Aptera has a drag coefficient of 0.13 and can go twice as far as a Model 3 on the same amount of energy. Aerodynamics are especially important on the highway.

The Ford F150 Lightning and Rivian R1T each can go about 2 miles per kwh. The Aptera can go 5 times as far on the same energy. You could fit maybe 50% more solar panels on a large truck (the Lightning is 30% longer, the R1T is 22.6% longer) so with the extra panels it could maybe go 12 miles per day in full sun. That could still be useful.

Cost to enter is obviously an issue, but EVs don't have to be cheaper than ICE vehicles to be more appealing. Different people place different values on future money vs current money, but only the extremely stupid/incompetent place zero value on future money. If a car saves you $20k over it's lifetime you might only be willing to pay an extra $10k for that. If you are particularly short sighted you might only pay $5k. People who don't qualify for a ~$30k car loan are probably shouldn't buy a new car anyway.

It is hard to get solar to make sense on a car, only so much energy hits a given area. If you ignore aerodynamics I don't think you can make it practical.

2 seater with lots of luggage space and 1000 miles range with the largest battery option + 40 miler per day of solar in full sun with the full solar package though that blocks the rear window.

Not every car needs to carry more than 2 people. This car has 25 cubic feet of cargo space, not issue on that front. No safety issues either.

This is a production car, not an experimental car.

You can't design your way around physics, but you can make an aerodynamic car.

It is literally and figuratively the North American Charging Standard.

EVs are a lot cheaper to operate. Electricity is cheaper than gas.

Though oddly enough, this mission doesn't test the system that would keep those astronauts alive. They decided to test that separately.

r/space is an odd place for people who don't value space exploration.

A race doesn't have to divide us. Competition is important because we want reality to determine what ideas are best, not a committee of bureaucrats.

A race to provide a better product at a lower cost and win customers.

It is a bit one-sided right now, but Blue Origin and Rocket Lab are looking promising. We might get a real race in the future.

It is difficult to care about space exploration and not appreciate what Musk has accomplished with SpaceX.

Any spacecraft with propulsion is a weapon if you want it to be.

I didn't say anything about skipping the permitting process, I was talking about the permitting process itself.

We are talking about adding less than 100 pounds to the roof, that is a 0% increase in loading. Requiring certified architectural drawings effectively outlaws solar on the roof of old buildings.

Walking on your roof is 100 times worse because not only is it more weight but it is vastly more concentrated.

My parents wanted to put solar on their roof, but the city required that they get full architectural plans for the building drawn up first, by a certified architect.

I think that was a joke about "skyplane"

As far as we know the Crew Dragon heat shield is actually capable of a lunar return, though that doesn't mean it could handle all aspects of that mission.

> “It’s actually designed for multiple Earth orbit reentry missions – so that we can actually do up to 10 reentry missions with the same heat shield.”

> “That means it can actually do at least 1 lunar orbit reentry velocity missions, and conceivably maybe 2.”

https://www.universetoday.com/tag/cislunar-space/

You are the one who brought up launch failures. There were zero problems with that launch. There were problems with a majority of the payloads after launch for reasons that had nothing to do with the launch itself.

Are you just trolling here?

Nothing about a launch failure in that article. Did you read it?

The last SpaceX (non-test) failure was in 2016 when AMOS-6 was lost before launch during a static fire. Since they retired the Falcon 1 in 2009 they have lost 2 primary payloads and delivered 1 secondary payload to the wrong orbit. They have had zero failures or partial failures in the last 100+ launches.

Your main point is correct, but you can see Andromeda with the naked eye on a clear and dark night. It is 2.5 million light years away and It is the only spiral galaxy (other than our own) visible to the naked eye.