First thing I thought of, PTSD from all those failed Lunar Lander games I played as a kid. That and Missile Command. So many imaginary lives lost to my boredom. 
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I imagine it’s akin to how the pilots would describe the Space Shuttle. Flies just like a brick.
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When the ship was coming down vertically, with some white smoke blowing out of its aft-end, it really looked like a low-budget, 1950’s sci-fi film; only less impressive. Real life is so amazing.
I’m happy that no one was harmed, and that the engineers have learned some stuff.
“Headertank” makes it sound like a problem with domestic plumbing to my untrained ear. 
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SoaceX getting more out of a dollar than NASA ever did? Lol okay. All that time and money wasted doing science when they could have been blasting sports cars into space!
I’m glad that there’s now a path for advancement in this field since for 50 years it’s just been an exercise in drowning the dreams of promising young astrophysicists in the red tape bathtub. (Disclosure, I have a family connection in gvmt space programs. Have watched their research get repeatedly shelved)
It’s great these brilliant folks have a chance at seeing their work actually get made, but I’m not going to pretend they aren’t standing on the shoulders of giants. I’m sure they wouldn’t either if asked.
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I find it interesting that for all the talk in general about reducing our dependency on fossil fuels (a subject for which I approve), space exploration requires just that.
Greater good & all that, I reckon. (there is no /s here because I really do find this interesting). And I support the greater good.
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Basically, the flight went as planned, up to the final few seconds.
The vertical ascent started with three engines, reducing to two engines and then one in order to keep acceleration low (as the fuel mass went down).
The long “belly flop” is how Starship is designed to descend through the atmosphere, in order to shed as much velocity as possible before the final vertical landing. The fins provide guidance and stability.
From an Elon Musk tweet, we now know that the header tank providing liquid methane for the final vertical landing had a too-low pressure reading, so the engines did not have enough thrust to slow down for a soft landing.
Interestingly, the engine exhaust went green for the last couple of seconds. This is a sign of major problems, since methane normally has a blue flame. This is probably the engine throttling up (to provide more thrust), and flooding the combustion chamber with lots of liquid oxygen (since the methane had more-or-less run out), producing what we call “engine-rich combustion”. In other words, the engine was burning itself for thrust in an attempt to land safely 
Awesome flight…looking forward to SN9
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Once you’re clear of earth’s gravity there are non-fossil fuel options like ion drives. If we ever get serious about space travel it’s likely we would construct actual planetary travel ships in orbit, just using these reusables to supply- the re-use and advanced fuels are much lest wasteful. Assuming it doesn’t just devolve into a tourist excursion for the ultra rich, which could happen quite easily.
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To be fair, methane doesn’t have to be a fossil fuel. Here in Sweden (for instance) we are increasingly producing large volumes of methane from household food waste for fueling cars and buses.
Not to mention that SpaceX is planning to chemically produce methane on the surface of Mars to fuel Starship for the ride home.
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Here’s the thing:
Oil is used (in our modern world), in everything, not just the gasoline in our cars (or fuel for our rockets), but the plastic in our toothbrushes.
I don’t really see a way (currently) around that.
Are those not still fossil fuels? Methane, regardless of source, still has the same properties whether from an oil well or household waste, yes?
It doesn’t require fossil fuels though. Considering all the other costs, it doesn’t matter much if the fuel is a fossil fuel, biofuel or entirely synthetic one.
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My understanding is that the current rocket power discussed here involves fossil fuel of some sort.
True. You aren’t going to whittle your interplanetary rocket out of driftwood.
This kind of heavy investment into researching new materials often yields advancements though, including advancements in recycling plastics or plastics with lower impact.
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No, this one uses methane and liquid oxygen. Methane is really easy to produce as a biofuel.
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Yes. That said, I don’t think we should stop. Of course not. I’d love to come back 500 years from now just to see what we’ve done.
Speaking from a political perspective, I totally agree.
From the technological perspective it’s entirely doable. Atmospheric carbon capture tech is getting cheaper, and if the amount of money invested into renewables was on a similar order of magnitude than what is currently wasted on military, we would be living in an entirely different world already.
Other cool recent developments include catalysts that can generate synthesis gas from water and CO2 captured from atmosphere using only solar energy.
At this point everything needed is available, and we could even go really old school for the rest of the process of synthesizing hydrocarbons:
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Well yes, but methane is also plentiful; so much so that’s it’s regarded as a harmful greenhouse gas.
See also:
All well & good and I totally agree!
Back to the topic, carbon-neutral isn’t really a goal for the Mars mission and it’s not entirely realistic given that the mission’s focus isn’t about that.
I wonder if that was survivable. The impact was low speed and a crumpling, largely empty tube could have absorbed much of the kinetic energy. What was left of the fuel made lots of Hollywood flames but no shock. The nose seems to be just sitting there, and the door is at ground level so we don’t have to get the ladder out. Handy!
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Biomethathane isn’t a fossil fuel even if it’s the same substance that is extracted. It’s like using recycled iron or start from iron ore material. And harvesting biomethane is more like we are stopping pollution, than getting energy.
You can also get coal from wood scrapes. And instead of a waste on got a sellable byproduct.
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