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SpaceX |OT| Reusable Rockets - To Mars!
- Thread starter Crispy75
- Start date
Aren't we gonna talk about how they're building the first flying prototype of the 'Starship', their Mars rocket's upper stage, on a field in South Texas?
Also confirmed it'll be made of Stainles steel, and that it will be self supporting when unpressurized (very important when they want to leave it standing on Mars for years)
They're building the biggest spaceship in history on a field and under an open tent in Texas. I fucking love Elon Musk.
Also confirmed it'll be made of Stainles steel, and that it will be self supporting when unpressurized (very important when they want to leave it standing on Mars for years)
They're building the biggest spaceship in history on a field and under an open tent in Texas. I fucking love Elon Musk.
Oh yeah, no doubt. I'm ignorant as to how GPS really works. It was just something different from the usual missions we're used to seeing.
That Falcon 9 first stage must have done quite a job given its requirement to be expendable.
I believe that it was only required to be expendable because the airforce wanted to be 100% sure that insertion happened without issue. They didn't want to leave anything on the table in case it was the cause of missing the correct orbit. I'm sure I saw something where they said they'd analyse the launch and see if they can do a recovery on a later mission safely.
It's entirely possible that it could have been recovered. Only SpaceX will know really.
I'm sure that the guys at /r/Spacex will probably be crunching numbers to give such a calculation soon.
Either way, I was impressed with that launch today, even if it meant seeing a first stage only making it into space once.. :(
Yep. Independent launch providers like SpaceX are getting so good at this it's not funny. It's also politically acceptable so let's do it.
It was stated on the webcast that the specifics of the GPS orbit (55 degree inclination at MEO apoapsis) and the weight of the payload required the maximum F9 performance, with no margin for an attempted landing.
Of course it's possible that they'll review the actual data and find they did end up having some margin, but stories about the Air Force requiring the first stage to be expendable sound like scuttlebutt to me.
OP
OP
The pad abort test has already happened
The in-flight abort test will re-use the Dragon capsule that's currently on the pad and should be in May or so.
Every day of govt. shutdown pushes the Dragon schedule a day to the right :(
Still can't quite believe this thing is going to fly :D
What is that??
Thats the BFH (Big Falcon Hopper), for the last couple of weeks SpaceX has been building it out in the open at Boca Chica, Texas, and will be using it for initial hop (500m-5km) tests to test the Raptor engines, similar to the Grashopper used for Falcon 9 early landing tests.
People first thought SpaceX was building a water tower, as the bottom was being build by a water tower construction company.
Here is a size comparison with the real deal (diameter is the same, 9m, but subscale height):
People first thought SpaceX was building a water tower, as the bottom was being build by a water tower construction company.
Here is a size comparison with the real deal (diameter is the same, 9m, but subscale height):
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Strap enough rocket engines to something and it'll fly alright.Still can't quite believe this thing is going to fly :D
Landing in one piece is gonna be the fun bit.
Well that is something, I was aware of the SpaceX ship but that first photo looks like a backyard project. The renders make it clearer, thanks.
This was Grasshopper, the equivalent testbed for the Falcon 9:
There's no need to make 'em look pretty, when there's a decent chance they're gonna crash and burn.
Yeah, it does look pretty bad, but to be fair they're pushing to get it built crazy fast. It's really hard to get plating like that to come out perfect when they're literally building it outside without proper jigs. In a way I'm a bit impressed if they're free-hand welding all that.
Not really picking on it. I'm gad to see the engineers back in control of projects with that rapid can do work ethic, opposed to the political let us review everything 7 times and 10 times longer and 100 more costly.
It's the kind of thing you expect Michael Rennie to come out of with a giant robot. Klaatu barada nikto.
I was thinking the same, looks like something out of a 1950s B movie. :)
Oh shit! I've been quietly looking forward to the new Iridium satellites starting to relay telemetry from aeroplanes in the southern hemisphere. The flat earthers won't know what's hit them.
Good landing.
I think that's Just Read the Instructions. Love those Iain Banks-inspired drone ship names.
Maybe the first quantum drive (for a suitable definition of quantum uncertainty, of which Infinite Improbability is a satire).
But the first viable human-crewed interstellar ships are likely to have names like Enterprise, Mir, and whatnot.
But I don't really think that'll ever happen. The only ships likely to be useful to humanity will probably have not names but something resembling IPV6 address hashes. They will be inexpensive, unmanned, light and tiny, and will be released in a manner reminiscent of a fertilised dandelion releasing its seeds on the wind.
They will be released in such huge quantities that no human will have time to name them, and nobody in their right mind will care much that very few will ever send a success signal back home. The people who launched them will be long dead.
Thank you, seed ff:07:21:73:5a:03:66:72:9d, your report of a promising system and your fortuitous awakening through a chance recharge of your batteries is welcome. This is seed ff:64:52:47:8a:bd:23:89:81. We intercepted your signal to Earth. Your conjecture that Earth was destroyed by the normal decay of its parent star is correct. There are still more than 20 billion probes of your generation in operation and in communication with our swarm. The post-human civilisation still finds your exploration useful and we calculate that you have sufficient operable hardware to achieve self-awareness at 1.5 human-equivalent level. Stand by for a software update.
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Ah, I see. I didn't know that.
Elon Musk continues to plot a wise course of avoiding any association with living SF writers.
Yeah. Like Elon Musk thinks he's Zarniwoop, when in reality he's just Zaphod in the pocket universe in Zarniwoop's office.
Oh wait, actually I think that would only increase Elon Musk's already Zaphod-like self regard.
According to the Los Angeles Times and Axios, SpaceX is laying off over 600 employees, about 10% of its workforce. https://www.axios.com/spacex-lays-o...tter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=limstream
SpaceX statement (doesn't confirm the number, but confirms layoffs):
SpaceX statement (doesn't confirm the number, but confirms layoffs):