On The Topic of Chickens and Spacecrafts; Chicken Spacecrafts

The Age-Old Question: What Came First; The Chicken or The Egg?

At around the 15th page of the never-ending article I was tasked with reading, waiting on campus in between two of my classes, the author mentioned something about how the political structure of ancient Greece furthered urbanization and how urbanization, in turn, furthered the political structure.

Needing to distract myself from my archaeology reading, I wondered about the classic debate.

What did come first?

Despite chickens and eggs being lingering curiosities of my childhood, they had faded from the forefront of my brain. This usually occurs after the mystery has been solved, but in this case, when trying to remember the solution, my mind came up blank.

Naturally, I had to do some rather in-depth research. After encountering more than a couple of paywalls (I was browsing on very professional, scientific sites), I landed on an article by Luis Villazon on BBC Science Focus.

Most of the previous articles I read took a strong position on the side of the egg, stating that chickens had only evolved recently, but eggs had been around for thousands and thousands of years. This didn't satisfy me, as I wasn't wondering if any egg had arrived first, but specifically, a 'chicken' egg. I started to wonder: was anyone else taking this seriously?

Anyways, upon opening the article, I breathed a sigh of relief. Seemingly, Villazon was a like-minded individual who thought about this subject with the solemnity it deserved.

He brought a nuanced perspective I hadn’t yet encountered in my brief contemplation of this subject, writing, “it very much depends on how you define a chicken’s egg. Is it an egg laid by a chicken? Or is it an egg that a chicken hatches from?” (Villazon).

Initially a bit disgruntled that this scientific question had led me to a philosophical debate, I pondered the matter for a few minutes and came around.

So, now I asked myself, what is an egg? What is a chicken? As I write and post this, I am still asking myself this question. I need something to keep my mind off the ancient Greeks.

I tried to reflect on my own experiences, finding that there wasn't much data on the matter. Unfortunately, I haven't encountered many chickens, so this was a quick dead end.

While I set out to find a solid answer, I came to the conclusion that there might not be one. I could develop an opinion, but I like to make an effort to avoid philosophy and debates whenever I can. It's part of what led me on this quest in the first place. Sometimes, the truth hurts.

To Return to the Title, an Investigation into Space

A couple of hours later, distracted in archaeology, I browsed the top space articles posted on Apple News as usual.

One of the headlines was "SpaceX is now building a Raptor engine a day, NASA says," published by Ars Technica.

In line with my usual routine, I clicked on it, still having no idea what SpaceX really does, or more specifically, whatever the fuck a Raptor engine was. While some people might solve this problem by reading the article, I stuck with my habits and turned to Google.

This led me nowhere.

Wikipedia read, "Raptor is a family of full-flow staged-combustion-cycle rocket engines developed and manufactured by SpaceX for use on the in-development SpaceX Starship. The engine is powered by cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen rather than the RP-1 and liquid oxygen used in SpaceX's prior Merlin and Kestrel rocket engines" ("SpaceX Raptor," n.d.).

Then I wondered since I had no clue what that meant, maybe I should look up the Raptor engine's use or purpose.

It felt like they slapped me in the face. Obviously, spaceships. Thanks, Google. Even so, I didn't let it get me down. I narrowed down the search, typing in "what is different about a Raptor engine."

To be transparent, originally, I wrote that I then discovered the use of super-chilled liquid methane and oxygen. Still, upon rereading this, I realized I quoted Wikipedia saying that exact thing above. So, maybe, I didn't actually read what a Raptor engine did, and instead figured the act of looking it up was good enough. Hey, sometimes, you are confronted with reality, and reality can be harsh.

Still, this latest google search, where I actually read the results my question prompted, led me to wonder, what is the Starship?

Oh, of course, a fully-reusable, super-heavy-lift launch vehicle ("SpaceX Starship," n.d.). I should have known.

Are spaceships usually single-use? Apparently. It makes sense now that I think about it. This might come as a surprise, but my search did not end there. I was left with the question; what is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle? Oh. If you are also curious about this, Wikipedia says that it is a "super heavy-lift launch vehicle can lift to low Earth orbit more than 50 metric tons by United States classification" ("Super heavy-lift launch vehicle," n.d.).

Despite the loose ends that lingered (me having no clue what that meant), I decided to give up.

The next question might be, "Violet, what was the original article actually about?" This is something you will have to answer for yourself, as I got so distracted by my rabbit hole of Googling that I never got around to reading it.

To end it off, I know I mentioned chicken spacecrafts in the title. Unfortunately, I don't have any comments at this time.

Violet

PS. I hope you appreciate the MLA citations. This is serious, after all.

Villazon, Luis. “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?” BBC Science Focus Magazine, BBC Science Focus Magazine, 17 Apr. 2020, https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg/.

Wikipedia Contributors. “SpaceX Starship.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Oct. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship.

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“Super Heavy-Lift Launch Vehicle.” Wikipedia, 1 Dec. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_heavy-lift_launch_vehicle.

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“SpaceX Raptor.” Wikipedia, 8 June 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Raptor.

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