Kryten
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KSP2 Release Notes
Posts posted by Kryten
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Beagle 2 wasn't really an ESA project, though it was tacked onto an ESA mission; it was all-British. It was essentially treated as an instrument, which are typically provided by single nations for ESA missions, rather than an ESA spacecraft. The resulting lack of oversight was thought to be one of the factors behind the failure, and it's unlikely to happen again anytime soon.
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Aside from the points above, the basic premise of the 'rumour' is simply wrong. The lander fired for two or three seconds, out of a nominal burn of thirty seconds, so would get about a tenth of the impulse, not a third. Somebody's trying to start an urban legend.
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26 minutes ago, RedKraken said:
Biggest question right now is sealing the carbon fiber tanks against cryo propellant with hot autogenous pressurization. The oxygen tank also has an oxidation risk problem as it is pressurized with pure, hot oxygen. Will almost certainly need to apply an inert layer of some kind. Hopefully, something that can be sprayed. If need be, will use thin sheets of invar welded together on the inside.
If they haven't even got to that level in the design process, it makes the dry mass figures for BFR very questionable; and the entire architecture falls apart if the dry mass gets too high.
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Radar EO sats tend to be put into retrograde orbits as it increases the Doppler shift from ground objects, and most sun-synchronous orbits used by optical EO sats happen to be slightly retrograde.
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It was a radar altimeter, and from the telemetry we have it seems to have been working properly.
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Has any space-related kickstarter over a few K been successful?
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Berthing won't be until the 23rd, because there's a Soyuz launch tomorrow and that has priority.
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NASA only has two launch complexes, and one of those is a small sounding rocket base.
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At 23:40UTC tonight, Orbital ATK are set to launch Cygnus OA-5 to the ISS, utilising Antares (with new engines) for the first time since the 2014 failure. Coverage will be provided on NASA TV;
This is a particularly important launch for OrbATK. It's not just Antares' first launch since the failure, but the first launch of any OrbATK LV.
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But there's no connection between this effect and mobile phones, because EM radiation and magnetic fields aren't the same thing.
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5 minutes ago, Diche Bach said:
Right. So a modern day mobile device (an Android from say 6 years ago . . . I know more like an "antique"): sitting next to an external hard drive -> that doesn't represent a breach of that most basic rule of hardware, "never put something magnetic adjacent to a hard drive" does it?
I'm not even sure that rule still applies to modern hard ware, but I seem to recall reading it recently . . .
It does, but that has nothing to do with the phone's transmissions. It's because there are magnets in the microphone and speakers.
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Docking with TG-2 is in two days.
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Here's a livestream without the buffering.
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Conservation of energy is a thing. If you have the energy required to compress matter that much, then you already have a powerful weapon.
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ILS now have a contract for a Proton medium, pretty much ensuring that it will fly.
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The launch for the first MEV has now been arranged; a dual launch on Proton with a small OrbATK-built comsat.
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1 hour ago, Streetwind said:
There were at least half a dozen dedicated ISS resupply missions using the Space Shuttle, even aside from the multiple dozen ISS assembly flights. There were also several MIR station dockings, the whole Spacelab shebang, at least seven classified DoD missions and god knows what else might have involved such technology. Unfortunately the STS-era happened largely when I wasn't paying attention to spaceflight, so I must admit that I frankly don't know if or how any of those missions transferred what kinds of liquids in space. I can merely assert that I personally consider it highly unlikely that it never happened.
It never happened. Neither Apollo probe-and-drogue nor the APAS variant used on shuttle had the capability for fuel transfer.
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Aye, we're on the same page there. Having this expensive aircraft doing something on paper is better for perception than it waiting in a hangar for the new rocket, even if that's what it's doing de facto.
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It's worth noting that the release says that Pegasus on Stratolaunch is what the Vulcan-OrbATK partnership will lead to initially. This is likely something to make Stratolaunch avoid the stench of being a Spruce Goose for Vulcan's investors while they work on a real rocket. Something like the initial Pegasus 2 concept could be a lot more financially viable now BE-3 is available, for example.
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5 hours ago, Blaarkies said:
Everyone fears that it sounds very similar to the N1. Back then, if one engine gently exploded, the others followed suit. IIRC, the superdraco engine are "contained" so that an engine explosion doesn't damage an adjacent engine? If they can do the same with the Raptors, then they are definitely safer than anything we are currently using
We're talking engines with the highest chamber pressure ever, on a vehicle which has to achieve one of the highest mass fractions ever. Containment would be extremely difficult.
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35 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:
That makes the presumption that a) the target bird is equipped for life extension (none are AFIAK), and B) that it doesn't take significant time to acquire a life extension bird, and c) doesn't take significant time to launch said bird.
MEV doesn't need specialised equipment, it grapples to standard apogee motor nozzles.
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24 minutes ago, passinglurker said:
That's where Orbital's plans for "mission extension" service satellites comes in. Would you pay over 260million for a brand new 4-8 ton GEO comm sat to launch on the cheapest launcher on the market 2-3 years from now? Or would you pay around 180million for a smaller cheaper 2-3 ton sat that can clamp on to and add life to your old GEO comm sat, and can launch in the next 6-12months? For a cutthroat businessman answering to shareholders that care about short term gains this could be an appealing option.
That doesn't really work, because your old sat is going to have much less capability. It only really makes sense for big suppliers that can use the servicing sat to add small increments to the life of a lot of sats.
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There are two separate issues here. One is that Delta II replacement isn't really a big niche. Sure, Delta flew a lot, but that was because it was in the range of most commercial comsats at the time, and it was building the GPS constellation. Now not only is the average comsat much too large for such a vehicle, but so are the new block 3 GPS sats.
The other issue is Falcon 9 is cheaper than Antares for the few Delta II class missions that still remain.
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That's technically a NASA-led international mission. Common for big projects, but adds too much bureaucratic overhead for most small missions.
CZ-5 maiden flight; November 3rd
in Science & Spaceflight
Posted
The first of the new Chinese CZ-5 heavy lift launcher was rolled out to the pad today; launch is currently scheduled for the 3rd, and is very likely to be livestreamed.
The launcher is capable of about 24 metric tons to LEO and 13 tons to GTO, meaning it will be the second most powerful lifter in the world. Intended missions include launching space station modules, large planetary missions such as Mars landers, and large communications satellites.
The payload on this launch specifically is called SJ-17, and is being inserted directly into GSO. We don't have many details on it at this time, but we do know it's fitted with ion propulsion systems, and that it's somehow involved in rendezvous and proximity operations.