NASA puts Crew-13's launch-pad escape in the hands of the 11-times-recalled Cybertruck

[Northy]

Interesting that Techspot can do a Cybertruck hit piece and the crowd doesn't scream Nazi and despot whilst completely ignoring the article. Definitely getting better.

 

[Endymio]

This isn't reporting, it's propaganda -- and not even thinly-disguised propaganda at that. TS should be ashamed for even running this.

As for the contrast between their differing ways of performing launches, NASA required up to 20,000 personnel for a single manned launch, was lucky to perform 3 launches per year, and at its height consumed well over 4% of all federal spending -- and killed 25 astronauts in the process. SpaceX does as many as six launches a week, using an operational crew of 30-50 people for unmanned launches and ~150 for manned ones, and has yet to have a single fatality.

 

[Freddie159]

If something happened where we needed to haul *** out of there, I'd rather be in something that does the quarter mile in 11 seconds than one that's probably somewhere in the 20's. I don't care how armored it is - I want distance away from what's happening.

ie one of the President's current Chevy vehicles

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

I am far less sure than you. Saying they did testing means nothing without knowing the tests. It seems far more likely to me that the current NASA administration got told by people higher up in the executive branch to "give SpaceX their Cybertrucks", and they simply shrugged their shoulders. I know through friends similar process side-stepping is happening in other offices of the executive branch; no one wants to lose what little is left of their funding, or their jobs, and everyone is just trying to hold out until the next election.

You seem to be more certain there's too much doubt than NASA and SpaceX is, the actual rocket scientists with an impeccable safety track record. I find it curious that suddenly you're suggesting NASA might be political hacks willing to risk the lives of astronauts. Just because your buddy said "something similar" might be happening, doesn't make it true. It also has no relevance to NASA. Has NASA shown any indication they're risking lives?

Anyways, while someone didn't ask the specific question of listing safety certifications that the Cybertruck underwent, it doesn't increase the chance of the Cybertruck being unsafe like you suggest. You don't have to know the tests themselves for NASA to safely adopt the vehicles for use.

 

[Endymio]

If something happened where we needed to haul *** out of there, I'd rather be in something that does the quarter mile in 11 seconds than one that's probably somewhere in the 20's. I don't care how armored it is - I want distance away from what's happening.

The difference is far worse than you imagine. NASA's M113 had a top speed of just 40mph, and it took a full 10.5 seconds just to reach a pathetic 20pmh. The Cybertruck used for these evacuations, however, can hit 60 mph in just 3 seconds.

ANY negative talk about Musk's products will cause a ferocious fury among some people here.

No, we simply want honest reporting. I realize you prefer juvenile disinformation that doesn't threaten your world view, but the rest of us will stick with facts.

 

[Endymio]

.... one has 1+ inch hardened steel that's been welded together, versus the other that has low grade stainless steel that is 1/8 an inch and glued to the frame

For curiosity, I performed a simple comparison of the relative blast strengths each vehicle would have to endure, assuming they had at least 12 seconds to evacuate (much less than that, and either vehicle would be simply vaporized outright).

In 12 seconds, each vehicle would travel an approximate distance of:

M113: 53 meters.
Cybertruck: 410 meters.

Explosion blast strength diminishes as the cube root of radius, meaning NASA's M113 would experience (410/53)^3 = 438 times the destructive force the Cybertruck would: a difference that thicker hardened steel isn't going to compensate for. Clearly, Tesla made the right decision here -- speed outweighs armor.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Better to be quick than dead as the old addage states. How many astronauts have been saved by an MRAP? That shining number... Zero. Anyone who has ever been in an MRAP or any other military vehicle knows two things... Heat kills and speed saves. If, by the off chance, an emergency happened, the armor on the MRAP will just be an amazing conductor of heat, like a cast iron skillet. An astronaut would bake inside. While they may survive the initial shock wave (that's a huge may), the fireball that's sure to follow would cook the occupants of the slow moving MRAP nice and toasty. So the thought here is speed. Get them out of ground zero asafp. The cyber truck accomplished that goal.

If you're talking about reliability and comparing the 11 recalls to any military vehicle I'll try to stop laughing long enough to type. Ask any military mechanic about the reliability of any government issued vehicle. You can be assured, 11 recalls would be about 100 times better than any military vehicle's track record. Those vehicles are kept in service by the amazing talents and adaptability of the military motor pool personnel literally jury riggiging them to stay operational.

This article should just be titled, we hate Elon and be done with it. But to try to make this an issue is a joke.

"Equating civilian auto recalls directly to military fleet maintenance mixes up two entirely different regulatory and operational systems."

"If military vehicles were subject to civilian recall standards and forced to park until factory-certified parts arrived, vast portions of military vehicle fleets would be grounded indefinitely. While 11 commercial recalls indicate significant manufacturing or design issues for a consumer road car, equating that number to military equipment ignores that military vehicles operate under a completely different lifecycle, maintenance culture, and threat model."

Dude saw a stat he didn't like and countered with a "Trust me, bro."

 

[bill92083]

Have you even seen the recalls they make against tesla? They are stupid things, mostly software issues the feds have problems with, like you could replace the noisemaker sound (a sound played by electric cars when driving below 20-ish mph to alert blind pedestrians) with different sounds. Or the icon for low tire pressure being 2pts too small. All fixed through software. None going to endanger anyone.

 

[XP437]

I consider this a reasonable idea, a MRAP is strong, and conducts heal like a frying pan. A MRAP is far slower than a cybertruck.

 

[dmatheson]

Better to be quick than dead as the old addage states. How many astronauts have been saved by an MRAP? That shining number... Zero. Anyone who has ever been in an MRAP or any other military vehicle knows two things... Heat kills and speed saves. If, by the off chance, an emergency happened, the armor on the MRAP will just be an amazing conductor of heat, like a cast iron skillet. An astronaut would bake inside. While they may survive the initial shock wave (that's a huge may), the fireball that's sure to follow would cook the occupants of the slow moving MRAP nice and toasty. So the thought here is speed. Get them out of ground zero asafp. The cyber truck accomplished that goal.

If you're talking about reliability and comparing the 11 recalls to any military vehicle I'll try to stop laughing long enough to type. Ask any military mechanic about the reliability of any government issued vehicle. You can be assured, 11 recalls would be about 100 times better than any military vehicle's track record. Those vehicles are kept in service by the amazing talents and adaptability of the military motor pool personnel literally jury riggiging them to stay operational.

This article should just be titled, we hate Elon and be done with it. But to try to make this an issue is a joke.

This is just super dumb. Your argument that speed over reliability doesn't really work if the alternative is a cybertruck. PLUS, NASA is a political organization; it should be trying to AVOID politically divisive things like cybertrucks unless there is a GOOD practical argument for their use. I would go so far as to say there is a good practical argument AGAINST the use of a cybertruck, which just makes the choice look partisan. I worked for NASA and loved my time there. I hate to see it get mired in the mud with something stupid like this.

 

[Northy]

This is just super dumb. Your argument that speed over reliability doesn't really work if the alternative is a cybertruck. PLUS, NASA is a political organization; it should be trying to AVOID politically divisive things like cybertrucks unless there is a GOOD practical argument for their use. I would go so far as to say there is a good practical argument AGAINST the use of a cybertruck, which just makes the choice look partisan. I worked for NASA and loved my time there. I hate to see it get mired in the mud with something stupid like this.

The Cybertruck is well matched to the narrow requirements. It can carry a suited crew, accelerate extremely hard on a known paved route, has useful clearance and a tough exterior, avoids gearbox concerns, and can be maintained, charged, inspected, and replaced easily.

Sure it kinda sucks, but I don't see a better contender for the use case right now. I'm sure a very expensive engineering exercise could make something better, but I'm not sure anything better suited for purpose exists now.

 

[Alpine7995]

Eleven recall campaigns sounds terrible until you remember the crew is sitting on top of several hundred tons of propellant. At that point, the Cybertruck may only be the second-most experimental vehicle involved.

 

[Endymio]

Eleven recall campaigns sounds terrible until you remember the crew is sitting on top of several hundred tons of propellant. At that point, the Cybertruck may only be the second-most experimental vehicle involved.

Another truck -- the Ford F-150 -- had over 20 recalls in just the year 2021 alone, despite being on the market decades. And half of Tesla's recalls were corrected via OTA (over-the-air) software updates ... but let's not let facts get in the way of a good story.

As for the Starship crew, they're sitting on several thousand tons of propellant, which is why evacuation speed is the most critical factor.

 

[preyingrazor]

I'd simply want to get out of harms way as fast as possible. Enter the cyber truck.

Very reasonable

 

[preyingrazor]

Better to be quick than dead as the old addage states. How many astronauts have been saved by an MRAP? That shining number... Zero. Anyone who has ever been in an MRAP or any other military vehicle knows two things... Heat kills and speed saves. If, by the off chance, an emergency happened, the armor on the MRAP will just be an amazing conductor of heat, like a cast iron skillet. An astronaut would bake inside. While they may survive the initial shock wave (that's a huge may), the fireball that's sure to follow would cook the occupants of the slow moving MRAP nice and toasty. So the thought here is speed. Get them out of ground zero asafp. The cyber truck accomplished that goal.

If you're talking about reliability and comparing the 11 recalls to any military vehicle I'll try to stop laughing long enough to type. Ask any military mechanic about the reliability of any government issued vehicle. You can be assured, 11 recalls would be about 100 times better than any military vehicle's track record. Those vehicles are kept in service by the amazing talents and adaptability of the military motor pool personnel literally jury riggiging them to stay operational.

This article should just be titled, we hate Elon and be done with it. But to try to make this an issue is a joke.

Be careful, when I've tried to type in anything pro Elon here, the comments have always been scrubbed.

 

[GTvon]

Space is dangerous and now not getting to space can be even more dangerous.

 

[GTvon]

The Cybertruck is well matched to the narrow requirements. It can carry a suited crew, accelerate extremely hard on a known paved route, has useful clearance and a tough exterior, avoids gearbox concerns, and can be maintained, charged, inspected, and replaced easily.

Sure it kinda sucks, but I don't see a better contender for the use case right now. I'm sure a very expensive engineering exercise could make something better, but I'm not sure anything better suited for purpose exists now.

They are cheap but I think maybe a little too cheap and too cheaply made.

 

[SRB]

ZERO ''american'' trucks made in the last 20 years are worth a singe wet turd... ford is so bad it has recalls WEEKLY.

Yeah, but that can actually be traced back to AI. Although Ford's CEO does get credit for firing the only guys who could figure out it wasn't ready for prime time. To their credit, they did hire all of them back after things started blowing up in their faces.

 

[SRB]

"Equating civilian auto recalls directly to military fleet maintenance mixes up two entirely different regulatory and operational systems."

"If military vehicles were subject to civilian recall standards and forced to park until factory-certified parts arrived, vast portions of military vehicle fleets would be grounded indefinitely. While 11 commercial recalls indicate significant manufacturing or design issues for a consumer road car, equating that number to military equipment ignores that military vehicles operate under a completely different lifecycle, maintenance culture, and threat model."

Dude saw a stat he didn't like and countered with a "Trust me, bro."

It's even worse than that, a great deal of the safety recalls are things that won't affect every one of the recall group, just a portion of them. Also, many of them are for things that are NOT catastrophic (back up cameras, trim could fly off, etc. Add to that many recalls are also for emissions or even customer satisfaction. Don't forget that sometimes the conditions of the failure can be replicated, but happen under driving conditions that are unusual or rarely encountered.

Bottom line, recalls are designed with the idea that vehicles should have zero chance of being the cause of injury or damage. While that's the way it should be, it ends up being more of an indicator of how big a pain in the neck a car will be rather than how dangerous it is.

 

[wiyosaya]

If you think an MRAP can withstand the blast from a rocket explosion you failed basic physics. An MRAP is designed to withstand the blast of an IED. A few milliseconds of shockwave at an extremely lower decibel than the shockwave and temp of a fully fueled rocket explosion.

Thus, by logical extension. a Cybertruck has no chance of surviving a rocket explosion.

Your only hope in that situation is speed (truly there is no hope whatsoever but at least it'll look faster).

At the distance that is likely involved, speed won't get anyone clear in time to escape the shockwave.

An MRAP would be melted beyond recognition and all inside would be liquefied and burned to ashes. Absolutely zero astronauts have ever been able to escape a rocketpad explosion. If there was a fault that was detected prior to boarding, speeding off on a fast moving vehicle would be your only hope.

As far as reliability goes, even if 11 recalls were for mechanical issues, an MRAP maintenance, recall and part schedule is at least 100 times that. Anyone who has been in the military and involved in any military vehicle will attest to the fact, if it ain't broke, it ain't government issue. LAVs in the USMC are out of service far, far more often than they are in service.

Having an escape vehicle, no matter what it is, is likely just a feel good measure for the astronauts.

 

[Alpine7995]

Another truck -- the Ford F-150 -- had over 20 recalls in just the year 2021 alone, despite being on the market decades. And half of Tesla's recalls were corrected via OTA (over-the-air) software updates ... but let's not let facts get in the way of a good story.

As for the Starship crew, they're sitting on several thousand tons of propellant, which is why evacuation speed is the most critical factor.

Sure, sure... I was just having some fun. But I digress.

 

[Nictron]

Nice biased clickbait article. I should really cancel my Techspot Elite subscription!
Cybertrucks are pretty tough and fast!

ABC News Article of the failed bombing using a Cybertruck at Trump's Hotel
https://abcnews.com/Politics/police...sion-trump-hotel-las-vegas/story?id=117252987

 

[GTvon]

Nice biased clickbait article. I should really cancel my Techspot Elite subscription!
Cybertrucks are pretty tough and fast!

ABC News Article of the failed bombing using a Cybertruck at Trump's Hotel
https://abcnews.com/Politics/police...sion-trump-hotel-las-vegas/story?id=117252987

So it would seem that the person who is to inept to create a decent bomb and had to use fireworks is also too inept to pick a decent vehicle and ended up with a pickup truck which like any pickup truck will send a blast upwards instead of outwards. It was stupid enough to sit in the truck and he was stupid enough to buy the truck and he was stupid enough to screw up the bombs. Sounds like the perfect person to buy a cybertruck.