Elon explains how to build anything with first principles pic.twitter.com/DTBuEfazi7
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) May 9, 2026
I’m working on a lunar skycrane project, and doing a trade on how/when to unreel/reel the tether, but I’m thinking about simplifying by simply making it fixed length.
Make your tether long enough so that your canted thrusters aren’t blowing dust around so much to obstruct your ground view or the workers below while the object being hoisted is on the surface and no longer. Use the thrusters for all else. Variable canter?
The best part is no part.
Lunar version of the Sikorsky S64 Sky-crane? Using standardized containers?
Never optimize a process for the edge case, optimize it for the base rate.
“Simplificate and build in lightness.”
– Geoffrey de Havilland.
When Bill Lear was working on the first Lear Jet (the Model 23), he told his engineers to work hard to eliminate parts and systems. His reasoning was that no only would you eliminate that part or system, but also the backup redundant part or system. His discussed this in his autobiography, “They Said It Couldn’t be Done”.
This is far from a new idea.
Not new, just not accepted widely
I’m not anything close to an engineer but think about all this design advice, especially this specific bit, when designing things to print.
Designing things to print?
Sorry to deliver the terrible news. You’re an engineer.
We should regard government regulation as an engineering problem.
I regard it as an existential threat to the species.