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Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 1:25 pm
by paperburn1
Betruger wrote:The myopia and/or hypocrisy of those people really lights my fuse. NIMBYs, think-of-the-children, tall poppies, etc.

I think you can go though history and every really bad decision was made with the heart not the brain.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:20 pm
by Maui
What lights my fuse is people that go fishing for the political opinion they don’t like, then rant when the get it.

Merry Christmas!

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 9:59 pm
by paperburn1

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2017 5:54 pm
by Maui
Image

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2017 6:14 pm
by krenshala
It is so tempting to take a short notice vacation and "visit my parents" in Eustice FL, "coincidentally" in time to see FH launch. ;)

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 6:34 am
by Betruger
Maui wrote:What lights my fuse is people that go fishing for the political opinion they don’t like, then rant when the get it.

Merry Christmas!
I might be dense. Was that for me?

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:05 pm
by Tom Ligon
krenshala wrote:It is so tempting to take a short notice vacation and "visit my parents" in Eustice FL, "coincidentally" in time to see FH launch. ;)
I won't be going. My wife definitely will not be going. We were nearby a few weeks back, taking a cruise from Port Canaveral, but there was nothing visible on the pad at that time.

My wife has viewed two launches. The first was Apollo 13. The second was the last flight of Columbia, which we watched from fairly close up together. Lately, if I try to watch a launch from Wallops Island, the launch is either scrubbed or the rocket blows up. So, in the interest of this effort succeeding, I'll watch the video after it is done.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 3:39 pm
by paperburn1
Here right now but I will not be here for the launch (best guess date) :(
By the way It’s going near Mars not into mars orbit. A Hohmann transfer orbit, out Mars and back to orbit . That makes sense for a first flight. Also this will be a faring recovery operation as well. Now this next bit is just a bit of supposition but how cool would it be to have a roadster that has been to mars be, just might find out in four years and four months .

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 4:54 pm
by Tom Ligon
What a delightfully nutty concept, to launch a Tesla Roadster to Mars!

Though, when you get right down to it, it is probably the least expensive payload they've launched except for water.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 7:20 pm
by choff
When aliens from other galaxies stumble on to it, they might get a little confused, or if they do get it, they'll think humans were nuts.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:48 pm
by hanelyp
Some of us living here think a lot of humans are nuts.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:32 am
by williatw
SpaceX BFR construction will start in 4 to 6 months


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The SpaceX BFR (Big Falcon Rocket or Big frick Rocket) has a planned payload of 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) when flying reusable or 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) when flying expendable, making it a super heavy-lift launch vehicle.

SpaceX plans to replace of all their current rockets by the early 2020s with the BFR. Tooling for the main tanks has been ordered and a facility to build the vehicles is under construction; construction of the first BFR is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2018. SpaceX has the aspirational goal for initial Mars-bound cargo flights of BFR launching as early as 2022, followed by the first crewed BFR flight one synodic period later, in 2024. Serious development of the BFR began in 2017.

Testing of the BFR is expected to begin with short suborbital hops of the full-scale ship, likely to just a few hundred kilometers altitude and lateral distance.

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https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/12/s ... onths.html

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:39 am
by williatw
The SpaceX BFR (Big Falcon Rocket or Big frick Rocket) has a planned payload of 150,000 kg (330,000 lb) when flying reusable or 250,000 kg (550,000 lb) when flying expendable, making it a super heavy-lift launch vehicle.


This is astonishing if it turns out to be true...even in the reusable mode it beats the heck out of the all time heavy weight champion of lift to LEL the old Saturn V:


The Saturn V's size and payload capacity dwarfed all other previous rockets which had successfully flown at that time. With the Apollo spacecraft on top, it stood 363 feet (111 m) tall, and without fins, it was 33 feet (10 m) in diameter. Fully fueled, the Saturn V weighed 6.5 million pounds (2,950 metric tons)[4] and had a low Earth orbit payload capacity originally estimated at 261,000 pounds (118,000 kg),[17] but was designed to send at least 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) to the Moon. Later upgrades increased that capacity; during the final three Apollo lunar missions it deployed about 310,000 pounds (140,000 kg)[5][6][note 1] to LEO and sent up to 107,100 lb (48,600 kg)[4]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V#Technology

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 6:31 am
by Maui
I do wonder if the FH launch fails if they might cancel the FH program. They’ve worked F9 up to a fairly hefty capability and already launched at least one payload that had been slated for FH. How many launches will they need FH for before BFR comes online? I’m actually a bit surprised they’re even pushing forward st this point, but perhaps they’d be in breech if contract if they didn’t.

Glad they are tho. Will be exciting to watch whatever ends up happening.

Re: SpaceX News

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:04 pm
by paperburn1
SLS is basically a jobs program for nasa. One of SLS's big problems is lack of a mission. Thus they need to find something really important to do with SLS. A realist who wants their mission launched would be wiser to consider Falcon Heavy with multiple launches and in space assembly to actually get launched. And nasa also has the leverage of only they can certify the Falcon,Falcon heavy, or the BFR for manned space flight. The heavy would work just fine for a supply vehicle to any major space project(just like the falcon). In TLI the payload would probably be big enough to equal the apollo days but two launches would give it enough gusto to basically go anywhere in the solar system given enough time. So it has a potential of a lot of uses especially if for some bizarre reason we really do go back to the moon. I do think Spacex can fly their own people just not nasa people without certification
The heavy can not fit the SLS system because nasa has basically made that their little pork barrel. It may fly two or three times a year with everything working and funding present. This is where the "gamble" comes in with the BFR. First, it fits the SLS. second, It can easily launch the SLS system for 25 percent of the cost if musk pulls off the reusability thing. The manned part would be manned certified SLS and the BFR would already be launched certified by this point. The beancounters will eventually force nasa to utilise the BFR. We are currently paying the russians 70 million dollars a seat to fly to the space station , that is the estimated cost of a fully loaded Falcon to the station right now and the amortised cost of a BFR.

So short answer is I do not think they will dump the heavy falcon after the block 5 upgrades because they can still be used as a Falcon as well. The block threes and fours will be used as expendables...... It's your one way ticket to midnight. call it heavy falcon