SpaceChampion Posted February 4, 2019 Author Share Posted February 4, 2019 Flight model of the Raptor engine that will power the Starship and Super Heavy booster (ie. the BFR) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 9, 2019 Author Share Posted February 9, 2019 So Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire bankrolling the #DearMoon mission to circle the Moon in SpaceX's Starship in a few years, has made his first invitation to an artist -- in this case a director -- to join the mission. Damien Chazelle directed First Man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Bass Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 NASA should buy a starship flight with a modified internal cabin, then have it spin up end-over-end to test out simulated gravity at 6 RPM or less (specifically what it takes to simulate Martian and Earth gravity). Starship has a big enough internal volume that it could theoretically be used for a crewed Mars mission (although you'd need to refuel in both Mars and Earth orbit, and probably land something on Mars to refuel it on site - and of course this assumes that the fuel tanks are configured so they won't bleed off all the fuel in the transit to Mars). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Reborn Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 8 hours ago, Winter Bass said: NASA should buy a starship flight with a modified internal cabin, then have it spin up end-over-end to test out simulated gravity at 6 RPM or less (specifically what it takes to simulate Martian and Earth gravity). Starship has a big enough internal volume that it could theoretically be used for a crewed Mars mission (although you'd need to refuel in both Mars and Earth orbit, and probably land something on Mars to refuel it on site - and of course this assumes that the fuel tanks are configured so they won't bleed off all the fuel in the transit to Mars). No need to refuel in Mars orbit. In fact, the ship doesn’t have the fuel to slow down into Mars orbit. It needs to aerobrake in the Martian atmosphere in order to bleed off its speed before landing on the Martian surface. The idea is launch from Earth into orbit. Refuel the ship. Depart for Mars. Hit the Martian atmosphere at a hell of a velocity, bleed off 90% of the speed through aerobraking and then have just enough fuel left to fire the rockets for the last bit to land safely. Then spend two years making new methane fuel from Martian water and depart back for Earth when the planets align again 26 months later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Bass Posted February 15, 2019 Share Posted February 15, 2019 Is that for the high-speed three month transit? A 6 month transit would be fine if it gave you extra fuel to spare for slowing down and landing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 On 2/15/2019 at 1:42 AM, Winter Bass said: Is that for the high-speed three month transit? A 6 month transit would be fine if it gave you extra fuel to spare for slowing down and landing. They design it so they won't need extra fuel. Or rather the fuel simply goes into how much payload mass they can carry. If they need more fuel, they simply carry less cargo mass. They'll make sure to carry enough fuel to land without slowing down. The bigger the ship, the easier to use the atmosphere to slow down. They'll never have to sacrifice speed to slow down, because slowing down into orbit serves no purpose. That goes against the usual way aerospace companies and space agencies have imagined Mars landings, but that's the genius of SpaceX building as big a ship as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 16, 2019 Author Share Posted February 16, 2019 NASA gets a funding boost without cutting all the programs Trump wanted to cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 17, 2019 Author Share Posted February 17, 2019 Falcon Heavy... one year later. It has attracted enough business to create a launch manifest large enough to pay off all of its development costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 21, 2019 Author Share Posted February 21, 2019 Launch today... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 22, 2019 Author Share Posted February 22, 2019 SpaceIL is hitching on this Falcon 9 launch to send a lander Beresheet to the Moon for Israel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 If I were not judging Debate I could have watched the launch in person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 23, 2019 Author Share Posted February 23, 2019 SpaceShipTwo take a second ride to "space" on a suborbital burn: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted February 25, 2019 Author Share Posted February 25, 2019 March 2 is the target date for the first Crew Dragon test flight. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/dragon-aces-final-nasa-review-now-set-for-test-flight-on-march-2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 1, 2019 Author Share Posted March 1, 2019 TOMORROW -- CCtCap Demo Mission 1 (DM-1) of the Crew Dragon (launched on a F9 with a mannequin inside). March 2, 2019 • 2:49 AM EST - at KSC LC-39A The mannequin is named Ripley, after the character from the Alien franchise. The interior of the Crew Dragon looks slick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 2, 2019 Author Share Posted March 2, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jace, Extat Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 GODDAMIT! I MEANT TO WATCH! STUPID JACE GODDAMN STUPID FUCKING JACE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altherion Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 The Dragon has docked to the ISS without any incidents. Here's a video of the people onboard the ISS welcoming it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Bass Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 The NASA administrator indicated that he was open to launching the Orion and Orion Service Module on commercial launchers for the EM-1 mission in 2020, given that SLS appears quite unlikely to be ready by that date. Given that there are really only two launchers that can potentially do the two-launch replacement (SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and ULA's Delta IV Heavy), it seems quite likely that SpaceX will get to do one of those missions if this alternate arrangement actually happens (which it very well might not - SLS has powerful supporters in Congress). My guess would be that Falcon Heavy gets the Trans-Lunar Injection stage, while Delta IV Heavy (assuming they can have one ready for launch in just over two years) gets the Orion Capsule and Service Module. Either rocket would need some modifications to make the latter work, since the Orion Service Module is wider than the payload fairings for both Falcon Heavy and Delta IV Heavy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpaceChampion Posted March 14, 2019 Author Share Posted March 14, 2019 Falcon Heavy isn't "rated" for human crews so Orion can never fly on it, since SpaceX doesn't want to bother when it has Starship in the pipeline. So as you said the TLI stage would be more likely for FH to loft. Starship could be flying by 2020 but not ready for human crews until 2022 I'd imagine. Here's SpaceX's new spacesuits: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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