Don't try this anywhere

[caecilliusinhorto]

"The Mars journey itself will involve 20 Kang rockets transporting equipment into orbit"

I think their big rocket was supposed to be called "Kong", but they had to stick to the Pythom tradition.

Also, in the words of a certain Jeff, "Immensely complex and high-risk"

[Fletch4]

This whole prroject is about as smart of an idea as strapping a taser to a stripped down fencing blade and hitting excrements with it.

Oh, wait.

I did that last week. I wonder if they'd let me work for them?

[kerbiloid]

Maybe they use the parts found laying by the side of the road.

What if use a concrete mixer as a nozzle, will the diamonds get more stable?

Edited April 13, 2022 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

2 hours ago, caecilliusinhorto said:

"Blue Origin's lunar lander propellant MMH/NTO, an extremely toxic combination. Pythom's "green" propellant combination of furfuryl alcohol and WFNA (nitric acid) is much kinder to people and the environment and a major reason for our choice of it."

Anyone else feel like Pythom is reading through Ignition! and testing the fuel mixtures as they go?

"Kaplan and Borden at JPL suggested one at the beginning of 1946. This was WFNA and straight furfuryl alcohol." - Ignition, page 41

As I said, they focus on acid since at least 2018.

https://pythom.com/ps/Breaking-Bad-Rocket-Style-Cooking-Fuel-in-a-Trailer-Lab-2018-06-19-56983

Also, there's nothing in Ignition! that would point them to that combo over any other. The author is rather ClF5-tolerant, after all. Whereas I can plainly see how they've internalized Zubrin's rhetoric, I think they heard of the mixture from someone in the amateur rocketry community.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

On 4/11/2022 at 3:55 PM, darthgently said:

Momty Pythom's Frying Circus

You win one imternet 

[wumpus]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:33 AM, DDE said:

As I said, they focus on acid since at least 2018.

https://pythom.com/ps/Breaking-Bad-Rocket-Style-Cooking-Fuel-in-a-Trailer-Lab-2018-06-19-56983

Also, there's nothing in Ignition! that would point them to that combo over any other. The author is rather ClF5-tolerant, after all. Whereas I can plainly see how they've internalized Zubrin's rhetoric, I think they heard of the mixture from someone in the amateur rocketry community.

The sources they point to emphasize trading Isp for density.  Not necessarily a bad choice for boosters (and possibly strap on boosters, but those love thrust which solids provide better), but they will almost certainly want something else for the second stage (and  get most of the delta-v there).

[mikegarrison]

7 minutes ago, wumpus said:

The sources they point to emphasize trading Isp for density.  Not necessarily a bad choice for boosters (and possibly strap on boosters, but those love thrust which solids provide better), but they will almost certainly want something else for the second stage (and  get most of the delta-v there).

But their whole plan (and I use the word very liberally) requires that they have some sort of shelf-stable, low-tech propellant. So they are pretty much stuck with this sort of hypergolic fuel.

[sevenperforce]

I made a video because of course I did.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdCSXEoy/

I will say that their Mars lander design is…within margins…decent? If you’re going to design a Mars lander with no purpose other than to get down to the surface and then back up to orbit, then it does make sense to use the approach they propose. Conical aeroshell with a big-cheeks heat shield, pop some supersonic chutes just to stabilize and allow you to drop the heat shield, and then use supersonic retropropulsion and land. Hypergolics and multiple engines for reliability. Drop the aeroshell, legs, and landing-prop drop tanks for single-stage ascent in an unpressurized capsule, just like Mark Watney.

[caecilliusinhorto]

How long did they say they would stay on the surface for?

I don't think they would want to spend a 6 month interplanetary transfer in that tiny capsule, then some time on the surface, then another 6 months back

Edited April 17, 2022 by caecilliusinhorto

[sevenperforce]

On 4/12/2022 at 8:29 AM, Piscator said:

Well, nitric acid is actually pretty friendly to the environment. The trouble is, it's rather less friendly to things running around in said evironment. At least in its concentrated form.

It is friendly to the environment in the sense that it removes things which are known to be bad for the environment, such as humans.

[mikegarrison]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:39 PM, caecilliusinhorto said:

How long did they say they would stay on the surface for?

I don't think they would want to spend a 6 month interplanetary transfer in that tiny capsule, then some time on the surface, then another 6 months back

https://www.pythom.space/spaceship

They seem to be planning on a rotating spaceship for the transfer. Supposedly it is made up of pieces from the 25 rockets they say they need to launch, which I guess means they are going to build a hab inside what was a nitric acid tank? Yikes. Cleanup on aisle 1.

They said they would live on the surface in a tent. I assume they would be there for as long as it takes to get to the next transfer window.

I believe in Case For Mars it was argued that a minimum delta-V mission required about a year and a half on Mars. There was a path to go, stay for 30 days, and come back, but that required more delta-V and also took longer in transit.

-----

OK, yeah, I guess a year and a half, because another article I saw says they will be 9 months out-bound, 9 months in-bound, and the whole mission will take three years. So that means they are planning to stay there a year and a half until the next transfer window.

Edited April 19, 2022 by mikegarrison

[sevenperforce]

As a bare-bones mission goes, it's not the worst concept ever proposed. Presumably non-cryogenic fuel transfer is easier than cryogenic fuel transfer, right?

But also absolutely no way in hades.

[kerbiloid]

It will be the first space mission taking lime to the orbit, to neutralize the fuel tanks for living.

[mikegarrison]

46 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

As a bare-bones mission goes, it's not the worst concept ever proposed. Presumably non-cryogenic fuel transfer is easier than cryogenic fuel transfer, right?

But also absolutely no way in hades.

It's very much in the same spirit as the early polar missions and the early Himalayan climbs.

The ones that usually ended up with everyone dead.

[DDE]

10 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

It's very much in the same spirit as the early polar missions and the early Himalayan climbs.

The ones that usually ended up with everyone dead.

I mean, they're not even denying it. It's part of their self-image.

[kerbiloid]

10 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

It's very much in the same spirit as the early polar missions

Yes.

They should take enough sledge dogs to Mars to eat them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen's_South_Pole_expedition#March_to_the_pole

Edited April 18, 2022 by kerbiloid

[Piscator]

Maybe they should switch to ethanol fuel then. Even friendlier to the environment and more fun to "eat the sledge dogs".

[sevenperforce]

It’s very Kerbal; I’ll give them that.

I tested a two-Kerbal expendable unpressurized descent/ascent vehicle like the one they proposed. It was a bit chunky, but it was able to do lunar ascent/descent, Martian ascent/descent, and Kerbin abort-capable launch and descent without any issues. Quite robust, really. 

[Codraroll]

On 4/12/2022 at 3:42 AM, darthgently said:

These vids look like fanfic extensions of Breaking Bad where the characters try to straighten up and start (sort of) making rocket fuel instead of meth or something.   It's definitely as scary as Breaking Bad and looks more dangerous than a trailer park meth lab

More like a fanfic extension of Breaking Bad where the characters sample their goods a bit too generously and get the bright idea of expanding their organization to Mars.

[kerbiloid]

On 4/18/2022 at 8:23 PM, Piscator said:

Maybe they should switch to ethanol fuel then. Even friendlier to the environment and more fun to "eat the sledge dogs".

Historically they tried both. The ethanol diet even wider.

But the Amundsen's experience presumes feeding the personnel and other dogs with excessive dogs, and that's how he won.

Interesting fact: Amundsen himself didn't do that.

But anyway how should they travel through the Martian ice (the part they want most of all) without dog sledges? 

58 minutes ago, RCgothic said:

They're completely unrepentant

Should they? Their flight statistics is nice (not to jinx it).

[StrandedonEarth]

Negative  attention is better than no attention. Every five-year-old knows this…

[insert_name]

here's there recording of the zoom call, they seemed like they had answers to all the safety related questions they chose to answer. They claimed that the reason they were afraid of the cloud was because of the dust, that they were raising the rocket by hand, while it was empty. Still, this seems pretty sketchy.  Also I'm not sure they get how the meme they posted below is supposed to work. https://www.pythom.space/updates/the-call-of-the-wild-pythom-zoom-event-taped

Edited April 23, 2022 by insert_name

[cubinator]

1 hour ago, insert_name said:

here's there recording of the zoom call, they seemed like they had answers to all the safety related questions they chose to answer. They claimed that the reason they were afraid of the cloud was because of the dust, that they were raising the rocket by hand, while it was empty. Still, this seems pretty sketchy.  Also I'm not sure they get how the meme they posted below is supposed to work. https://www.pythom.space/updates/the-call-of-the-wild-pythom-zoom-event-taped

Being more afraid of dust than hypergols is a priority that needs readjustment, I think...

[insert_name]

8 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Being more afraid of dust than hypergols is a priority that needs readjustment, I think...

They seem to be operating under the assumption that the propellants are fully combusted, though the variable flames coming out of the rocket and their first test suggest otherwise.

[mikegarrison]

10 minutes ago, insert_name said:

They seem to be operating under the assumption that the propellants are fully combusted, though the variable flames coming out of the rocket and their first test suggest otherwise.

Nothing ever gets *fully* combusted.