- Ultra-low launch cost debate: participants argued whether SpaceX Starship could reach $5–$35/kg to LEO, with Elon Musk tweeting that propellant alone could drop to ~$100/ton and total marginal cost to ~$10/kg; Robert Zubrin’s “Case for Space” is cited as estimating a theoretical floor of $5/kg recurring plus 4× amortization to $20/kg.

- Consequences for CubeSats: at $200/kg or below, the traditional 1 kg form factor becomes uneconomical—not because of hardware price, but because regulatory vetting for weapons or restricted sensors will dwarf the launch cost.

- Orbital rings vs. rotating tethers: docl argued that orbital rings offer lower marginal cost (< $5/kg), direct power beaming, and avoid the catastrophic collision and tension problems inherent in large rotating tethers.

- Modular shared spacecraft bus: fenn and maaku proposed a standardized “MUOL” (Modular Unmanned Orbital Laboratory) rack that provides attitude, power, comms, and telemetry, letting payloads plug in like cartridges and amortize regulatory approval across identical units.

- Steel fatigue findings: muurkha noted that modern testing to trillions of cycles shows steels, like aluminum, lack a true fatigue limit—power-law degradation continues indefinitely—implying design implications for long-life space structures.

- Market opportunity: maaku highlighted a huge gap for mass-produced, low-cost space-qualified hardware once launch prices fall, since current satellites are hand-crafted one-offs with extreme markups.

- Surveillance publishing: andytoshi linked John Carlos Baez’s blog post “Surveillance Publishing” (https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2021/12/05/surveillance-publishing/) as relevant background on open-access and control issues in scientific dissemination.