his “rocket-looks-like-a-xxx” manufacturing company was not picked to get a multibillion dollar contract.

“Anticompetitive” is a concept not unfamiliar to the ex-Amazon CEO

Above: Screenshot of Reuters Article

A recent Reuters Special report outlined how a treasure trove of internal documents exposed a pattern that nails just what “anticompetitive” looks like: at Amazon.

Though accusations were denied by the company, Reuters research into the voluminous documentation revealed that ” the company ran a systematic campaign of creating knockoffs and manipulating search results to boost its own product lines in India, one of the company’s largest growth markets. The employees also stoked sales of Amazon private-brand products by rigging Amazon’s search results so that the company’s products would appear, as one 2016 strategy report for India put it, “in the first 2 or three … search results” when customers were shopping…”

Boo hoo? Musk, ever the master of meme generation, celebrated the news with a meme-tweet of Sly Stallone’s Judge Dredd with the caption “You have been Judged”. What Bezos will not be participating in is The Human Landing System program, a NASA initiative to design a lunar landing system that could return humans to the moon in 2024.

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Hot-Lynx

Starlink @ 100K and Elon Musk is Tweeting the Milestone

Above: Photo Credit / Starlink

Starlink is way out ahead of the pack, which simultaneously grows in its shadow

The SpaceX’s Starklink satellite internet service has hit a milestone and Elon Musk took to Twitter to share the news. He confirmed that 100,000 terminals have been shipped out. According to an article from Slash Gear there are also more than half a million people on the waitlist globally.

This is all happening at a time when SpaceX is under siege from Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin and potential rivals are launching their own satellites to try and catch up. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is going public and hopes to launch satellites for iOT connectivity, while OneWeb recently launched 34 internet satellites into space, while Amazon’s “kuiper” system is still planning its launches to proceed.

100K is huge considering the satellite launches only began back in November 2019 and the initial beta program was only available for select customers a year later.

Starlink’s main goal, also mentioned in Musk’s tweet is for the company to go global and serve the whole world. Currently, service is available for 14 countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, Netherlands, India, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand.

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Hot-Lynx

Elon Musk Reacts to Jeff Bezos’ Nonstop Fight to Win Over NASA Moon Lander Contract

Above: Photo Collage by Lyxotic

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have both recently held the title of the world’s richest person. Currently the two were also in a competition with each other over a contract to design the Human-Landing vehicle for NASA’s up coming moon missions.

NASA had selected SpaceX as the sole contractor for the program, however, Bezos as a way to try to get the contract, offered in an open letter to forgo $2 billion in future payments.

A Tweet by Musk reacting to the news, including what appears to be a deflated prototype by Blue Origin, was also included in the new article by the Observer.

Read it at the Observer

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Science, Tech

Does Elon Musk have two Plans to Save Humanity?

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https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1364905536194572289/pu/vid/640x640/rd4iQkl-Xvef86HI.mp4?tag=10

Having two plans to save the world, and being Elon Musk, the questions are fascinating and a bit bizarre

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. So many fantastic triumphs over evil – starting a company with a goal of accelerating sustainable energy and transportation. And then , not only succeeding at that but challenging the fossil fuel industrial complex, beating them, then basically forcing the major automakers across the globe to finally make the shift into all electric vehicles.

And SpaceX, though launching rockets is a messy thing, at least the Starlink Satellite Broadband internet project is something that will help humans all over the earth to decentralize, potentially a much needed option, if or when the coastlines begin to shrink and overpopulated coastal megalopolises are at the bottom of the ocean.

Forever win streak has an end in sight?

But Mars? There are some questions about that. For example, if the Earth rescue is so important, and if it succeeds (please!) then why would anyone want to live in a place like Mars?

Elon Musk replies cryptically to this lovely Mars Clip

As Shannon Stirone wrote in the Atlantic this week: Mars Is a Hellhole. And further: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity. Ok. There are issues. It’s a bit cold, an average surface temperature is a deadly 80 degrees below zero according to the article. Wow, and it has no magnetic field to help protect its surface from radiation from the sun or galactic cosmic rays; it has no breathable air.

Those are all enough for anyone to want to double down on the whole “let’s fix the earth” thing.

Unless…. Musk being the genius that he is, could it be that he is hedging his bets? Has he basically already decided that this whole Climate Change thing has already gone too far? And Earth is beyond saving?

Others have pointed out that by putting even a tiny fraction less effort into saving this planet in order to try and colonize another one, one that is 3.7 billion miles away, btw, could jeopardize the slim chance still there that climate change can be slowed, stopped, even reversed before it’s too late.

A list of goals and accomplishments that dovetail nicely into a world saved, or?

So what is the Mars thing really about then? I have to be honest it might be just fine. Give “Emperor Elan” the benefit of the doubt. Tesla’s are damn S3XY and they are also a perfect first step into transforming the world transportation and even energy generation and storage into something sustainable, and that’s downright perfect: utopia and having the time of your life all at once.

So, why not just throw in Mars and a nice little colony there, just for kicks? The whole mental-telepathy, Neurallink, thing, that’s gotta be useful too and, along with AI and Hyper-loop, let’s do it all, shall we?

Perhaps it does all fit together in some way that is invisible to the rest of us. Why, when Earth seems to need all our attention, particularly with political inaction and even obfuscation and attempted sabotage of the paths to a green future, why put so much into Mars right now?

Hopefully the answer is right around the corner, or at least less than 3.7 billion miles away.

source: twitter @RationalEtienne

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Cutting Edge

SpaceX breaks record – Falcon 9 launches and lands for the 6th time

Video

https://youtu.be/6jKkJzoccVM

Another successful lift-off and milestone achieved for Elon Musk’s space company

SpaceX welcomed back its Falcon 9 as the company caught its rocket head (payload fairings) using a large net in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.  This is the third time in less than thirty days that SpaceX has successfully retrieved its rocket head marking a significant milestone for the company.  With an additional launch currently scheduled for August 27, 2020.

The payload fairing – the rocket’s nose splits into two as it comes back from orbit, both of which are equipped with a parachute and autopilot guidance software for the recovery.  The two boats to catch each of the two fairings, Ms. Tree and Ms. Chief patiently waited for the rocket to come back to Earth. As you can see from the video, the company makes retrieving the fairing look extremely relaxing and seamless (cue elevator music). 

Read More: SpaceX Starship Plans for The Moon, Mars and Earth-to-Earth Transport

The Falcon 9, which is currently SpaceX’s largest rocket was launched on August 18, 2020 for the 40th time and this also marks a record-breaking 6 times that the Falcon has used the same booster. Eco-friendly and climate conscious, Musk has been praised for his ingenuity to recover and be able to build reusable rockets, which also significantly cuts expenses on the previously extreme high cost of space launches.

During the August 18, 2020 launch that took place at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the latest batch of 58 satellites were sent to orbit for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. This marks the 11th batch of Starlink satellites sent to orbit. To-date, SpaceX has launched almost 600 satellites for its Starlink initiative. 

Starlink is planning to deliver high speed broadband internet in the Northern United States and Canada As soon as September, in a limited test phase, then with full access during 2020. They then will expand for full global coverage by 2021. 

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Cutting Edge, Tech

SpaceX Starship Plans for The Moon, Mars and Earth-to-Earth Transport

Video
https://www.spacex.com/media/Website_TankerDock.mp4
video animation showing Video clip showing Starship tanker vehicle (essentially the Starship spacecraft minus the windows)

In a recent update to the SpaceX web site, Elon Musk and crew added some detail and updates to the plans for passenger and satellite cargo travel using its developing rocket tech. Naturally both SpaceX Starlink Satellite Launches and work for hire missions for NASA and others have been happening on a regular basis.

All of these and other projects also all serve to push the development of the systems for longer term projects, goals and plans.

https://www.spacex.com/media/mission_reusability.mp4
Video showing REUSABILITY – While most rockets are designed to burn up on reentry, SpaceX rockets can not only withstand reentry but can also successfully land back on Earth and refly again.

“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”

— ELON MUSK, SPACEX

One that has a specific stated timeline is the Private Lunar Mission. First announced in the fall of 2018, Japanese fashion billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa has purchased the fist ticket to orbit the moon on a SpaceX flight. The undisclosed price of the ticket will help fund the ongoing project to perfect the Starship and it’s rocket booster side-kick Super Heavy (formerly known as BFR) which, together, represent a reusable transportation system that SpaceX hopes will, one day soon, take passengers into orbit and on interplanetary missions.

Diagram / SpaceX

Those missions, starting with the week-long moon mission for Maezawa, will eventually include the first manned mission to Mars, with an inaugural flight currently projected to happen by 2024. An initial cargo only flight is penciled in for 2022.

https://www.spacex.com/media/WebsiteStarshipStack_Anim_Render_Desktop.mp4
video animation showing the Starship Features and Design

Challenges A-plenty for Decades

Elon and SpaceX are certainly aware of the challenges of these incredibly ambitious plans and accelerated timelines.

https://www.spacex.com/media/DragonTrunk_Animation_Render_Desktop.mp4
video animation: The Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying up to 7 passengers to and from Earth orbit, and beyond. It is the only spacecraft currently flying that is capable of returning significant amounts of cargo to Earth, and will soon become the first private spacecraft to take humans to the space station.

The website details the plan for the potentially treacherous landing sequence once the Starship actually reaches Mars. This includes an entry into the Mars atmosphere, never before breached by a human, at 7.5 kilometers per second. These video simulations show the ideal plan for the Starship to conquer this task.

Earth to Earth Transportation System

The team of Starship and Super Heavy are also part of a planned Earth to Earth transportation system for long distance travel around the globe. With the advantages of leaving the earth’s atmosphere (for a short time based on the incredible speed of the system) where there is little to no friction and no weather or turbulence.

As can be seen in the table below, the average intercontinental commercial jet flight, such as London to Hong Kong, that currently takes 12 in-flight hours, would be reduced to 35 minutes. Basically this would mean that any distance on earth could be reached in an hour or less.

ROUTEDISTANCECOMMERCIAL AIRLINESTARSHIP
LOS ANGELES TO NEW YORK3,983km5 hours, 25 min25 min
BANGKOK TO DUBAI4,909km6 hours, 25 min27 min
TOKYO TO SINGAPORE5,350km7 hours, 10 min28 min
LONDON TO NEW YORK5,555km7 hours, 55 min29 min
NEW YORK TO PARIS5,849km7 hours, 20 min30 min
SYDNEY TO SINGAPORE6,288km8 hours, 20 min31 min
LOS ANGELES TO LONDON8,781km10 hours, 30 min32 min
LONDON TO HONG KONG9,648km11 hours, 50 min34 min

“Rocket-lag” vs. Jet-lag, that’s a topic for a whole other article.

With all these plans, in addition to the missions to and from the space station and trips to host various payloads, it begs the question, what was NASA doing during the years from 1972, when the last moon mission was completed, until SpaceX was first contracted to assist.

And with all the private space exploration companies vying for position and invested in by both public and private funding, will this push be sustained throughout the 2020s?

With the Global Climate Crisis looming and various governments and private behemoths showing little regard for cooperation or or philanthropic behavior, the outcome and timeline of off-earth projects seem almost certain to be impacted by terrestrial obstacles, virtually every step of the way.

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Tech

SpaceX Starship Aims for Suborbital Test Flight as Early as March

Photo / SpaceX

SpaceX is currently working around the clock to prepare its Starship rocket for its first suborbital test flight and, based on the production progress shared on Twitter, it could be happening in the very near future. In the beginning of February, Musk invited via social media all eligible applicants to attend a “Starship Career Day”, and called for a massive ramp up of staffing for production shifts – having teams work day and night in order to work 24/7 on the project.

Click to buy “Elon Musk: A Mission to Save the World” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores

The career invitation targeted individuals in operations and engineering as well as supervisors and support personnel. Musk tweeted, “A super hardcore work ethic, talent for building things, common sense & trustworthiness are required, the rest we can train.” 

Elon Musk shared a tweet from the SpaceX development facility in Boca Chica, Texas showing a video of production for the rocket nose cone. The glimpse of the nearly completed nose cone reveals that the next Starship prototype test flight is fast approaching and presumably set for the upcoming Starship vehicle, SN1 (serial number 1). 

Another tweet, shows a video by Musk of the Starship high bay. According to NASA Spaceflight, the stacking for the Starship SN1 has already begun. The vehicle is to be assembled in smaller segments and then welded all together during the final assembly process. The hope is to have the entire vehicle stacked and moved by the end of the month to stay on track for a mid March launch.

Last year, the earlier prototype, “Starhopper” was seen near the Texas coast and rose nearly 150 meters (492 feet). The upcoming suborbital test flight called SN1 could reach heights of about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) and may launch as early as mid March 2020, per FCC filings.   

SpaceX teams are working hard to reach the end game for the Starship which is designed for Earth orbit, moon missions and eventually to go all the way to Mars. 

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News

This Week: Stories from the Climate Crisis, Tech, Tesla, Apple and more

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Just in case you missed our recent coverage on the intersections of the Climate Crisis, Tech and Entertainment, we’ve compiled a list of articles for you to check out:

Graphic Collage / Lynxotic

Greta Thunberg: Climate Activist focused on Change now, not hopes for an Uncertain Future

Greta Thunberg is a sixteen-year-old Swedish girl who is rapidly becoming a flash point for those in the movement to raise awareness of the global emergency of global warming and climate change.

Photo / Adobe Stock

The Potential of Self-Driving Cars in Entertainment Media: First Foray

While it might be easy to imagine people in self-driving cars perpetually staring at their smart phones or laptops, there is the possibility that entertainment companies could collaborate with vehicle manufacturers to change the very design of vehicles and make car-riding a transmedia experience.

Photo / Apple

iOS 13 Tips: How to Use and Manage the new Share Menu for iPhone and iPadOS

The share menu can vary from app to app, many use it most often from within Safari or the Mail app, however, for this video, we chose the Apple News app as the operations are essentially the same.

Photo / Global Citizen / Ethan Judelson

Leonardo DiCaprio headlines Global Citizens Festival, continues fight to raise awareness of Climate Crisis

Leonardo DiCaprio had made several stances against climate change over the years. The actor spearheaded the issue in his 2016 documentary “Before The Flood” and even used the stage during his long-awaited Oscar acceptance speech to talk about the importance of preserving our natural world. Evidently, the man is a passionate environmentalist.

Graphic Collage / Lynxotic

Tesla and Elon Musk are Smiling: Gas Pumps Out, Charging Stations In

The news here, however is that these are stations that have decided to abandon gas, oil and, presumably, gasoline-based auto maintenance for EV charging and convenience. This is a trend that, hopefully, will accelerate.

Photo / Magnolia Pictures

‘Scandalous’: National Inquirer sets the Standard for Questionable News Coverage

If one even notices the title of the film printed in smaller letters in enormous tagline’s shadows, one might expect that “Scandalous” isa movie about conspiracy theories or some great national collusion that ties all of these pop-culture headlines in some absurd way. However, beneath the title on the poster, seemingly hidden, is the film’s subtitle. It reads “The Untold Story Of The National Enquirer.“

Photo / Disney

5 New Trailers just Released: Check out the future fare from Sony, Disney and more

This week had a gaggle of new trailers hitting the street so we decided to choose five to showcase and feature in this post.

Photo / Warner Bros.

Eight Movies Out Now you might have missed

Just in case you missed our coverage of recent films, out now in theaters, we’ve compiled a graphic tour of a few noteworthy (or at least to be considered) titles among them.

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Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, Tech

Tesla and Elon Musk are Smiling: Gas Pumps Out, Charging Stations In –

Is this a Canary in the Coal Mine moment?

Say what you want about radical engineer Elon Musk, but his companies have certainly produced some very innovative products over the years. None are perhaps as revolutionary as Tesla’s line-up of wildly popular and stylish electric vehicles that require no gasoline.

This past weekend, a beacon of progressive light shone through the clouds as two gas stations on different sides of the world got rid of all their fuel pumps and transitioned entirely to EV charging stations. One of the gas stations is in Norway and it is a branch of the global Circle K convenience store company. The other is a local gas station in Takoma Park, Maryland called RS Automotives. 

This is significant, not due to the world adding two more charging stations, there are many already and Tesla’s network of stations is truly remarkable. The news here, however, is that these are stations that have decided to abandon gas, oil and, presumably, gasoline-based auto maintenance for EV charging and convenience. This is a trend that, hopefully, will accelerate.

In the wake of the UN 2019 Climate Action Summit, these initiatives are but small victories in the fight for environmental reformation. Nonetheless, we can take these updates as signs of individual improvement and solace. Either they are money-driven transformations reflective of more people turning to electric vehicles, or they are examples of non-money driven actions that we may need businesses to make in order to shift consumers in the superior, ecologically sensitive direction.

While gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles have been around for a while with popular older models such as the Toyota Prius and the Honda Insight, Tesla stands as the first widely popular electric car that runs on zero fluids excluding the windshield-wiper fluid (or tiny amounts for cooling batteries). Instead of filling it up with gas, you charge it up like a phone.

Admittedly, charging up a Tesla can, in some situations, take a while— close to an hour if fully discharged and topped off (Tesla suggests 80% maximum at any time to promote battery health and longevity). Although over half a million Teslas have been sold since their first all-electric Model-S debuted in 2012, some people still assume that the time it takes to charge one up is Tesla’s greatest weakness.

The “Range Anxiety” debate is not new, and not entirely real

This “weakness” is part propaganda, part wishful thinking and part scare tactic. The reality is, pumping gas also takes time and if you add in a bathroom break and a short stop to grab a drink to go, a supercharger can approximate, with ease, the turn-around time. Not to mention the peace of mind that comes with using a fill-up (charge up) as a break from driving rather than a hurried gas smelling pit-stop.

Charging stations have been popping up more frequently across the country and the world in the last few years. Tesla, Volkswagon and some venture capital-based start-ups have made initiatives to put up tens of thousands more EV charging stations along highways and roads.

This trend can be seen as a canary in the coal mine moment for the demise of fossil fuel based transportation and, ultimately, the fossil fuel based economic model. The looming climate crisis, breaking out virtually every day into the news, is but one reason to cheer this development. There are many more and many CitCM moments to come.

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