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Blue Origin Thread (merged)


Aethon

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A new rocket already? I haven't seen much progress regarding the falcon heavy, yet they are starting on another one. :o 

p.s. Elon Musk looks different and aged... I suspect meth stress.

Edited by Rdivine
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46 minutes ago, Rdivine said:

A new rocket already? I haven't seen much progress regarding the falcon heavy, yet they are starting on another one. :o

It's not a rocket which is going to replace the Falcon 9 or the Falcon Heavy but a rocket to transport people to Mars.

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2 hours ago, Albert VDS said:

Also cost what? :confused:
Do you mean reduced cost, how would that work if you increase the nr. of parachutes?

4 medium-sized parachutes are likely cheaper than 3 large ones. It's likely that these smaller chutes are a more commonly used off-the-shelf design. Higher volume = lower cost.

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1 hour ago, Nibb31 said:

4 medium-sized parachutes are likely cheaper than 3 large ones. It's likely that these smaller chutes are a more commonly used off-the-shelf design. Higher volume = lower cost.

one possibility is that it comes from Dragon's design itself, with the 4 superdraco pods. 4 smaller parachutes instead of 3 big ones might be less hassle to give housings, :) and using only two main chutes instead of  3 might not be enough to prevent life threatening injuries in case one of the parachute fails. (after all, they need to have a way to ensure the parachutes won't get damaged in case of a superdraco failure, maybe on top of the already existing special hpusing for the dracos.

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1 minute ago, sgt_flyer said:

one possibility is that it comes from Dragon's design itself, with the 4 superdraco pods. 4 smaller parachutes instead of 3 big ones might be less hassle to give housings, :)

I'm pretty sure the parachutes are all in one compartment on the side of the capsule, that's how they did it on the cargo version and it's what appears to be in the pad abort test.

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38 minutes ago, KerbonautInTraining said:

I'm pretty sure the parachutes are all in one compartment on the side of the capsule, that's how they did it on the cargo version and it's what appears to be in the pad abort test.

Yeah, and besides it's going to have a back up set too. It would need 8 compartments and 8 drogue chutes if the parachutes were stored separately and it would increase complexity.

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9 minutes ago, sojourner said:

I don't think there is another backup set of chutes.  4 is it.

In this interview Elon says that the Dragon 2 will have redundant and redundant chutes, although he talks about 3 main chutes:

 

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Ok, I'm all for backups for the backup, but backups for the backups for the backup seems excessive. 

Seriously, if enough has gone wrong that 

1. Eight Superdracos fail

2. Four main chutes fail

3. Your pretty screwed by now anyway. Not sure how much four MORE chutes are going to help. 

Edited by Wingman703
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18 minutes ago, Wingman703 said:

Your pretty screwed by now anyway. Not sure how much four MORE chutes are going to help. 

If an in flight abort happens, which means they can't land with the SuperDraco's, and the chutes don't work then back up chutes are very welcome.
It's common practice for parachutist, so why not for a capsule? And there is enough time to deploy the back up chutes if the main chutes fail to deploy, it's something which can easily be detected by the onboard computer and some sensors.

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Ah, I was thinking only of re-entry, not an abort. 

With TWO sets of 'chutes then, how much do the Draco's really save vs an abort tower/RCS controls? Is it still a fair amount? I mean, the Draco's themselves can't be all that light.

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9 minutes ago, Wingman703 said:

Ah, I was thinking only of re-entry, not an abort. 

With TWO sets of 'chutes then, how much do the Draco's really save vs an abort tower/RCS controls? Is it still a fair amount? I mean, the Draco's themselves can't be all that light.

Probably very little. It's likely since Elon just wants to reduce costs and make everything land propulsively- a parachuted land landing needs a lot more space than a propulsive one to land.

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31 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

There are 4 chutes. You can land safely with 3, and maybe even 2. You don't need 4 more.

It's one of those things where one says "I wish we had a back up" when all main chutes fail.

8 minutes ago, Wingman703 said:

Ah, I was thinking only of re-entry, not an abort. 

With TWO sets of 'chutes then, how much do the Draco's really save vs an abort tower/RCS controls? Is it still a fair amount? I mean, the Draco's themselves can't be all that light.

SpaceX is planing to land the Dragon 2 propulsively with the SuperDracos, so it's fulfilling 3 roles for the weight of one system.
I have no idea what the weight save is but it's I think it's a fair amount replacing replacing 3 systems with one.

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8 hours ago, Albert VDS said:

It's one of those things where one says "I wish we had a back up" when all main chutes fail.

If all the main chutes fail, then you have a fundamental systemic problem that is probably also present in your backup chutes. Redundancy is better served by providing different systems or repurposing existing systems than by duplicating everything.

8 hours ago, Albert VDS said:

SpaceX is planing to land the Dragon 2 propulsively with the SuperDracos, so it's fulfilling 3 roles for the weight of one system.
I have no idea what the weight save is but it's I think it's a fair amount replacing replacing 3 systems with one.

Actually, for the first Commercial Crew missions, it will be landing on parachutes with SDs as a last second braking device (and maybe as a backup if the chutes fail, not sure).

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32 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

If all the main chutes fail, then you have a fundamental systemic problem that is probably also present in your backup chutes. Redundancy is better served by providing different systems or repurposing existing systems than by duplicating everything.

It already has 2 different system and besides what the problem of have 2 sets of parachutes? Your reasoning about 1 failing and the other failing in the same way is very unlikely, even more so if it's an outside cause.

33 minutes ago, Nibb31 said:

Actually, for the first Commercial Crew missions, it will be landing on parachutes with SDs as a last second braking device (and maybe as a backup if the chutes fail, not sure).

Yes, that's why I said planning and not going to on the first flights.

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6 minutes ago, Albert VDS said:

It already has 2 different system and besides what the problem of have 2 sets of parachutes? Your reasoning about 1 failing and the other failing in the same way is very unlikely, even more so if it's an outside cause.

Yes, that's why I said planning and not going to on the first flights.

More mass, meaning higher F9 performance needed to send it into space. I can't beleive you forgot one of the most basic concepts of spaceflight in a forum about a game about spaceflight:mad:

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23 minutes ago, fredinno said:

More mass, meaning higher F9 performance needed to send it into space. I can't beleive you forgot one of the most basic concepts of spaceflight in a forum about a game about spaceflight:mad:

Back of the envelope calculation:

Falcon 9 can put a little over 13,000 kg into LEO. Dry mass of Dragon 2 is about 4,200 kg and it can carry a payload of just over 3,300 kg to ISS. Leaving SpaceX with 6,500 kg of spare capacity for fuel, consumables and redundant systems, assuming that they're not already factored into that dry mass.

In other words, SpaceX's current workhorse booster, which they're cheaply mass producing (inasmuch as rockets are ever mass-produced or ever cheap) has more than enough performance for the job. It's not like they have to develop a new, higher performance booster just for Dragon 2.

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