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Riledcat t1_iwkqdyu wrote

Why would it have to conform to some arbitrary standard of "safe"? Exploration is never entirely safe, nor does it have to be. All it has to be is worth the risk.

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Upper_You_9565 t1_iwkql2k wrote

came to say the same thing. there’s always a risk 🤷🏻

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Riledcat t1_iwktg6n wrote

Honestly, a media obsession with "safety" has been the biggest drawback to manned space travel since the late 80's.

It's no surprise that all the real progress in space travel was driven by a post-war generation who had a very different level of risk-tolerence and very different approach to risk-reward calculation. And had journalists with the same approach.

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House13Games t1_iwkvw3a wrote

Very little to do with human safety, everything to do with the cost of the vehicles.

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WayHaught_N7 t1_iwkr3n1 wrote

People have been landing on Earth from space for decades now in some form or another. The only real difference is the vehicle being used and tbh there is no 100% safe form of travel in existence for humans, regardless of space or terrestrial. People who travel to space know the risks they are facing and they accept the risk. The exploration is worth the risk in my opinion and most astronauts would agree with me.

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youknowithadtobedone t1_iwkq03l wrote

SpaceX has the philosophy that it must be that reliable that no abort will be needed. So they have no abort system. Whether this will work is a very big question

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ThirtyMileSniper t1_iwkrix3 wrote

But the dragon capsule has (had?) an abort system built in.

Have they totally abandoned that now?

Space x philosophy though doesn't really matter if it doesn't get a licence to carry people. I understood that the philosophy for the people granting licences for vehicles to carry people to space from the US needed that.

I suppose though that he could launch from China where it appears they could not care less about any space related conventions.

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tactlessnutter t1_iwks14l wrote

Dragon does have an abort system. The difference between Dragon and Starship is that the latter is supposed to fly frequently. They intend to fly several uncrewed missions before putting humans on it.

They never abandoned a Starship abort system because it has never had one.

Even if it were possible for SpaceX to launch from China (it isn't), they are still a US-based company.

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ThirtyMileSniper t1_iwks9dt wrote

I apologize about the confusion, I wasn't refering to abandoning an escape system on starship, I was asking if the dragon capsule had been abandoned.

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Sweet_Example_7248 t1_iwkt76q wrote

I think the Dragon Capsule is still used for supply missions to the ISS, as well as for ferrying the astronauts.

Starship and Dragon were designed for totally different purposes.

The former for interplanetary travel and expansion, the latter for orbital supply missions.

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football_enjoyer OP t1_iwkq242 wrote

I'm just concerned for humans, unless there is a manual takeover

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ASK_IF_IM_PENGUIN t1_iwkrakv wrote

When you fly on a plane, there's no abort if there's a serious failure. There's a few mitigations (strap on life jackets and hope the crash isn't too bad) but millions of us do it every day regardless.

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youknowithadtobedone t1_iwkq3b7 wrote

Well, SpaceX isn't. They have trust in their product

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ep_soe t1_iwkq735 wrote

When it inevitably goes wrong it's gonna smoke a lot of people in one go.

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ferrel_hadley t1_iwkqakr wrote

They landed a Starship on Earth after doing an extreme manoeuvre. They land Falcon 9 boosters on Earth all the time.

With its much weaker gravity Id think that most of the difficulty is hitting a safe spot. With 1/6 gravity and no atmosphere the physics of the landing seem much much easier.

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IKENTHINGS t1_iwkqg6y wrote

It depends on how they handle engine failure.

Most people do not believe, but a cylinder is an aerodynamic structure. A rotating cylinder flies as long as air is moving through the tube.

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The_Weekend_Baker t1_iwkvvkt wrote

Safety is largely an illusion, and it's even more so with any type of space travel. Just looking back over the last ten years, between 30k and 40k people die every year in the US in traffic accidents, and cars are more loaded with safety equipment than they've ever been. Yet we keep driving.

You either accept that life comes with risk, or you spend your life hiding in a closet.

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Kaikunur t1_iwkx5g7 wrote

Do airplanes have ejection seats or an abort mode? Infact of something goes wrong after reaching v1 the chances you die are pretty high

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