LA Speed Test: SR-71 follies (fun with ATC and the Navy)

[VJ]

yes, of course they are... visible may not have been the right word... current devices are technological marvels.

But still... The whole faster/higher/deeper adventure thing seems to have stalled...

[Wulfman]

I guess I'm just more optimistic. Nowhere deeper to go (and more people down there than ever), more people on the highest peaks (not even including Everest, 'too many' would be a correct description here) & the most remote mountains (seen the stories about people climbing mountains in the Antarctic?), airline fleets on average faster than ever (and more numerous), car fleets (dito on both accounts). Yeah, we lost the Concordes, Saturns & Shuttles - but we are getting Falcons, New Glenns, more private rocket companies than I can keep in my head and will have self driving cars. Not doing too badly, all in all.

And outside the hard & sparkly tech, in squishy biology we started building new genomes from scratch. Not as flashy, but ...

[VJ]

True... But it seems less spectacular. The self driving cars are something I did not expect to see in my lifetime, and now I'm already hoping that my current car holds out for 5 more years as that means my next car might actually be self driving. And current phones are amazing. The A380 is also unbelievable (I flew in it). But then at the same time: general aviation is still using 30 year old technology (or is ridiculously expensive).
So I would not say I'm pessimistic, but I miss a bit that drive for adventure over practical need.

[cjolley]

It's like exploration has always been. Big adventure going there, followed by boring shop keepers and accountants.
Mars is 200 times farther than the moon, so there was bound to be some lag.
In the meantime there is a LOT of science going on under the surface.

[Dr Mordrid]

The SpaceX Mars spaceship is supposed to be capable of SSTO when it's flown without the booster but with a partial cargo load. There's also been talk of it being able to do suborbital Earth trips point-to-point.

The Mars architecture is being updated this coming Friday by Musk at the IAC 2007 conference in Australia.

Recent images of the full flow staged combustion Raptor engine test stand show the subscale upper stage version built for USAF is upturning the ground for at least 600 to 800 feet.

Musk tweet
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Headed to Adelaide soon to describe new BFR planetary colonizer design in detail @IAC2017. This should be worth seeing. Design feels right.
8:03 PM - Sep 26, 2017

Initial ship design, to be updated Friday. Likely a bit smaller as the first ones will be subscale & growing later.