Jump to content

SpaceX Discussion Thread


Skylon

Recommended Posts

3 hours ago, Racescort666 said:

 I can hear Alan Stern rustling up his Pluto lander paperwork.

It better do an sample return
And don't forget Charon :)

Yes you are arriving with 100 ton even if the wast majority of it with the two staged braking burn only Apollo took more mass into orbit around another body. 
main problem is how hard it would be to control an rover on pluto :( 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

It better do an sample return
And don't forget Charon :)

Yes you are arriving with 100 ton even if the wast majority of it with the two staged braking burn only Apollo took more mass into orbit around another body. 
main problem is how hard it would be to control an rover on pluto :( 

Luckily, Elon Musk’s side job is making autonomous vehicles. :sticktongue:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So Elon says they could launch Starlink Satellites modified to be interplanetary probes in the aft cargo section of an expendable Starship (or just Super Heavy upper stage?), to get high quality images of distant worlds and maybe send science experiments along with them? Sounds like a cool idea.

I'd love more HQ images of the outer-outer Solar System worlds, like Uranus' Moons and Neptunes moons. Those worlds haven't been visited in a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have taken a particular interest in the ice giants missions that were proposed a few years back. No link because I’m on mobile and at the airport. This kind of up mass could greatly shorten the timeline for a Uranus/Neptune mission. NTR braking stage and the leftover reactor used as a generator (or just jettisoned and we can say we nuked “youranus”) you’d need deep space cryo-cooling to keep the H2 liquid but JWST has kind of been broaching that tech. The amount of awesome a mission like this is indescribable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/30/2019 at 7:38 PM, NSEP said:

So Elon says they could launch Starlink Satellites modified to be interplanetary probes in the aft cargo section of an expendable Starship (or just Super Heavy upper stage?), to get high quality images of distant worlds and maybe send science experiments along with them? Sounds like a cool idea.

I'd love more HQ images of the outer-outer Solar System worlds, like Uranus' Moons and Neptunes moons. Those worlds haven't been visited in a while.

Problem is that starlink is an com sat not an deep space probe. Ion don't work out there unless you have an reactor, not that this is out of the picture with the new mass limits but that would also require re-designing the craft. 
You need high gain antenna, various sensors and so on. 
Still with starship you want an deep space probe common buss who is relatively cheap, basic setup is an 100 ton package, 3rd stage for accelerating, forth for braking or more speed it you do an flyby. 
You can sacrifice some reliability so save cost simply as you can launch more of them. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought he was suggesting using them as an inferometer array. They don't have to go into the far reaches of the solar system, just far apart from each other. A telescope the diameter of Mars orbit?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, cubinator said:

He'll be getting ever more talkative as he prepares to move back to his home planet, Mars.

Will that be before or after he’s captured by the Seven Rings and left in a cave with a box of scraps?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was reading up a little on carrier landings, prompted by the "747 carrier" thread, and found an article about a time they test-landed a freaking C-130 on a carrier.

But of course that is an edge case. The biggest aircraft ever landed operationally on carriers is the C-2 Greyhound, with a max loaded weight of 22.4 tonnes. 

It occurred to me...an empty F9B5 stage is estimated at 22.5 tonnes. It has control surfaces, and AoA, and flies through the atmosphere before landing. 

If you think about it, then, that gives Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read The Instructions the auspicious honor of accepting the largest operational aircraft landings of any aircraft carriers in history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Was reading up a little on carrier landings, prompted by the "747 carrier" thread, and found an article about a time they test-landed a freaking C-130 on a carrier.

But of course that is an edge case. The biggest aircraft ever landed operationally on carriers is the C-2 Greyhound, with a max loaded weight of 22.4 tonnes. 

It occurred to me...an empty F9B5 stage is estimated at 22.5 tonnes. It has control surfaces, and AoA, and flies through the atmosphere before landing. 

If you think about it, then, that gives Of Course I Still Love You and Just Read The Instructions the auspicious honor of accepting the largest operational aircraft landings of any aircraft carriers in history.

The difference being that some of the "impossible" aircraft (don't ask me how the U2 got into the air) were often launched back into the air (don't expect the C-130 to do that), and the C-2 regularly flies off the deck of carriers (presumably as a flying fuel tank, followed by a C-2 variant E2C/E2D that provides RADAR coverage, followed by the fighters).  So I wouldn't give that status to SpaceX's ships until they act as launchpads as well (does the hopper weigh ~22 tons?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...