• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

SpaceX |OT| Reusable Rockets - To Mars!

Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,124
Chesire, UK
Slightly off-topic, but California / New Zealand based Rocket Lab are launching for DARPA in a few minutes:



Rocket Lab are a really neat startup with some cool electric-pump-fed engine engine tech.
 
Last edited:
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
The super interesting thing about Rutherford engine is it's electric fed turbo pumps, and the rotodynamic pump (which I jut learned about). They're a great little provider, and I bet they soon find themselves with a nice chunk of the small satellite market share.
 
jotun?

jotun?

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,501
Dan said:
The super interesting thing about Rutherford engine is it's electric fed turbo pumps, and the rotodynamic pump (which I jut learned about). They're a great little provider, and I bet they soon find themselves with a nice chunk of the small satellite market share.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Technically not turbo pumps, since the unique thing about them is that they use electric motors instead of turbines

Too bad the design doesn't really scale well for bigger rockets. I'm sure Musk would love to have electric-pumped engines on SpaceX rockets, if they didn't require so much extra weight
 
Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,124
Chesire, UK
jotun? said:
Technically not turbo pumps, since the unique thing about them is that they use electric motors instead of turbines

Too bad the design doesn't really scale well for bigger rockets. I'm sure Musk would love to have electric-pumped engines on SpaceX rockets, if they didn't require so much extra weight
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Especially because you know they would be using Tesla battery packs, if only so Teslas could be branded as rocket powered.

Heck, I'm surprised Musk hasn't done a deal with Rocket Lab to flog them batteries.
 
OP
OP
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,058
Starhopper made its first "flight"
(Elon tweet says it hopped, but it was tethered down pretty tight. Can't have raised much more than a foot)

 
DrEvil

DrEvil

Developer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
2,647
Canada
I've got two "Feel the heat" Tickets for the upcoming falcon heavy launch that I can no longer go to since the launch date slipped from this coming sunday (April 7).

They're the closest you can get to the launch pad at KSC, and originally were $400 USD for the pair.

New date is potentially the 8th or 9th...

I'll happily let them go for $300 if anyone is in the area and wants to attend. DM me if you're interested.
 
DieH@rd

DieH@rd

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,569
I just wanted to ask why are they using Falcon Heavy to launch a communication satellite to GEO, but then I saw it weighs 6 tons.

So now I want to ask, what is inside that satellite? :D

edit - OK, half of the weight of the satellite is its fuel.
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,058
A regular F9 could lift this satellite if they expended the first stage, but it's cheaper to reuse three than throw away one. Also, when the contract was signed, F9 wasn't even powerful enough to lift it, even in expendable mode.
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
Falcon Heavy a 90% GO (excluding upper level winds) for tonight's launch window.

In the meantime, watch the Beresheet lander land on the moon live:

 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
Prop load started on Falcon Heavy. Looking good for a early window launch attempt

 
OP
OP
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,058
I opened a second beer and am now committed to a late bedtime regardless :)

Gwan falcon heavy!
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
T-3 minutes.

Enjoy the launch. Next FH is due up in a couple of months with the STP mission.
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
SofNascimento said:
It's so easy to forget that landing the rockets are actually not the point of it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, it's 50% the point of it. When a customer assesses a launch provider, it looks at two factors: cost and reliability. Landing rockets allow SpaceX to quote a competitive cost. Delivering a payload to the designated location is the reliability.

Arabsat paid a cheaper cost because they used three landable F9 cores. SpaceX will reuse them for STP-2. They would have paid a ton more for a single stick expendable F9 core that would be thrown away. That would have done the job too.
 
Tygre

Tygre

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,124
Chesire, UK
Additional exciting SpaceX news:

NASA has chose the Falcon 9 to launch the DART mission.

If all goes according to plan, DART will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2021. In October 2022, the spacecraft will slam into "Didymoon," the 540-foot-wide (165 meters) satellite of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos.

Telescopes here on Earth will document how the collision affects Didymoon and its orbit around the 2,540-foot-wide (775 m) Didymos. Such observations will help researchers assess the "kinetic impactor" strategy of dangerous-asteroid deflection, DART team members have said.

And we may get some up-close looks at the battered Didymoon as well. A candidate European mission called Hera would launch toward the Didymos system in 2023 and get there in 2026. It would inspect the fresh crater and make detailed measurements of Didymoon's altered orbit, with the aid of two briefcase-size cubesats.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
OP
OP
Crispy75

Crispy75

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,058
Bummer. The "octograbber" hold down robot isn't compatible with the Heavy's centre core alparently
 
Dan

Dan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,961
OT: but NG Antares CRS-11 to the ISS will be lifting off in less than half an hour

 
You must log in or register to reply here.