Octopus Overlords

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 11:40 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Aug 05, 2020 2:34 pm Thats neat. Ive not kept up on this rocket. Other than it looking like its straight off the pages of some 1950s sci-fi space artist's drawing pad. Is it supposed to be some heavy lift cargo rocket with lots of space in it or a long range (Mars) human passenger rocket?

Charlie Bolden, a four-time astronaut, served as NASA administrator from mid-2009 through early 2017. During that time, he oversaw the creation and initial development of the agency's large Space Launch System rocket.
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Meanwhile, the SLS rocket, originally due to launch in 2017, is now delayed until at least the end of 2021.

As a result of this, Bolden appears to have changed his mind. In an interview with Politico published Friday morning in the publication's Space newsletter, Bolden was asked what might happen during the next four years.

“SLS will go away," he said. "It could go away during a Biden administration or a next Trump administration… because at some point commercial entities are going to catch up. They are really going to build a heavy lift launch vehicle sort of like SLS that they will be able to fly for a much cheaper price than NASA can do SLS. That’s just the way it works.”

Kraken wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 5:08 pm Well, that's what SHOULD happen, but all that money is getting spread around a LOT of congressional districts. More likely, they'll finish those development contracts and produce one or two vehicles before it's out-competed, probably by Super Heavy + Starship. Phat development contracts good, ridiculous operational costs bad.

"If Santa Claus arrived, and said, 'I have good news. It now works and you can launch tomorrow. Everything's done. You're going to have a launch tomorrow.' ... It still isn't getting us to the Moon. Even if they achieve everything they aim for, it still does not get people to the Moon. It certainly does not get a base on the Moon and absolutely doesn't get humans to Mars."

Elon Musk's SpaceX and the US military plan to build a rocket capable of delivering 80 metric tons of cargo anywhere in the world in 60 minutes.

Under a newly agreed contract, SpaceX will assess the costs and technical challenges of the project, while initial tests are expected in 2021, Gen. Stephen Lyons, the head of US Transportation Command, said Wednesday at a virtual conference.

A 7,652-mile journey from Florida to Afghanistan could be completed within about an hour with such a high-speed rocket, which could travel at 7,500 mph, per The Times.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:25 pm Mars is the god of war, after all..

Elon Musk's SpaceX and the US military plan to build a rocket capable of delivering 80 metric tons of cargo anywhere in the world in 60 minutes.

Under a newly agreed contract, SpaceX will assess the costs and technical challenges of the project, while initial tests are expected in 2021, Gen. Stephen Lyons, the head of US Transportation Command, said Wednesday at a virtual conference.

A 7,652-mile journey from Florida to Afghanistan could be completed within about an hour with such a high-speed rocket, which could travel at 7,500 mph, per The Times.

Since 2012, SpaceX has been working on a reusable rocket family, now called Starship, that will eventually replace its workhorse Falcon 9 family. Its design has evolved into a rocket possibly unprecedented in its ambition, being even larger than the venerable Saturn V rocket, but with far more uses. At launch, it will be the world’s largest launch vehicle and mass 5000 tonnes, more than eight times the world’s largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380.

Pushing it off the pad will be 28 Raptor engines producing more thrust than an astounding 50 A380s (75,315 kN/16,931,500 lbf). The Starship upper stage alone will mass 11/12th of a Falcon Heavy, and its reusable cargo variant’s 150 tonne payload would take five reusable Falcon Heavy launches to equal. Its cargo bay is large enough to swallow a passenger locomotive or a tunnel boring machine.
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A passenger variant of Starship will hold at least 100 passengers in a 1000 cubic meter pressurized cabin, an amount 9% greater than the International Space Station. This variant could potentially enable hypersonic point-to-point travel from any two points on Earth in 60 minutes or less.

A tanker variant would be required for missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), enabling the retrieval and repair of satellites, missions around and to the Moon, Mars and beyond. With the potential to slash the cost of missions to a fraction of their current levels, Starship’s debut may herald a new era in spaceflight.

Thanks to NASASpaceflight.com’s (NSF) behind the scenes reporting, SpaceX’s method of building it out in the open and Elon Musk regularly tweeting new details, we have been able to trace its progress through 12 known versions.

We’ll be covering seven years of design changes, including new information on materials, internal thinking and upper stage evolution learned since NSF’s first comprehensive article on SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) was published on August 9, 2018. Additionally, we’ll be covering the latest development news.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:18 am 28 engines sounds like a recipe of failure.

Formix wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:04 am Wait, wait. The cargo bay will hold a tunneling machine.....like a Boring tunnel machine? That changes a lot for a moon or Mars base.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:47 am

Formix wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:04 am Wait, wait. The cargo bay will hold a tunneling machine.....like a Boring tunnel machine? That changes a lot for a moon or Mars base.

You didn't really think Musk was practicing tunneling on Earth to solve mass transit here, did you?

Formix wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:57 am

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:47 am

Formix wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 7:04 am Wait, wait. The cargo bay will hold a tunneling machine.....like a Boring tunnel machine? That changes a lot for a moon or Mars base.

You didn't really think Musk was practicing tunneling on Earth to solve mass transit here, did you?

Well, I did. I don’t think I’ve ever been more conflicted about anyone else in my life. Elon is everything I hate, and, the only hope for making my boyhood dreams come true all in one.

malchior wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:26 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:18 am 28 engines sounds like a recipe of failure.

Falcon 9 has lost engines on flights without issues before. It's better to lose 10-20% of your engines than say 25-50% is 1 or 2 of 4 fails. On at least one of the Falcon 9 launches IIRC two were turned off by the flight computer to maintain the ascent profile.

raydude wrote: ↑Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:36 am OSIRIS-REx Sample Stowed. We got our souvenirs. Packing our bags and getting ready to head home.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:17 pm Lacquer.

I would not want to be tasked with tracking these issues down...

Hrdina wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:35 pm Now we're scheduled for November 5 at 18:24 local time.

Hrdina wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:35 pm Now we're scheduled for November 5 at 18:24 local time.

jztemple2 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:41 pm

Hrdina wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:35 pm Now we're scheduled for November 5 at 18:24 local time.

Yup. two launches this week, I'll be watching them from my backyard and since they will both be after sunset it will be pretty cool.

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Sun Nov 01, 2020 6:41 pmExciting. Good luck!

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:39 pm I watched it live. Good stuff!

malchior wrote: ↑Fri Nov 06, 2020 11:42 am

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:39 pm I watched it live. Good stuff!

Yeah fantastic. I love how they've packaged this up for the 'consumer' audience. It'll really help develop that pipeline of future rocket scientists.

" The thing that really gets me is that the ship and the rocket don't coordinate with each other in any way - both are locked into reaching, or maintaining in the case of the ship, a specific set of GPS coordinates, and if the readings are accurate, when the rocket lands, it's also where the ship is."