/sci/ - Science & Math

>In 1655, Christiaan Huygens became the first person to suggest that Saturn was surrounded by a ring. Using a 50× power refracting telescope that he designed himself, far superior to those available to Galileo, Huygens observed Saturn and in 1656, like Galileo, had published an anagram saying "aaaaaaacccccdeeeeeghiiiiiiillllmmnnnnnnnnnooooppqrrstttttuuuuu". Upon confirming his observations, three years later he revealed it to mean "Annuto cingitur, tenui, plano, nusquam coherente, ad eclipticam inclinato"; that is, "It [Saturn] is surrounded by a thin, flat, ring, nowhere touching, inclined to the ecliptic".
>aaaaaaacccccdeeeeeghiiiiiiillllmmnnnnnnnnnooooppqrrstttttuuuuu

>>11926542
The good news is that at this point Starship-class spacecraft are inevitable. By that I mean TSTO fully reusable vehicles.

Falcon 9 is currently the best in the industry and everyone knows it. It’s also known that in order to beat SpaceX, costs MUST be lowered... which can be done by making a vehicle fully reusable.

I have a feeling that by 2030 there will be at least two or more fully reusable rockets flying that can place 20 tons into LEO. Not counting Starship.

In other news it’s funny that most of Starship’s criticism goes to it not being able to fly to Mars or being way more expensive than planned... and not the fact that a private company has the capability of building a 100 ton to LEO vehicle. If SpaceX decides “fuck it” they could make Starship expendable and put 200+ tons into LEO. And best of all, no one denies it.

Cassini falling into Saturn

>>10415315