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Next SpaceX announcement?
(lemmy.nz)
Introducing Starbase Earth
60 launch pads 400 miles apart (40 floating + 20 land pads)
Enabling high rate downrange landings
300+ tons of payload per launch
Credit: u/Sarigolepas
I still don't see how this scheme is superior to a landing ship that can be anywhere on the ocean.
The superheavy has no landing legs, so it can't land on any old droneship. The only way to recover the booster to catch it with the chopsticks.
well, lol, there was never 'any old drone ship'.
come on, do you think it's just a dumb barge with nothing on it? no telemetry, no guidance systems, just a chunk of shit floating in the sea?
so build a gantry, put out some outriggers for stability and stick yo silly fuckin chopsticks on these.
this is nearly as silly as orbital data centers.
Definitely not just a "chunk of sh*t", but I'd wager it's significantly easier to position a flat metal surface downrange than it would be to do the same with a massive tower + chopsticks.
That was actually kind of the plan for the former oil rigs, Phobos and Deimos, though they were eventually sold off a couple of years later.
Well, this is !spaceflightmemes. Silliness is kind of how we roll here :)