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RocketLab Discussion Thread


Kryten

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18 hours ago, darthgently said:

That makes sense.  It still seems strange that the film cooling would be so erratic.  Saturn V's F1 ran rich for cooling but it was a less chunky.  It seems suboptimal for soot to build up that much before breaking free if the goal is cooling via a fresh film layer

It could also just be more noticeable with smaller rockets.

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Electron is 59 ft, which comes out to just a little more than 6 Electrons to reach Saturn V's height.

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Rocket Lab is building (small) constellations in collaboration with Globalstar and Space Development Agency, which will be able to be launched on Neutron (but is launcher agnostic). It sounds like they won't have a dedicated constellation, but will instead work with others to develop and deploy multiple different constellations.

https://www.rocketlabusa.com/space-systems/spacecraft/

Also updates on Neutron 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

If I'm not mistaken, this will be the 5th vehicle reused for an operational flight (Shuttle, SpaceShipOne, New Shepard, Falcon 9, Electron), and the 3rd for an orbital launch.

You could add SpaceShipTwo to that first list. There are also the Dragon capsules to consider. I wonder how Dragon turnaround compares to Shuttle turnaround…

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4 hours ago, AckSed said:

https://www.space.com/rocket-lab-nasa-solar-sail-tech-launch-april-2024

This slipped under the radar, but it's highly interesting to me. While this is essentially the last whimper of NASA's solar sail missions - Solar Cruiser's funding was cut - it's still a solar sail!

Unfortunately, solar sails aren't that exciting immediately, it helps for interstellar missions, but after it gets too far from the sun, it's not that effective and needs some extra boost. That being said...

We could do Voyager 3 with solar sails, sending it 'round Mercury and getting more power by being closer to the sun. Find the target star we want to aim for and wait for Earth to kinda line up so we can start the solar intake, fly-by of Earth and use lasers to boost it.

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10 hours ago, darthgently said:

jurisdiction

Resident Cave Man Lawer here - and while your technology frightens and scares me... When I say venue I'm wondering about State / Federal jurisdiction and where I can get the most compensation for emotional distress due to bad comedy. 

Dad jokes and puns? 

Oh the pain! :D

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It's interesting to see that the Curie kickstage will release the first sat, move up to a 1000km orbit to let the sail go, then come back down, circularise and deorbit itself. Pretty impressive.

Edit: Curie engine really is tiny.

Edit 2: aww, they're not covering the solar sail deployment.

Edited by AckSed
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4 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

How do I send a thumbs down to RLab? 

Don't they know the purpose of space launch is to entertain me!?! 

Do I smell the sour pickle-juice whiff of sarcasm about your comment, sir?

It would be cool to see, 'tis all.

Edited by AckSed
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