The “drop in the bucket” and “it’s such a small percentage” argument only works for so long. It’s like saying the Wright brothers are just a couple of kookie inventors who’s plane is so slow they will never compete against rail travel.
Plus, reusable rockets are a lot cleaner than letting them sink to the seafloor, with propellant residue inside. Or letting them burn up in the atmosphere, where heavy metals degrade the ozone layer and have other negative effects.
Sure. That’s why I’m looking forward to Starship, and, in the distant future, a space elevator. But we need rapidly reusable rockets before we can build an elevator.
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I totally get that we need to figure out cleaner ways to access space and need to reign stuff like this in.
But also…
gestures wildly at the entirety of oil/coal/manufacturing industries completely dwarfing the operations of one space launch facility
It just feels like being proud of the clean yard you just picked up all the street trash from when you live directly behind a landfill.
Yet, every bit counts. It’s also good to win smaller things to help win bigger fights.
Also, fuck Elon.
The “drop in the bucket” and “it’s such a small percentage” argument only works for so long. It’s like saying the Wright brothers are just a couple of kookie inventors who’s plane is so slow they will never compete against rail travel.
Plus, reusable rockets are a lot cleaner than letting them sink to the seafloor, with propellant residue inside. Or letting them burn up in the atmosphere, where heavy metals degrade the ozone layer and have other negative effects.
Half of the rocket still gets disposed and “burns up”. There’s nothing clean about injecting kerosene and methane into the upper atmosphere.
Sure. That’s why I’m looking forward to Starship, and, in the distant future, a space elevator. But we need rapidly reusable rockets before we can build an elevator.