NASA Human Landing System

[tater]

5 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

How is it Cynus-derived if it uses a completely different propulsion system?

Funky round solar panels.

[EchoLima]

Not too surprising.

[cubinator]

I was thinking earlier, perhaps just a little overoptimistically, that if Starship pans out as a Moon lander in Artemis, NASA's going to start needing a lot of new astronauts right around the time I become qualified. 

[kerbiloid]

Spoiler

  

12 hours ago, tater said:

12 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

How is it Cynus-derived if it uses a completely different propulsion system?

Funky round solar panels.

So they are indeed space sails??? And Cygnus is junk?

 

[Nightside]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:59 PM, cubinator said:

I was thinking earlier, perhaps just a little overoptimistically, that if Starship pans out as a Moon lander in Artemis, NASA's going to start needing a lot of new astronauts right around the time I become qualified. 

Nice! Do you want to do science or drive the rocket?

[cubinator]

17 minutes ago, Nightside said:

Nice! Do you want to do science or drive the rocket?

I want to do science and build stuff, I'm like a Bob or Bill type.

[cubinator]

Suggestion: padded ceilings on all the landers...Astronauts will want to practice jumping.

[derega16]

39 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Suggestion: padded ceilings on all the landers...Astronauts will want to practice jumping.

That's should be a plan for Russian lander...when they finally put Angara and federation Orel into full operation

[RCgothic]

MOAR DETAILS!

[sevenperforce]

But not really any more details.

Except maybe this idea of using multiple mass-produced refueling elements for the Dynetics lander.

[RealKerbal3x]

 

44 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

But not really any more details.

Yeah... Starship's lunar variant is just the coolest (I'm probably biased ) but we're still missing a lot of details, like:

- Why is the exterior white rather than shiny steel? Is it covered in some kind of paint or insulation? I doubt they're planning to build this variant out of entirely different materials, but we don't know. I don't think it's carbon composite, we saw that once they switched to stainless steel the speed of development increased considerably.

- What exactly are the auxiliary thrusters? Are they modified methalox hot-gas RCS, or something else?

And, finally:

- How does NASA feel about SpaceX building Starship out in the open in South Texas?

Hopefully these should be answered as we see more Starship progress, but we'll see.

Edited May 13, 2020 by RealKerbal3x

[RCgothic]

One interesting thing - "Only use higher TRL technologies for 2024"

[sevenperforce]

Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

Yeah... Starship's lunar variant is just the coolest (I'm probably biased ) but we're still missing a lot of details, like:

- Why is the exterior white rather than shiny steel? Is it covered in some kind of paint or insulation? I doubt they're planning to build this variant out of entirely different materials, but we don't know. I don't think it's carbon composite, we saw that once they switched to stainless steel the speed of development increased considerably.

Painted. It needs insulation on the lunar surface.

Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

- What exactly are the auxiliary thrusters? Are they modified methalox hot-gas RCS, or something else?

Same as the standard methane-GOX RCS but with bigger nozzles.

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[RCgothic]

 

[tater]

Quote

"Mr. Loverro ... informed Mr. Chilton that the Chicago aerospace giant was about to be eliminated from the competition based on cost and technical evaluations ... Within days, Boeing submitted a revised proposal."

 

[sevenperforce]

12 minutes ago, tater said:

 

Every damn time I come here to post news you've posted it first.

[RCgothic]

21 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

Every damn time I come here to post news you've posted it first.

Whenever I manage to beat @tater to a news item I feel ridiculously pleased with myself!

[tater]

One of those Berger threads has some interesting points in it. It's not like Boeing doesn't know better. They shouldn't have been given a heads up, but neither should they have done anything (except perhaps to report it).

[RCgothic]

8 minutes ago, tater said:

One of those Berger threads has some interesting points in it. It's not like Boeing doesn't know better. They shouldn't have been given a heads up, but neither should they have done anything (except perhaps to report it).

This one I think.

[mikegarrison]

There is a saying at Boeing that every time a senior manager does something unethical, the engineers have to take another ethics training class.

[wumpus]

23 minutes ago, mikegarrison said:

There is a saying at Boeing that every time a senior manager does something unethical, the engineers have to take another ethics training class.

I recently took a job for a defense contractor (no connection to Boeing at all), and one of the things I noticed on the intranet web page was some details about their new "consent decree".  Sure enough, I had to take an ethics training class.

Granted, it was better than the last time I went through similar, which was an Enron-era introduction to our (completely different company, and I think the relevant division has been shut down) new "ethics policy".  If you examined it carefully enough, they made it absolutely clear that they were prepared to claim that the brass at VW during diesel-gate acted perfectly ethically, and that they were right to hang the "rogue engineer" out to dry (at the time, I couldn't think of a good example.  But decades later one came by).  Small wonder that they kinda-sorta wanted any leaving ex-employees to bring back laptops and any other expensive gear, but the one mandatory thing that *must* be returned was your ethics handbook.  I can't imagine what nastier secrets lurked in there that a lawyer might discover.

PS.  I think you mean *caught* doing something unethical.  I can't imagine what would happen if one of them acted ethically.

[Codraroll]

20 hours ago, wumpus said:

PS.  I think you mean *caught* doing something unethical.  I can't imagine what would happen if one of them acted ethically.

You can't? They would probably gain a significant competitive disadvantage, and their shareholders might even accuse them of breaking some fiduciary rule - prioritizing something other than profit for the company. Somebody would get sacked at the very least, at worst the whole leadership would be disassembled and the company dissolved, its assets and trademarks snatched up by some other actors who'd proceed as before, stretching the limits of ethics as far as they could get away with. 

[tater]

 

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by tater