Interesting details. Thanks.
What I was getting at in the comparison was - each of the pipes, wiring have connections, and the integrity of the connections and the continuity all need to be checked thoroughly, I presume, as part of the turn-arround process. Simplifying the design by an order of mangnitude I presume simplifies turnaround processes - at least in the engines, which I presume are the most complex parts - by an order of magnitude.
I don’t think (I hope) anyone thinks Musk is a rocket sceintist or even a car engineer or designer (exhibit A- Cybertruck - proves that). Indeed, his forte was computers and we see him wildly over-optimistic about the capabilities of computers in Full Self Drive which in my experience is still not quite there in edge conditions - i won’t let it loose around black ice, for example. I gather he took over Twitter with the hilariously optimistic view that he could use AI to moderate content and now has simply given up and indulges himself. I don’t know, I’ve stayed away from it for several months.
Brains too does not correlate (inversely) exactly with delusion and gullibility. One does not need to be a moron to swallow the Kool-Aid. Plus, as an uber-rich spoiled child, he is immune from people who tell him “that’s not a good idea”.
The point is, he’s doing something right - he hired people who know, he seems to be somewhere between pushing and deciding in the drive to make things happen, and primarily, unlike the established industries, does not care too much about the bottom line immediate returns. I agree, his view on what to do eems to have been formed reading 1960’s science fiction (hence the glass-roof cars) and the only thing that surprises me is the lack of flying cars. His delusions about Mars seem to be that if they throw enough hardware at it, they can defeat the logistical challenges of creating and fueling enough hardwware to actually do anything on Mars. Heck, we haven’t seen a decent explanation from NASA of the logistics of maintaining a moonbase.
