Exactly, now is there a video link of the capsule leaving the explosion debris?Originally Posted by selvaarchi
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Exactly, now is there a video link of the capsule leaving the explosion debris?
Order of Kilopi
A page discussing the capsule visible can be read on an obscure blog called Bad Astronomy: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astro...r_takeoff.html
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Obscure(?), Yes that was what I was looking for.
Order of Kilopi
(looking at your join date, I'll fill you in:Cosmoquest used to be BAUT forum. BAUT forum used to be BABB, the Bad Astronomy Bulletin Board. In other words, the forum belonging to the Bad Astronomy site/blog. My "obscure" remark was tongue in cheek.)
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ok, I didn't get the tongue in cheek.
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I just made this account but I've been a reader for years. Finally decided to participate.
Does anyone know about the life support system for dragon 2, don't they have a contract for their first manned mission this year?
Is it capable of supporting people long enough, on its own, to go to the moon (probably)? Mars (probably not)? Can dragon capsules leave earths orbit completely and go to mars or venus on unmanned missions now (technical ability)? Are spacex's only stated plans to provide launch capability to mars the BFG?MCT idea?
Last edited by JoshuaDavid; 2016-Apr-12 at 05:13 AM.
Order of Kilopi
If all goes well, SpaceX is planning to reuse the recovered rocket in May or June.way to go SpaceX.
Last edited by selvaarchi; 2016-Apr-12 at 09:43 AM.
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I wonder if some of the "cleaning" will involve removing burned fuel from the engines? Seems reasonable to me.
Order of Kilopi
My nephew starts his internship at SpaceX next month. Maybe they'll give him a toothbrush and send him in the nozzle.
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I may have many faults, but being wrong ain't one of them. - Jimmy Hoffa
Order of Kilopi
Heh.My nephew starts his internship at SpaceX next month. Maybe they'll give him a toothbrush and send him in the nozzle.
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Order of Kilopi
I think the plan for a human mission to Mars is to attach a habitation module under the capsule. I don't know what life support systems they have in mind.
As of right now, there is no provision for a Dragon leaving Earth orbit. SpaceX has not given a timeline for the MCT.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
Order of Kilopi
My brother had a holiday job at the nuclear powerplant. They gave him a grinder to clean the coolant water pump impellers. So if you make the toothbrush a wire brush, I wouldn't be surprised if that indeed is his job.My nephew starts his internship at SpaceX next month. Maybe they'll give him a toothbrush and send him in the nozzle.
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Order of Kilopi
The drone ship carrying SpaceX's rocket booster has entered port but has not yet unloaded its cargo
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It has now been unloaded.
Here is a video of the unload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeDyoDkBnaE
Elon on what happens now, about 18:30 into this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNyg...&nohtml5=False
/Peter
Last edited by baskerbosse; 2016-Apr-13 at 04:44 AM.
Order of Kilopi
Competition for BFR?
Blue Origin/Bezos said they want to build LV's bigger than anything that has ever been built before. So a BE-5 could be a >F-1 thrust LOx/LCH4 engine possibly FFSC to keep the no. of 1st stage engines on their future BFR to a reasonable value. I don't think that Blue Origin wants to dev. an N-1 style vehicle and Bezos says that turbopumps and thrust chambers scale well to large sizes.
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/ind...723#msg1518723
If ULA wants to survive--they need to nix their own Vulcan concept. Musk/Bezos have the path to re-usablility well plowed.
I would urge them to go large and forget re-usability--but reduce part count instead.
They need to get with Dynetics and Bezos--and see if they can build Pyrios: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2410/1
ULA would get the prestige of having F-1. The booster could compete with SRBs. With more power--a single core could launch Orion to LEO (solid augmentation) Shelby would support this.
Lastly, A Pyrios derivative might allow for a hammerhead shroud larger than what Falcon Heavy allows.
Space X did make one mistake early on:
"Unfortunately, the new company believed the oft-repeated assertion that there was a large unmet demand for small payloads and the launch services associated with them. Thus, the Falcon 1’s Merlin engine was the lowest thrust first stage engine used by a US space booster since the puny propulsion system employed by Vanguard in the 1950’s."
"When the truth came out that the real market was for medium and heavy launch vehicles, the Falcon 1 was abandoned and the Falcon 9 first stage needed a remarkable 9 engines to meet the mission requirements The Falcon Heavy first stage will need an incredible 27 engines. The Merlin engine used by these boosters has been upgraded to over twice its original thrust level, but at 150,000 pounds-thrust (667,000 newtons) at sea level, it still is only producing thrust equivalent to the earliest engines used by the Thor and Atlas boosters some 58 years ago."
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2799/1
Now--to his credit--a lot of engines allows fine throttling.
I can't help but wonder if the somewhat windy conditions HELPED this most recent landing on the barge.
A good stream of wind gives surfaces something to grip--something to fight.
With calm winds--the LV may feel every little off balance fluctuation.
I wonder if winds are needed to give the LV something to bite into--rather how the rudder of Titanic actually did worse when full reverse caused cavitation. Better to have had a bigger rudder, and kept speed. Larger ships actually handle better at speed for this reason.
Perhaps rockets are no different.
Last edited by publiusr; 2016-Apr-15 at 10:25 PM.
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Does anyone know where I might be able to find the full, unedited footage of the Dragon 8 approach and capture as streamed on NASAtv?
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I don't think it's an accident that the Falcon 9 has nine engines. It's correct that they found the Falcon 1 didn't have the demand they thought it would, but to my understanding even then the development path was to go Falcon 1 -> Falcon 5 -> Falcon 9. Later the five-engine Falcon 5 was cut in favor of going directly for the F9. The F1, I believe, was supposed to remain in service alongside it until they decided it wasn't worth it.
This number of engines also allows them engine-out capability and propulsive landing without an excessive thrust-to-weight ratio. The former was probably planned, as they advertised it quite early, but the latter is probably a fortunate coincidence since originally they were going to land stages by parachute. At least one of the early launches had first stage chutes packed inside the interstage, but all that got them was a debris field in the ocean.
Order of Kilopi
They also intended to gain in mass production, and to avoid having to develop a significantly different engine for the upper stage. The Merlin's only undersized if it's too small for the upper stage, and it seems their limitations are structural resulting from the overall height to width ratio, not inadequate thrust. If there's something to regret, it's probably not being more ambitious with the core diameter, but flexibility in transporting Falcon 9 stages has probably been a worthwhile tradeoff during the company's establishment and stage recovery experiments.
And note that their experience with the Falcon 9 is leading them to optimize their future Raptor vehicle for large numbers of relatively small engines:
Thrust to weight is optimizing for a surprisingly low thrust level, even when accounting for the added mass of plumbing and structure for many engines. Looks like a little over 230 metric tons (~500 klbf) of thrust per engine, but we will have a lot of them
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"Specifications for RP-1 where first issued in the United States in 1957 when the need for a clean burning petroleum rocket fuel was recognized. Prior experimentation with jet fuels produced tarry residue in the engine cooling passages and excessive soot, coke polymirization and other deposits in the gas generator. Even with the new specifications, kerosene-burning engines still produce enough residues that their operational lifetimes are limited."
http://www.braeunig.us/space/propel.htm
Methane does not coke (polymerize) at the operating temperatures of a rocket
http://space.stackexchange.com/quest...ine-the-raptor
About that: http://cosmoquest.org/forum/showthre...50#post2350150
Still, having lots of engines give you engine out capability--which we saw need not lead to fratricide. It allows a finer touch
And the more things you make--the cheaper they can get.
Something interesting: http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/04/...ian-invention/
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2016/0...g-on-dron.html
Last edited by publiusr; 2016-Apr-16 at 08:35 PM.
Moderator
Time to get ready again
spaceflightnow.com
SpaceX technicians are attaching a Japanese communications satellite to the top of a Falcon 9 rocket ahead of a planned launch Thursday morning from Cape Canaveral.
The JCSAT 14 communications satellite, made in California by Space Systems/Loral, is fueled and encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing. Workers were expected to connect the satellite with the launcher’s second stage inside the Falcon 9 hangar as soon as Monday.
The rocket passed a key preflight test Sunday evening, when SpaceX’s launch team fueled the Falcon 9 with super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen and fired its nine Merlin 1D first stage engines for several seconds at Cape Canaveral’s Complex 40 launch pad.
...
“Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 will attempt an experimental landing on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship,” SpaceX said in a post on the company’s website. “Given this mission’s GTO destination, the first-stage will be subject to extreme velocities and re-entry heating, making a successful landing unlikely.”
Order of Kilopi
Oh, a night launch, too! If the stage isn't too far downrange, I might be able to see part of it's orientation and landing burns. It might be worth taking a drive to the beach and north a bit...
CJSF
"Flipping this one final switch I'm effectively ensuring that I will be
Overcoming all resistance long after my remains have been
Vaporized with extreme prejudice and shot into outer space.
I'll be haunting you."
-They Might Be Giants, "I'll Be Haunting You"
lonelybirder.org
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From Bob's wonderful page that you linked
So again I ask if cleaning any residuals would be in the cleaning procedure.Specifications for RP-1 where first issued in the United States in 1957 when the need for a clean burning petroleum rocket fuel was recognized. Prior experimentation with jet fuels produced tarry residue in the engine cooling passages and excessive soot, coke and other deposits in the gas generator. Even with the new specifications, kerosene-burning engines still produce enough residues that their operational lifetimes are limited.
Order of Kilopi
SpaceX’s new price chart illustrates performance cost of reusability.
http://spacenews.com/spacexs-new-pri...f-reusability/
Launch-service provider SpaceX’s new price chart shows the performance cost incurred when making the Falcon 9 Full Thrust and Falcon Heavy rockets partially reusable.
The corresponding cost and price benefit, which SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has said could give customers around a 30 percent discount over expendable versions, is not yet listed in the price chart. Prices are shown as $62 million for the Falcon 9 Full Thrust and $90 million for the Falcon Heavy.
SpaceX has said it needs to thoroughly examine several Falcon 9 first stages on their return to the drone ships or ground landing pads before settling on a pricing structure. Final prices will also depend on SpaceX’s ability to ramp up its launch rhythm.
For now, the listed prices for the reusable and expendable versions remain the same.
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From tweets new launch date 01:21 6 May 16
Order of Kilopi
Launched and Landed!
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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That looked like an excellent landing!Launched and Landed!
Now I'd like to see one of these fly again!
And of course a triple fly back of a Falcon Heavy is going to be awesome!
Order of Kilopi
I notice that before most recent launches they have hedged their bets by saying "Oh, it probably won't work" or "confidence is low". That way if it fails no one is too disappointed, and if it succeeds, bonus points. Sort of like Scotty in the Star Trek TNG episode Relics, claiming that he always exaggerating his time estimates for repairs so that he seemed like a "miracle worker" when he finished them in minutes.
"I'm planning to live forever. So far, that's working perfectly." Steven Wright
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Missed this one, eyes were closed at launch, but congratulations to them.
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Spaceflightnow.com has some images, but no video yet
Order of Kilopi
SpaceX appears to have it on their site.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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