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Skylon

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Here's the thing: with the advent of Vast and other space station makers, we could make Mars Cyclers. An artificial-gravity ship is just a space station with ambitions. And a space station is a steel/aluminium can of atmosphere surrounded with MMOD protection and solar panels.

I've always been in favour of solar-electric MET thrusters and water propulsion, as the propellant doubles as radiation shielding and life-support.

Heavy-lift makes both of this possible.

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7 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

Yes. Moving down to Texas for work. With an extra 1.5-2 days of driving, I might be able to be in the Brownsville area on the 26th and the 27th. Possibly the 28th as well.

TX is a very big state and Brownsville is way down in a corner so plan accordingly if you aren’t specifically moving near there.

The distance from Dallas to Boca Chica is about the same as Norfolk, Virginia to Cape Canaveral in Florida

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Just now, darthgently said:

TX is a very big state and Brownsville is way down in a corner so plan accordingly if you aren’t specifically moving near there.

The distance from Dallas to Boca Chica is about the same as Norfolk, Virginia to Cape Canaveral in Florida

I am well aware, we have the driving durations planned out.

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14 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I am well aware, we have the driving durations planned out.

Excellent, I hope you all have a great time.  I wasn’t meaning to be condescending, just a sincere and friendly caution having seen some taken aback.   On another note, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, if you get the chance and haven’t been there, is very unique with a lot of restaurant choices if it fits your travels or maybe on another trip.  

Edited by darthgently
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2 hours ago, darthgently said:

Excellent, I hope you all have a great time.  I wasn’t meaning to be condescending, just a sincere and friendly caution having seen some taken aback.   On another note, the Riverwalk in San Antonio, if you get the chance and haven’t been there, is very unique with a lot of restaurant choices if it fits your travels or maybe on another trip.  

Yeah, that place is awesome.

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Interchangable launch mount is an extremely intriguing concept! Makes sense that it's potentially harder to turn around rapidly than a booster, getting exposed to that engine exhaust is no joke!

Can't turn it around fast, limited in number of launch sites, multiple launch mounts per pad makes sense.

Also interesting to hear that the launch mount at Pad A is likely to get demolished once B is operational. But if they build multiple mounts for Pad B, it'd be a lot faster to get Pad A back up and running again, as they'd only have to rebuild the foundation and flame trench and then donate one of Pad B's mounts.

Edited by RCgothic
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Dumb question - does "Installing the FTS" mean a fully live system?

If so, why install the FTS inside a potentially critical piece of infrastructure like that building?  

I write this as a guy who was fairly comfortable handling and setting up explosives back in the day - but I have questions. 

Do they leave the mechanical/electronic triggers disconnected until a certain point?

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1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Dumb question - does "Installing the FTS" mean a fully live system?

If so, why install the FTS inside a potentially critical piece of infrastructure like that building?  

I write this as a guy who was fairly comfortable handling and setting up explosives back in the day - but I have questions. 

Do they leave the mechanical/electronic triggers disconnected until a certain point?

Yeah, they don't connect the triggers until a few days before the launch. Even then, they are pretty stable.

 

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9 minutes ago, GuessingEveryDay said:

they don't connect the triggers until a few days before the launch

I kind of figured that out as I was typing the question - but you never know.

I've only ever seen "installing the FTS system".

(Fun fact - we used to juggle, make bunny rabbits of and burn C-4 to freak out younger Marines during training.)

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1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Dumb question - does "Installing the FTS" mean a fully live system?

If so, why install the FTS inside a potentially critical piece of infrastructure like that building?  

I write this as a guy who was fairly comfortable handling and setting up explosives back in the day - but I have questions. 

Do they leave the mechanical/electronic triggers disconnected until a certain point?

FWIW, on SLS I think they have to completely install it in the VAB, they can't get near it on the pad (because a multi-billion $ MLP doesn't have a gantry arm that goes to the FTS. For reasons.

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