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Elon Musk has targeted an orbital launch cost of $10/kg for Starship, with propellant costs accounting for roughly one-third. Orbital launch cost would be about four times more than the cost of point to point on Earth rocket delivery costs. Point to point rocket delivery would only need the Starship upper stage. There are only ... Read more

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation’s (CASIC) plans to build a giant magnetic launcher to propel airplanes up to speeds where they can start hypersonic scramjet engines. CASIC has built a 2000 meter long low-vacuum track high-speed maglev test facility in the industrial heartland of Datong, Shanxi province. This is able to accelerate heavy object ... Read more

SpaceX has shown us the inside of the Starship while it was in orbit and opening the Pez bay door. Gases in the bay were shown escaping the door. This would be the real life venting into space shown in many science fiction movies. They also provide the first footage of re-entry plasma heating. This ... Read more

SpaceX Starship is stacked and ready for its third orbital test launch. The liquid oxygen release systems are fixed from the last launch. I, Brian Wang, believe that this launch will be successful and there will be launches every month starting from this month. The pace of launches will then increase to every week or ... Read more

Bellik Ozan talked to Ellie in Space about SpaceX Starship costs. Bellik makes the case that SpaceX could modify the Super Heavy Starship for the same reuse as the Falcon 9. Throw away the upper stage with three Raptor engines instead of one Merlin engine in the Falcon 9 second stage. This would enable SpaceX ... Read more

A post was sent through a SpaceX Direct to Cell satellite in space. Starlink has over 5000 satellites in orbit. SpaceX will launch 2000-3000 Starlink v2 mini direct to cell capable satellites in 2024 on about 120 launches. On January 2, 2024, SpaceX launched to orbit their first six Starlink satellites with Direct to Cell ... Read more

The US Department of the Air Force is preparing an environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding Starship launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The review is required by the National Environmental Policy Act for any major action, like construction of a new launch complex. The study would examine the environmental impacts of converting Space Launch ... Read more

Yesterday, Elon tweeted that the SpaceX Starship launch is in about 3 weeks. Starship were meant to fly and our next one launches in about 3 weeks, but I recommend waiting for a few more test flights before hopping on board @NICKIMINAJ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 12, 2024

Here is a paper written by Virtus Solis, Space based solar power startup. Virtus Solis is a funded startup working to develop space based solar power. They would leverage the low cost launch of the SpaceX Starship and modular satellites to enable power to be beamed from space at lower cost than coal or natural ... Read more

The biggest items in the Nextbigfuture weekly video are the clear evidence of the growth of an even larger wave of AI and the expansion of AI impact with humanoid robots over the next few years. There will soon be the selection of the company to build the 6th generation US NGAD stealth fighter and ... Read more

UPDATE: IVO CEO Richard Mansell replied to me. The IVO Quantum drives have not been turned on yet. IVO is waiting on Rogue Systems. UPDATE: We need to track the semi-major axis increasing for the evidence that the satellite is increasing its orbit and the thrusters are working. The orbits seemed different to me looking ... Read more

Felix Schlang at What About It?, ercxspace on twitter and adonaisf have rendered a space telescope built inside the structure of a SpaceX Starship. Elon Musk has said SpaceX is working on designing a Space Telescope built into a Starship. The Hubble space telescope mirror is 2.4 meters across. The James Webb Space Telescope’s primary ... Read more

Architect Hassell Studio and the European Space Agency have a Lunar Habitat Master Plan to build a 144 person moon base. Designed in close collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Cranfield University, the Lunar Habitat Master Plan —was  unveiled at the ESA’s Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands as part of its ... Read more

Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Chairman of Breakthrough Initiatives, Dr. Pete Worden, discusses the Breakthrough Starshot work on the laser propelled solar sail to Proxima Centauri. Billionaire Yuri Milner committed $100 million for Breakthrough Starshot. They probably had about $10 million worth of contracts around the world to answer these three questions. 1. ... Read more

Rocket Labs is launching its Electron rocket for payloads of about 200-300 kg. They will try to launch 22 missions in 2024. They will continue developing a new engine and new rocket to reach a reusable Neutron, Falcon 9 class rocket. It is looking the engine program is a bit behind schedule and the first ... Read more

Sierra Space will soon launch the Dream Chaser, a reusable lifting-body spaceplane and inflatable space stations. The cargo Dream Chaser is designed to resupply the International Space Station with both pressurized and unpressurized cargo. It is intended to launch vertically on the Vulcan Centaur rocket and autonomously land horizontally on conventional runways. A proposed version ... Read more

Sam Altman believes that AGI will be created soon. He talked about a vision of an AGI World of More. He predicts AGI will not replace as many jobs as people believe and the world will change less than people believe. It will be an incredible tool for productivity and is magnifying what people can ... Read more

Elon Musk says @SpaceX will release Starlink Mini later in 2024. It will be small enough to fit in your backpack. The outdoor use case also requires the power requirements for Starlink to be muchless. You will be able to pull the terminal out of your backpack in the middle of nowhere and connect to ... Read more

Shell Oil and Southern Electric utility company had a 2021 research paper that explored if nuclear batteries could be economical for generating power. (Above – (a) MIT’s conceptualization of a nuclear battery (NB) with integrated gas turbine; (b) LANL’s Megapower; (c) NASA and LANL’s KRUSTY/Kilopower reactor using Stirling engine technology for space applications; (d) Westinghouse’s ... Read more

Nextbigfuture has covered Elon mentioning that a future SpaceX Starship could be 20% longer BUT now it is reported that SpaceX is designing a 150 meter longer Starship. Felix Schlang at What about It? describes the new version 3 Starship work. This would be up to 95 feet longer than the current 120 meters. The ... Read more

We can calculate the travel times for the SpaceX Starship to reach Mars. It is relatively easy to get 90 day trips each way with SpaceX Starship. This is faster than the usual 180-270 one-way travel times. This can be faster because we will have a lot more fuel to enable more direct routes to ... Read more

Jessica Jensen, vice president of customer operations and integration at SpaceX, said securing an updated Federal Aviation Administration launch license was the key factor driving the schedule for the third Starship test flight. The third flight should be sometime in February 2024. “From a hardware readiness perspective, we are targeting to be ready in January,” ... Read more

Researchers at Delft University of Technology, led by assistant professor Richard Norte, have unveiled a remarkable new material with potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC). Beyond its exceptional strength, this material demonstrates mechanical properties crucial for vibration isolation on a microchip. Amorphous silicon carbide is therefore particularly suitable for ... Read more

I made 193 correct resolved public predictions in a row on Metaculus. Everything that I predicted and resolved over the last 78 days was correct. A prediction could have been made over the last year or longer but the answer was determined so that the prediction became true or false. This compare to the Metaculus ... Read more