runarberg | Hacker News

Comment by runarberg | original | SpaceX catches the Starship to end Flight 15

[−]runarberg · 2026-11-14 Sat 21:47 UTC · link

All I want are bigger and more cleverly located space telescopes, a couple of more probes and orbiters around other planets and asteroids, and I want those Mars samples that Percy has been pooping over the Mars surface returned to Earth and studied in a lab. And maybe a probe to Alpha Centauri or exo-planet viewers that use the Sun’s gravitational lensing in the next 5 or 6 decades.

[−]consensus1 · 2026-11-14 Sat 22:04 UTC · link

We will need nuclear propulsion for a lot of that, but the good news is that it has already been built and demonstrated back in the 70s.

edit: Rate limited so adding link to interview the reply mentions here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujfF_SnxvZQ

[−]peterfirefly · 2026-11-14 Sat 22:14 UTC · link

And NASA is working on it again! Isaacman talked about it in a recent interview with Everyday Astronaut.

[−]runarberg · 2026-11-14 Sat 22:15 UTC · link

I think the concept for the Alpha Centauri probes uses solar sails and externally fired lasers[1]. The exo-planet viewer concept also proposes solar sails.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2069_Alpha_Centauri_mission

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_gravitational_lens

[−]thinkcontext · 2026-11-15 Sun 03:23 UTC · link

Launch is a small part of the cost of a space telescope. Certainly having a bigger fairing opens up design and capability options.