totm nov 2023 SpaceX Discussion Thread

[StrandedonEarth]

4 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

ಠ_ಠ

Typical click bait sensationalist headline. I read the article; at least they had the facts rights 

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

4 minutes ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Typical click bait sensationalist headline. I read the article; at least they had the facts rights 

Sounds like A/B testing of headlines written by someone other than the author of the article.

[Scotius]

Title guys . On some sites *coughCrackedcough* title of article could be changed several times over the course of a week. Hey! More clicks!

[Wjolcz]

11 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

ಠ_ಠ

Nowadays journalism. That's why I don't watch TV and don't read online articles. It's all just clickbait drama.

6 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

Sounds like A/B testing of headlines written by someone other than the author of the article.

It's actually how it works. There's one person who writes the article and another who writes the title.

Yes, in collage I was taught how to create clickbaits. No joke.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Wjolcz

[NSEP]

12 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

He didn't send his car to Mars... He sent it to interplanetary space in an orbit that goes beyond Mars' orbit. If the alignment was right, it'd go to Mars. But it isn't.

It is flying by Mars in 2020.

[tater]

25 minutes ago, NSEP said:

It is flying by Mars in 2020.

Yeah, in October 2020 it'll be get to within ~7.5 million km of Mars.

[magnemoe]

21 minutes ago, NSEP said:

It is flying by Mars in 2020.

It crosses Mars orbit but is probably not in plane and anyway you know how hard its to get intercepts even if in plane. 
On the other hand it will intercept earth orbit at Pe, and it will get an close encounter down the line. 

[tater]

10 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

It crosses Mars orbit but is probably not in plane and anyway you know how hard its to get intercepts even if in plane. 
On the other hand it will intercept earth orbit at Pe, and it will get an close encounter down the line. 

It's supposedly coming close enough for some slight influence of Mars on the trajectory, but the pass is pretty far out, as I said, at 0.05 AU from Mars (~7.5 Mkm, or some 19X the Earth-Moon distance).

 

[tater]

Good article on Shotwell:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-26/she-launches-spaceships-sells-rockets-and-deals-with-elon-musk

 

[wumpus]

13 hours ago, Xd the great said:

I thought he tried to send it to mars and failed.

NASA/US regulations are quite strict in what is allowed to land on Mars and any other planet (no idea if this includes the Moon, they know it doesn't  have life).  I really don't think you could sufficiently sterilize a Telsa and put it back together.  There also was no desire to build a rocket for insertion burns nor any other landing system (I think the latest round of rovers put NASA's landing success over 50%, but landing on Mars is *hard*).  That Tesla probably weighs more than Curiosity, making landing almost as difficult as the upgrade from Falcon 9 to Falcon Heavy.  High speed Mars impact would be the only means to "send it to Mars" even with NASA's permission.

That and the whole "circularize at GSO orbit *then* burn to Mars" is painfully inefficient.  If you want to go to Mars, you don't use the trajectory Falcon Heavy used.  If you want to test/show off its power, you follow their path.

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

It is flying by Mars in 2020.

52 minutes ago, tater said:

Yeah, in October 2020 it'll be get to within ~7.5 million km of Mars.

7.5 million km is well outside Mars's sphere of influence...

[tater]

6 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

7.5 million km is well outside Mars's sphere of influence...

I didn't say it was within the sphere of influence. That's the distance within which primary gravitational influence on an object is the body whose sphere of influence we are talking about. Mars will not be the primary influence on the Tesla, the Sun will be. Mars will none the less impact the trajectory, albeit slightly.

Edited July 26, 2018 by tater

[magnemoe]

26 minutes ago, tater said:

Good article on Shotwell:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-26/she-launches-spaceships-sells-rockets-and-deals-with-elon-musk

 

On topic question, the center spike, is it connected to the upper stage engine? it makes some sense as an load bearing point but hard to have stuff unrelated to the engine itself on the inside of nozzle. 

[tater]

1 minute ago, magnemoe said:

On topic question, the center spike, is it connected to the upper stage engine? it makes some sense as an load bearing point but hard to have stuff unrelated to the engine itself on the inside of nozzle. 

That's the pusher that separates S2 from S1. It's a spring, and the "head" of the pin sits at the throat of the Vac Merlin.

 

[magnemoe]

23 minutes ago, wumpus said:

NASA/US regulations are quite strict in what is allowed to land on Mars and any other planet (no idea if this includes the Moon, they know it doesn't  have life).  I really don't think you could sufficiently sterilize a Telsa and put it back together.  There also was no desire to build a rocket for insertion burns nor any other landing system (I think the latest round of rovers put NASA's landing success over 50%, but landing on Mars is *hard*).  That Tesla probably weighs more than Curiosity, making landing almost as difficult as the upgrade from Falcon 9 to Falcon Heavy.  High speed Mars impact would be the only means to "send it to Mars" even with NASA's permission.

That and the whole "circularize at GSO orbit *then* burn to Mars" is painfully inefficient.  If you want to go to Mars, you don't use the trajectory Falcon Heavy used.  If you want to test/show off its power, you follow their path.

Mars is pretty much off limit for stunts like that in the US, Moon is easier because no life. 
Yes add that the car was bolted to the upper stage, they wanted an extended stay in the van allen belt to verify upper stage radiation resistance and burned interplanetary before the batteries on upper stage ran dry. They had more fuel left so they managed to get Ap into the asteroid belt. 
Landing on Mars is way harder as you need an interplanetary probe and an lander. 

it was an test of lots of systems, Falcon heavy, upper stage in new situations probably also some data about the suit. 
And it was fun, an publicity stunt. 
Best of all if you own an tesla roadster you own the faster car in the world, over 25 times faster than the second on the list. This is also an test, the cars used on Moon during later Apollo missions traveled not much slower. 

 

12 minutes ago, tater said:

That's the pusher that separates S2 from S1. It's a spring, and the "head" of the pin sits at the throat of the Vac Merlin.

 

Nice so it push the second stage clear of interstage, using an long rod you make sure the fragile bell don't hit the interstage and get damage

[tater]

3 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Nice so it push the second stage clear of interstage, using an long rod you make sure the fragile bell don't hit the interstage and get damage 

Exactly.

[cubinator]

There is only one Iridium Next launch left.

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Nice so it push the second stage clear of interstage, using an long rod you make sure the fragile bell don't hit the interstage and get damage

If you look at the base of that assembly where it meets the S1 tank, there are some hydraulic cylinders. It looks like they can even “steer” the plunger as it goes out to make sure the stages stay parallel and don’t tumble. 

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

3 hours ago, tater said:

[...]

Good article on Shotwell:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-26/she-launches-spaceships-sells-rockets-and-deals-with-elon-musk

Also confirmation that BFR will be built in the port of L.A., and some new info on Falcon heavy:

"Years earlier, Musk ordered Falcon Heavy canceled, forcing Shotwell, who’d been tipped off by another SpaceX employee, to sprint to a conference room and remind him that the U.S. Air Force, a critical customer, had already purchased a launch."

[tater]

We knew the BFR stuff already. There are even pictures up the thread of the facility, and temporary facility.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

1 hour ago, tater said:

We knew the BFR stuff already. There are even pictures up the thread of the facility, and temporary facility.

I don't think it had been officially confirmed, although it was obvious.

[tater]

1 hour ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

I don't think it had been officially confirmed, although it was obvious. 

Musk tweeted pictures from the tent, and there was some public statement from the city (or port).

[CatastrophicFailure]

Tho SFN is currently putting that launch NET September, after the next Iridium and what used to be SHERPA..?

Edited July 26, 2018 by CatastrophicFailure

[tater]

Both posts were from March of this year. This thread id really packed, so easy to forget how much info is in it.

2 hours ago, Mad Rocket Scientist said:

I don't think it had been officially confirmed, although it was obvious.

 

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

21 minutes ago, tater said:

[...]

Both posts were from March of this year. This thread id really packed, so easy to forget how much info is in it.

Thanks. I actually messed up, I meant to say that it this was confirmation that it was being built at the port, not that it will be built. Although we already knew about the tool, this sounds like something more:

"She says that prototype production has already begun at a factory at the Port of Los Angeles."