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[New] Space Launch System / Orion Discussion Thread

ZooNamedGames

By ZooNamedGames
in Science & Spaceflight

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JoeSchmuckatelli

JoeSchmuckatelli

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 9/22/2021 at 5:13 PM, Bej Kerman said:

What exactly is the SLS for? NASA would sure have a lot more money to play around with if they just scrapped the SLS, put the RS-25s back into museums and relegated this task to the Falcon rockets.

If NASA were a business, sure.  It's not.

Functionally SLS is a program designed way back when to keep current the people working on space, and to retain the ability to build rockets.  The program kept both personnel and facilities open at a time when they might have dispersed, closed, or gone on to other work.

Why is that an important consideration?  Read anything about what is going on in the automotive industry related to the chip shortage: when you shut down a program/line... it takes way more effort to get it up and running again than one might think.

Sure, SLS has been eclipsed (now) - but wasn't at inception.

Derp - I've already answered this, previously.

 

Silly forum

 

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NFUN

NFUN

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On 10/18/2021 at 4:22 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

If NASA were a business, sure.  It's not.

Functionally SLS is a program designed way back when to keep current the people working on space, and to retain the ability to build rockets.  The program kept both personnel and facilities open at a time when they might have dispersed, closed, or gone on to other work.

Why is that an important consideration?  Read anything about what is going on in the automotive industry related to the chip shortage: when you shut down a program/line... it takes way more effort to get it up and running again than one might think.

Sure, SLS has been eclipsed (now) - but wasn't at inception.

Derp - I've already answered this, previously.

 

Silly forum

 

ok and they could've created a makeshift program intended to keep the industry alive that could also, like, do something useful

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JoeSchmuckatelli

JoeSchmuckatelli

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1 hour ago, NFUN said:

ok and they could've created a makeshift program intended to keep the industry alive that could also, like, do something useful

Not how congress works: you do realize that if it looks like an entitlement, walks like an entitlement and quacks like an entitlement, its not an entitlement if they have to look like they're working for it and its high tech or farm related.

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StrandedonEarth

StrandedonEarth

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8 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

The decompocatalyze ray was discontinued for civilian applications after NBC leaked the footage.

Watch Saturday Night Live Highlight: Amazin' Laser - NBC.com

 

Totally frustrating that SNL on YouTube  is geoblocked in Canada. Probably streaming somewhere. But anyways….

 

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JoeSchmuckatelli

JoeSchmuckatelli

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3 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

SNL on YouTube

That is direct from the sauce - NBC.  It's one of the few snl clips that cannot be found on UtUb (in case if even mentioning yutub is a crime in SovietCanada) :D

 

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SunlitZelkova

SunlitZelkova

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It will be very surreal seeing SLS and Orion fully stacked. Because I don't treat space as "our thing" (as a member of humanity) and instead as "someone else's thing" (the aerospace engineers and various scientists themselves) I have had no expectations for it to "be done" as soon as possible, but in terms of observing someone else's project, I still have the mindset it should/will never be completed.

I still have very clear memories of reading about SLS as a third grader, back when the graphics had it in a black and white paint scheme, and learning that the first launch was supposed to be in 2017. At the time, I thought "wow, that is very far in the future".

That still feels like just yesterday and a crewed spacecraft launching beyond LEO still feels like something that should either be in the future (consigned to nice looking graphics) or in history (Apollo).

It will be even more surreal watching it launch. On the other hand, Starship is very new, and I don't really try to juxtapose everything within some sort of personal narrative or view of history, so Starship development launches feel completely normal and un-abnormally interesting, despite SN8/SN9/SN10/SN11/SN15 being the size of a Space Shuttle orbiter (I have seen the Orbiter training mockup at the Museum of Flight in Seattle and therefore have some sense of Starship's scale thanks to the images people have provided here) and intended for freaking Mars.

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tater

tater

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Since the only payload for SLS is Orion, we take the >$2B per launch cost, and we need to increment based on EUS cost (2X ICPS? More?), then add Orion. Orion is $900M not counting the SM. Trading with ESA for that might be less of a thing if they want more of them. Wanna say the SM was a few hundred million, think it's posted up thread. Marginal cost with EUS/Orion has got to be closer to $3.5B or more.

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Beccab

Beccab

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Posted
1 minute ago, Codraroll said:

O                                                                                     O

What's that, you may ask? It's the Venn diagram featuring SLS and a "Sustainable and affordable system".

Coincidentally, it's also the venn diagram of SLS Block 2 and rockets that have a chance of existing 

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cubinator

cubinator

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Posted
3 hours ago, Beccab said:

Coincidentally, it's also the venn diagram of SLS Block 2 and rockets that have a chance of existing 

Seriously, though, if SLS keeps launching into 2050 without upgrading to a much larger and more powerful block, we will be back to hoping for Mars missions in the 30s...The 2130s.

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