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Literally the stupidest SpaceX Idea I've Ever Heard · Elon Musk Podcast

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  The Internet is full of people who post really stupid stuff
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  about NASA, about SpaceX, about Elon Musk.
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  And I want to draw your attention to one of them today.
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  Now, if you're this person, I apologize, but what you said was
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  absolutely absurd. And I want to draw some
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  attention to it because if there's anybody out there that
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  thinks the same way, if you think the same way that this
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  user thinks, and this is a Reddit post, so you know it's
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  going to be really good. If you think like them, you're
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  completely wrong. And it's a weird, really weird
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  thing to think. So let's look at what was the
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  beginning of this. NASA and SpaceX have a
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  partnership, and they've had a partnership for a long time, but
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  now they have a different partnership.
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  SpaceX is going to deorbit the International Space Station.
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  Now, a few accounts, including Eric Berger, have mentioned
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  something about Dragon XL. And if you're not familiar with
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  Dragon XL is it's kind of like a Dragon capsule, but it's a big
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  tube basically. And what they may be doing with
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  this is using it as sort of a, a tugboat to push the space
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  station into the deorbit maneuvers.
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  And then it will burn up in the atmosphere, over the ocean,
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  someplace where there's no people, where there's no cars,
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  where there's no cities, over the ocean somewhere.
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  Avoid risk of the populated areas now.
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  Selecting AUSD Orbit Vehicle for the International Space Station
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  will help NASA and its international partners ensure a
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  safe and responsible transition in low Earth orbit at the end of
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  the station's operations. And it's a sad day.
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  It's a 20-30. It's going to happen.
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  It's a sad day because it's been going on for a long time.
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  And we'd love to see people working and living in space.
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  Now, the space station will be run by private entities.
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  Different space stations will be in orbit.
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  And you can pick and choose whatever space station you want
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  to go to with whatever vehicle you want to go to that with.
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  You can pick a, a SpaceX Dragon. You can pick whatever Blue
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  Origin's going to send up there if they ever get anything to
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  orbit a ULA rocket where however you want to get up there, you
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  can get up there. You go with Russia, wherever,
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  who cares? But there's going to be numerous
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  space stations, private space stations, in the future.
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  Now SpaceX will be deorbiting this.
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  Will they be using a Starship? The answer is absolutely not.
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  There's no reason to use a Starship though.
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  The space station is about the size of a American football
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  field. There's no need to use a
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  Starship. Plus, the Starship isn't built
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  yet, so they can't really depend on it to do these maneuvers.
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  They've had Dragon XL in the works forever, you know, years.
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  So and it's going to be used for this.
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  Basically, that's what that's used for.
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  This is used for transport into for cargo, things like that.
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  That was on the drawing board before.
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  It's been on the board since and they're going to continue using
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  this vehicle. Now.
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  If you want to hear something really stupid, stay tuned
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  because this is this is a really silly thing that somebody posted
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  on Reddit. Could SpaceX deorbit the ISS by
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  filling Starship with scrap metal, launching it into a head
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  on orbit, and then simply ramming the space station?
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  So think about that for a little bit.
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  Could it be a ram machine? A Starship?
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  A Starship? Something that's like 150 feet
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  tall or more, depending on what version you use of a Starship,
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  and they just want to ram it into the International Space
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  Station. Now, this is a really dumb idea.
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  One, it's a really dumb idea because you destroy the
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  Starship. It's made out of metal.
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  Of course, it's made out of steel, which is really durable,
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  but you're going to destroy the Starship in this process by
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  ramming it into a space station, which is also it's made out of
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  composites, it's made out of metal.
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  There's all sorts of electronics in there.
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  Things will catch on, you know, catch on fire interiorly,
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  interiorly. Is that a word?
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  Inside the space station, there'll be sparking all sorts
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  of things. There's no oxygen on the
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  outside, but things can happen on the inside.
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  Ram it. It breaks apart and that's what
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  they want. They just kind of want to ram
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  into it, launch it into head on orbit, and then simply ramming
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  the ISS. No, that's not how things are
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  done in space. That's not how things are done.
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  You're going to gently tug this thing or gently nudge it into
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  the orbit that it needs to go. Because when you ram a space
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  station, millions of particles of metal and debris would fly
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  wherever they fly, whether that's towards other satellites,
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  where if that's, if there's a rocket launch going on with
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  people on board, you're going to possibly hurt those people.
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  Of course, it'll be zoned off, so nobody can fly in that area
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  in that time, including spacecraft and aircraft, boats,
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  things like that. There's going to be an exclusion
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  zone for miles. I don't know how how many miles
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  that you haven't really set any standards yet.
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  But The thing is as big as a football field, it's 100 yards
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  long. So it's it's a big piece of
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  machinery. And if you ram it, there's going
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  to be pieces everywhere. Shrapnel.
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  They could RIP through the side of a spacecraft and destroy
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  everything on board. We've all seen those stupid
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  movies about, you know, people getting stuck on a space station
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  or on a space shuttle or something like that.
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  And you know, some, some micro meteorite burst through the
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  station. It destroys everything.
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  Well, that's kind of what would happen here.
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  Millions of pieces of this would go everywhere and possibly
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  destroy, you know, other satellites.
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  And it could possibly make sort of like a ring, an orbital ring
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  of debris in the same orbit that this space station is a little
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  bit different because it'll get nudged out of the way.
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  But this is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.
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  Why would you smash into the space station and risk
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  everything and the original post Let me go back to this this this
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  post right here whoops Let me go back to this because they
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  deleted the post of the the mods deleted it and I have to find
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  there we go. This is the reasoning for this.
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  This is how stupid this is. It would be super cheap and
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  super quick though. They could even use one of the
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  old Starship prototypes that are too obsolete even for testing
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  purposes and that are earmarked for dismantling.
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  Fill one of them with a bunch of old car and truck bodies from
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  the scrap yard and then send it. It could be done for not much
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  more than the cost of the propellant.
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  Oh my God, Oh my God, old car and truck bodies.
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  Why would you send old car and truck bodies from a scrap yard
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  space? I mean this is a this is like
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  next level troll. If they're not serious, if
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  they're just joking, but this is a great troll.
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  Like think about how great that would be.
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  You just send some old car bodies in there, buddy.
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  Old truck bodies from the scrap yard and they had to mention
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  that it's from the scrap yard too, not just old truck car and
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  truck body. They mentioned it was from the
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  scrap. So it's brilliant.
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  It's brilliant. And then of course, lucky nil
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  says no, it wouldn't be super quick and that's the reason why
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  it would be a bad idea. ISS is far too fragile to
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  significantly reduce its speed when being rammed and that's a
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  little bit lower than touring wheel here.
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  So touring wheel, I'm giving you a shout out because if you're
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  trolling, this is a good troll. And if you're joking, they
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  actually deleted the post so I had to like go the the troll is
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  basically this comment right here is what their original post
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  was, but let me know in the comments if you think this is
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  really stupid. And then time traveling, Chris
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  says, OK, OP, please stay away from the space industry, but by
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  all means, consider entering this supervillain industry.
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  Yeah, there's all sorts of comments on here.
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  This this started out pretty good.
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  But I wish the the mods on SpaceX launch would have left
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  this for a little bit because it would have been pretty good to
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  see people freak out about it for a while.
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  Because I think like one, it's funny.
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  It's also really stupid to think like, if that's what you really
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  thought, you have to have some sort of like some, some way to
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  discern between something that's right, something that's going to
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  work and something that's going to be a horrible idea.
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  You got to have that. You got to have that in your
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  brain. Some people don't.
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  This person might not have touring wheel.
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  Shout out to you for making this post because it was really
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  funny. It's like one day ago and I saw
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  and I was like, Oh my God, and I posted.
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  That's ridiculously irresponsible.
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  Of course, of course, trog doors beefy arm on Reddit, if you
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  will, And there's a discord link in the description too.
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  So that's it for that. But there's another thing that I
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  want to talk about because not only is there a stupid post like
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  this on Reddit, but there's a great post on Reddit about the
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  next steps for Starship. And this is Kathy Leaders.
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  She did a little summit as she's the general manager of Starbase,
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  and she did a summit near Starbase recently.
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  And it says SpaceX is planning to establish a permanent orbital
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  fuel depot to support missions to the moon and Mars.
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  According to Cathy Leaders, the general manager of Starbase.
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  That makes more sense, doesn't it?
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  One depot, orbital fuel depot, send the fuel up, depot it up.
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  It's just kind of like a gas station, right?
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  The gas station has tanks underneath it.
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  If you don't know how a gas station works, there's, there's
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  tanks underneath the gas station that trucks pull in.
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  And then they use a hose and they oop, I gotta hit my space
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  bar, use a hose and they put the gas in the tanker underneath the
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  gas station. And then you go fill your car at
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  the gas tanks. Pretty cool.
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  That's exactly what's gonna happen with SpaceX.
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  Like it's the smartest idea to have one place with one big
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  tanker. Now how are they going to get
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  this tanker into space? And is one SpaceX Starship going
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  to be big enough? No, it's not going to be big
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  enough to refuel something that's going to be going to
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  Mars. And Elon and Kathy and some NASA
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  administrator people said that it's going to take about 10 of
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  Starships to refuel 1 Starship to get to the moon.
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  So imagine going to Mars or any place else out in the solar
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  system. You're going to have to have
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  depots along the way. I mean, unless you do gravity
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  assists, which is totally possible too.
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  You could fling yourself from planet to planet.
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  If you want to get further out or celestial body, you can fling
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  yourself from the moon or from Earth's orbit and use the
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  gravity assist to go out there. But fuel depot on the way to
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  Mars would be pretty cool and they could just blast yourself
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  as fast as possible. Of course you have to slow down
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  for a depot. That's another whole thing that
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  that's why I'm not a rocket scientist, because I'm not an
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  engineer for that reason, because I can't figure out those
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  computations, can't figure that out.
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  The calculations to get to a certain spot, slow down, do some
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  sort of flip maneuver, slow down and then refuel.
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  That's incredibly hard math to do.
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  So SpaceX will figure that out. But this is what Elon said
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  about. And there's there's another
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  thing too that I got to show you.
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  Elon said about this, that if they want to get this view of
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  Starship, the next time that it lands on the chopsticks, whether
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  it's going to be the next flight or the flight after that or the
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  flight after that, we're not 100% sure.
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  So it's going to be an interesting time.
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  And I think the thing that we have to think about is that
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  SpaceX will do this eventually, right?
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  They're going to do this eventually.
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  They're going to catch it. But during this talk with Kathy,
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  she kind of alluded that they might not catch this at the next
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  time. And that could be due to FAA
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  regulations. It could be due to the flight
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  just not being ready for that, could be the booster not being
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  ready for that. Elon, of course, is the biggest
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  hype man. So there's a possibility that he
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  was like, yeah, I want to do it. And then it caught on.
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  He's like, oh, yeah, we should do it.
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  Can we do it? Engineers, Hey, can we do it?
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  Did we do this right? You know?
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  And then the engineers were like, yeah, I think we could do
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  it. But there's a lot of other
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  moving parts to this that SpaceX isn't in control of.
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  The FAA has to sign off on it. And they haven't proven, SpaceX
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  hasn't proven yet that they can fly over land safely inland, a
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  booster back on land. So that's a little bit of red
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  tape, but there are a few things that if you go back to here this
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  planning here there's a few other things other info info
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  from this close community talk thanks to may help.
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  Oh now user on Reddit three months to completion of star
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  factory, which is great Then they'll be able to crank out
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  starships in a fast, faster fashion.
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  Working with the Texas Department of transportation on
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  expanding Hwy. 4 to a four lane Rd. eventually.
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  Right now it's a 2 lane Rd. and it's, it's really dangerous to
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  be honest with you. I've driven it hundreds of times
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  when I was living at Star Base and there's just big trucks
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  everywhere back and forth all the time.
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  Just a ton of traffic going down there.
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  So 4 lane Rd. would be really nice.
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  Star Base, commercial retail space on hold.
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  Basically they had some retail space there that they were going
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  to use for restaurants and place to buy things, things like that.
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  Everything's on hold because they're like, well, we have to
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  make some rockets, so let's do that.
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  She talked about residency over 50% local to Brownsville with
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  about 400 staff living on site. Brownsville's about 25 to 30
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  minutes away, depending on where you are.
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  And it could be, if you're on the other side, 45 minutes to an
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  hour away from Starbase. So it would be nice if they were
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  closer by a permanent orbital fuel depot for Moon and Mars
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  missions. We already talked about that.
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  SpaceX monitoring sound levels for Port Isabel, SPI and
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  Brownsville during testing. Texas Park and wildlife
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  environmental mitigation teams in place before and after
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  launches and monthly Emergency Management meetings with Cameron
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  County, which is where Star Base is located, and local hospitals
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  for catastrophe scenarios. So when she says maybe not this
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  flight, the monthly Emergency Management meeting with Cameron
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  County and local hospitals for catastrophe scenarios, those go
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  hand in hand. What if something bad happens?
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  Well, emergency meetings with Cameron County local hospitals
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  have to have to come into play. Those Cameron County hospitals
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  might be the best way to mitigate the circumstances if a
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  booster goes wild and flies into Starbase.
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  And I mean, there's bunkers where people do their work, but
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  it's not all safe. You know, it's they're not like
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  bunker bunkers, right? And it's kind of close, like a
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  mile away from launch site. So I mean, they did take all the
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  precautions that they needed to, but who knows what can happen,
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  right? So if you're waiting for an IFT
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  5 catch, you might be out of luck.
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  And unfortunately, I would love to have seen that.
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  But I, I'm not trying to be negative.
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  I just know that it's a really hard task.
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  It's a really hard engineering problem to figure out.
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  And if they could figure it out with these current tests that
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  they're doing, that'd be great. But I don't think they're going
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  to do a fry of T5. Also, let me know in the
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  comments down below what you think about this stuff.
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  Because permanent orbital fuel depot for Moon and Mars.
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  They'll be like this one depot. I think that would solve so many
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  problems. Instead of launching numerous
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  depots and having numerous depots in orbit, just one one
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  depot that you fly starships and fuel ships to.
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  So yeah, let me note down the comments and also if you're new
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  here, thank you for watching. Please hit the like and the
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• 16:39
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• 16:45
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• 16:47
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  universe. So please take care of
• 17:14
  yourselves and each other. And I will see you in the next
• 17:16
  one. Oop, goodbye.