Recent content by JLB39401

Bigelow Aerospace is defunct, unfortunately.

Feel free to point out any other models which work at least as well. The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you, and is demonstrably weird.

The single largest hurdle to this technology has been high launch costs. Microwave emitters, waveguides, high-efficiency rectennas, and all the other stuff has been old-school since the 1970s -- and we have learned a pretty good chunk about 'assemble stuff in space', too. Once again, it is...

Maybe this turkey will finally have its' day around Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed.

Exactly what I came here to say.

Unfortunately, this makes perfect sense. SLS was never seriously intended to do much of anything -- it was just a way to waste tax dollars in specific congressional districts. By that metric, it has been a spectacular success. Until Senator Richard Shelby leaves office, and maybe even after...

I seem to remember some issues coming up during the Green Run; they had one run where they could not do a full-duration firing, & I think they repeated it. Not sure if they did tank filling & emptying without firing as part of the test series, but I would be a little surprised if they didn't.

Because there is currently no accepted way to reconcile GR & QM. By pushing the very limits of both, we have a chance to discover areas where they may overlap & allow us to reconcile them.

Geez, ease up on the little-green-men hype. The videos which were released are far from 'inexplicable'. Here is one video which does a decent job explaining these 'UFOs': View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le7Fqbsrrm8&t=327 The last segment of that video is called 'the lure of aliens'; and...

This is interesting. Aside from the SpaceX proposal, the first round of landers were fairly lackluster; I definitely got the feeling that Lockheed was just making a token effort. Now that SpaceX has a winning lander design, and all of the competitors have had some time to examine & re-think...

How many times have the tanks been filled, either partially or completely? Isn't there a limit (~22 fillings, I think) on the number of times that can be safely done? How close is this vehicle to End-of-Life from various components aging out or hitting wear limits?

Thank you for the link, but you have missed a few fuelings. There were three WDR attempts in April; plus the (at least one) fueling for the Green Run. There were likely more than that; but I do not have a complete list handy.

My question now is -- these tanks have a definite service life; every time they are pressured up, they take stress; every time they are loaded with hydrogen, they are slightly embrittled -- with all the repeated load/unload cycles, are these tanks now approaching end-of-life? Is the damage...