What's your favorite spacecraft/launch vehicle?

[wumpus]

17 hours ago, Temstar said:

Huh? It doesn't say that. Original plan called for launch directly from the ocean into orbit all with nukes (2000 bombs to get into orbit). And Dyson calculated that out to show that on average the fallout will kill somewhere between 0.1 to 1 person per launch globally.

I consider that acceptable, consider the huge amount of payload each launch can loft up. Dyson said he would consider it acceptable if they could get it down to 0.01 person per launch.

The problem was that the calculation ignored a bunch of radioactive material that was going to come back to Earth.  It would likely kill more than 1 person (although I'm not sure they took into account how much the radioactive material would decay before hitting Earth).  I don't think they realized this until after the project was canceled.

2000 bombs to orbit, 9000 m/s deltaV: 4.5m/s deltaV per bomb or 10mph per bomb.  I thought the "pogo stick" shock absorber was bigger than that, or perhaps that is just the most efficient size for H-bombs (although I suspect Neutron bombs would be used to get into orbit, that *should* keep things down, but will still create at ton of radioactive oxygen and such).

[Temstar]

Wait sorry it's 1000 bombs to orbit. Each bomb gave the craft a 10m/s delta-V. The other 1000 bomb was for going around to interesting places in the solar system. 10m/s was the limit that the ship could take, hence the much larger super Orion that weighed 8 million tons using 3 megaton bombs. The bombs increased in yield as you ascended in atmosphere and you needed to carry some half momentum charge to reset the pusher plate position in chase you get duds.

The Orion bombs where nuclear shaped charges that produced a plasma fireball that was a cigar shape instead of a normal spherical fireball. They were definitely not neutron bomb or anything like that. The biggest fallout problem was I think strontium-90. I would trust the calculations done in Orion project - the guys involved where pretty good in maths in general and Dyson was particularly good, and they had no shortage of above ground nuclear bomb test data back in those days.

[Spaceception]

My favorite rocket has to be the Falcon Heavy (I know it hasn't been launched yet), and until the SLS gets launched, it will be the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V and the N1, (AKA; Boom Boom )  which is really cool for that reason.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Spaceception

[Matuchkin]

The skylon, anyone?

[Geschosskopf]

Real:  the Viking landers and orbiters

Science Fiction:  The corvette RCS Princess Cecile in David Drake's books about the career of Daniel Leary.

Anime:  Everything in "Cowboy Bebop".

[AngelLestat]

I will call on skylon too, but is too soon.  dragonv2 at least is at half way.

[KerbonautInTraining]

Apollo CSM. I love it how it just worked.

Want to go to the moon with it? Fine! Want to use it as a crew ferry? Sure, just take a bit of the fuel out. (World's first multi purpose spacecraft?)

Also, how can you not adore the look of it? It's just so shiny and wonderful.

 

Edited December 14, 2015 by KerbonautInTraining

[Apexazimuth]

Real spacecraft:  

Apollo: the whole thing including Saturn V. The pure unfiltered awesome that is 5x F1's, the futuristic (at the time) cryogenic beasts that are the J2's, the ultimate vacation vehicle that is the CSM, and how about that LEM?  So versatile it can land astronauts on the moon or dutifully carry a limping CSM home. 

Fictional spacecraft:

The Martian's Hermes for its painstakingly realistic design. 

Virtuality's Phaeton: Virtuality was a tv show by Ron D. Moore that ever made it past a pilot.  It's ship was an interstellar Orion type nuclear pulse propulsion ship.  

 

[Hysterrics]

I'm going to say a few vehicles here. The Saturn V for it's sheer force, how violent it is on launch and just the look of it. I also quite like the Delta IV Heavy. No real reason, just like it. The Atlas V, because of it's reliability, weird SRB layouts and, once again, the look of it. The Falcon 9 is also nice.

As far as space capsules go, The CST 100. I mean, cmon, look at it! It's amazing!

[RainDreamer]

Does the ISS count? It is an amazing symbol of international cooperation for science and effort of humanity reaching toward space. I am sad about what is going to happen to it too...

[Hysterrics]

1 hour ago, RainDreamer said:

I am sad about what is going to happen to it too...

Care to shed some light on that?

[RainDreamer]

7 minutes ago, Sequinox said:

Care to shed some light on that?

Isn't it reaching the end of its life time? The program ends at 2020 or 2024 something right?

[Nibb31]

2024 or 2028 if extended (which seems unlikely at this point). The plan is to deorbit. Please let's not get into a "why don't we boost it to a graveyard orbit so that it can become a museum" debate. We've had those already and we've explained plenty of times why it's not possible. Use the Search.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Nibb31

[fredinno]

9 hours ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

Apollo CSM. I love it how it just worked.

Want to go to the moon with it? Fine! Want to use it as a crew ferry? Sure, just take a bit of the fuel out. (World's first multi purpose spacecraft?)

Also, how can you not adore the look of it? It's just so shiny and wonderful.

 

Soyuz was also multi-purpose.

[Martian Music]

For rockets, definitely Saturn V. I mean there are so many great rockets but the fact that all the Apollo missions' launches were successful (almost flawlessly successful) makes it so amazing. And it's launch, god damn! Delta-IV and Atlas-V are also sick, though my rocket knowledge is pretty small.

For the future, I'm sure the SLS will be amazing.

As for missions, all the Apollo's of course, ISS, Hubble, Venera's that landed, every Mars lander/rover was amazing, and my favorite is Cassini (and Huygens of course). There are countless amazing missions.

Fiction? Everything used in Interstellar (the Endurance, damn <3)

[fujisyugi]

Proposed? This one

Future? SLS

Existing? Space Shuttle/Saturn V

 

[KerbonautInTraining]

6 hours ago, fredinno said:

Soyuz was also multi-purpose.

How so? Unless I'm missing something (I probably am) Soyuz was only ever used for LEO rendezvous.

You may be thinking of the "Zond". I don't know much about the Russian space race so feel free to correct me.

[Hysterrics]

10 hours ago, RainDreamer said:

Isn't it reaching the end of its life time? The program ends at 2020 or 2024 something right?

Oh, well I didn't know that. Oh well. If it does end at that time it still served us well.

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

How so? Unless I'm missing something (I probably am) Soyuz was only ever used for LEO rendezvous.

You may be thinking of the "Zond". I don't know much about the Russian space race so feel free to correct me.

No, there was also the unlaunched N1-L3 Missions to land on the Moon, using a Soyuz as the "Mothership". Soyuz was originally designed with this in mind.

[KerBlammo]

Past launch vehicle: Saturn V /Apollo

Current Launch vehicle: Delta IV Heavy.. its the most Kerballistic real life launcher.  One rocket not enough? strap three together (MOAR BOOSTERS) and if that wasn't enough it tends to catch fire during launch!

 

[Nibb31]

20 hours ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

Apollo CSM. I love it how it just worked.

I wouldn't say it "just worked". It was a very complex piece of machinery, much more expensive and complex than Soyuz, with plenty of failure modes. And it was as over-engineered for LEO work as Orion MPCV would be for ISS resupply runs.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Nibb31

[fredinno]

18 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

I wouldn't say it "just worked". It was a very complex piece of machinery, much more expensive and complex than Soyuz, with plenty of failure modes. And it was as over-engineered for LEO work as Orion MPCV would be for ISS resupply runs.

You could shove up to 5 people in there- and 6 if you really squeezed them in there, assuming you got rid of the storage racks. That might be enough to compensate for the increased complexity.