[Starlink] some post Starship launch thoughts

[Dave Taht]

I was down in starbase, tx for the week of the launch. It was a great
time, 10s of thousands of people there, my hotel had some of the musk
family staying, and had a party on the roof... I was there packing
guitar photobombing "this machine kills vogons" everywhere I could.

Probably the best summary of the problems encountered is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8q24QLXixo courtesy Scott Manley.
The best video describing the reactions of everybody, is here:
https://twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/status/1649141793508716583

Also, I met a young lady that paints watercolors of rockets, her work
is here: https://www.jadeboudreaux.com/
(she gifted me a holographic raptor for my guitar, I gifted her a
scarf from in return https://www.natashasilkart.com/# )
(support your local artists! Hilariously none of my pictures from dusk
came out on my camera, while jade painted away like mad)

I was most impressed by losing 6 engines over the course of the
flight... and none exploding. Modern sensor technology is amazing.

Anyway, like most of the monday morning quarterbacks, thinking about
the destruction of the pad, I had had two ideas that I would like to
run by folk here:

Everyone wants a water deluge system and flame diverter, but I was
thinking perhaps liquid nitrogen, as a natural byproduct of LOX
liquification, might be used rather than water? It starts off quite a
bit cooler... but as for its ability to cushion shock waves vs a vs
its vapor point, no idea. ? Anyone?

Secondly tuning the shockwaves against the pad (somehow), might limit
the vibrative (is that a word) force? A slower start of the motors
might damage the pad less, also.

Landing and then taking off from the moon or mars look rather
problematic at the moment!

It looks to me as though everything can be repaired in a matter of
months, and there is a watercooled plate designed for the pad that
will go in next time. The nextgen rocket has replaced some hydraulics
with electric motors. That said, it seems like the day where the
starlink v2 sats can launch on starship is at least a year, maybe 2-3
off, and that means we will see more of the v2 minis being flown on
falcon. Does anyone have a good summary of the capabilities of the v2
minis vs a vs 1.5? Any updated numbers on userbase?

-- 
AMA March 31: https://www.broadband.io/c/broadband-grant-events/dave-taht
Dave Täht CEO, TekLibre, LLC