SpaceX Updates

[Valcan]

Are there any plans to sell Merlin engines as a separate product on the market ?

Thats a good idea as long as they dont fall into the wrong hands.

 

[frodo1008]

What difference would that make? After all, the Russian rocket engine technology is certainly as good as that of the US, and the US has absolutely no control over who they sell to. So why (especially during a recession) hamstring our own fledgling industry?

If we would really hamper those that seem to be our enemies, in the Middle East especially, then we need to get off of the oil standard, for it is we that are actually funding these people and therefore enabling them to buy from those that would sell to them.

Besides which, like that fledgling space industry, the environmentally friendly energy and transportation industry in this country will eventually generate literally millions of relatively good paying jobs in this country, to say nothing of stopping the uncontrolled pollution of the Earth's atmosphere by burning hydrocarbons. A win-win-win situation, if there ever was one!

All we need is the will to get off of our duffs and do it. After all, we ARE Americans, give us a solid goal, and then stand back and watch us do it!

 

[danhezee]

Elon has written a letter to bust some of the myths about his divorce.

http://jalopnik.com/5582714/elon-musk-about-my-divorce

The legal and accounting bills for the divorce total four million dollars so far, which is an average of roughly $170,000 per month for the past 24 months. Journalists were quick to mock the poor "broke" guy that had $200k a month expenses, failing to note that legal fees constituted the majority.

I never said in any court documents that I was "broke" or even that I lacked considerable assets, and at no point have I ever sought to limit support payments to Justine. In fact, I state in my own court declarations that I own exceptionally valuable ownership in Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. I was simply seeking some reasonable limit on the attorneys fees or at least more time to obtain cash to pay the unexpectedly high legal bills. The judge did grant the latter relief.

 

[job1207]

The issue regarding American launches revolved on just ONE thing, money. NOW, the EADS is wondering about its future, aloud.

"The total development costs of the Falcon 9 to its first flight in June were about half a billion dollars, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has claimed.

The California company is currently advertising launch prices that dramatically undercut those of its competitors, including Arianespace, the firm which markets the Ariane 5."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_ ... 543581.stm

The bottom line is the issue. This competition will be decided by the LOW cost provider of space access. Right now, Musk is the answer. We will see if he can actually launch routinely at these prices.

 

[Valcan]

The issue regarding American launches revolved on just ONE thing, money. NOW, the EADS is wondering about its future, aloud.

"The total development costs of the Falcon 9 to its first flight in June were about half a billion dollars, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has claimed.

The California company is currently advertising launch prices that dramatically undercut those of its competitors, including Arianespace, the firm which markets the Ariane 5."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_ ... 543581.stm

The bottom line is the issue. This competition will be decided by the LOW cost provider of space access. Right now, Musk is the answer. We will see if he can actually launch routinely at these prices.

Or if the government funded companies will try to undercut him. Which will in the long run hurt everyone.

 

[docm]

Today on SpaceFlightNow Elon Must may have started a major topic of conversation. It's known that their Dragon spacecraft is to initially fly cargo. and that it was also designed to fly crews to Low Earth Orbit, but then came this part of the interview;

The Dragon's heat shield will also be put to the test during re-entry. The capsule's blunt end is coated with phenolic impregnated carbon ablator, a resistant insulator used by NASA's Stardust mission that returned comet samples to Earth.

The ablator, called PICA-X for short, was tested inside an arc jet laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

"It's actually the most powerful stuff known to man. Dragon is capable of re-entering from a lunar velocity, or even a Mars velocity with the heat shield that it has," Musk said.

The main subject of the article is that Falcon 9 flt 2 stages have started to arrive at the Cape.

 

[ZiraldoAerospace]

Talk about thinking ahead!

 

[SteveCNC]

Good to see progress on this , hopefully all will go well on the next launch with the changes made . I would like to see the re-entry video when the capsule comes in , I know all about phenolic as I have to work with it on too many occasions for my taste . I would prefer not to work with that material if I can avoid it , it's basically like a fiberglass but the resin is generally brown and heavier , gotta wear a particle mask if your around the dust and it takes weeks to get rid of all the dust when your done , hate it .

Reminds me of another material that's used as an ablative that I have worked with also called syntactic foam , submarine launch cruise missiles have that stuff diverting the exhaust at the end of the nozzle to get the motor up to speed before it actually takes off .

 

[Boris_Badenov]

SpaceX Applauds Breakthrough Compromise in U.S. Senate on NASA Budget

[snip]

In 2010, NASA will pay the Russian Space Agency $287.4 million for 6 seats on Russian Soyuz flights, which amounts to $47.9 million per seat. By 2013, the price per seat paid to Russia to carry U.S. astronauts will exceed $55 million.

Though it provides less funding than the President’s request, the new legislation provides $312 million in FY11 funding for the development of American commercial systems to transport crew to the ISS. SpaceX is one of several companies currently developing commercial crew technology funded by NASA, including Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation, Illinois-based Boeing Company, Colorado-based United Launch Alliance, Washington-based Blue Origin, Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace, and Arizona-based Paragon Space Development Corporation.


[snip]

 

[job1207]

That is interesting, because both Boeing and Spacex are saying they can do it for $25million or so.

 

[frodo1008]

Yes job1207, but for some years after we take the shuttle our of going to the ISS, the Russians can still make it up to the ISS (as they have been doing all along) with their Soyuz capsules, and our people can not.

So, the Russians get the prize of being able to charge just what the "market" will bear, and we do not!

Simple, correct?

 

[James_Bull]

Yes job1207, but for some years after we take the shuttle out of going to the ISS, the Russians can still make it up to the ISS (as they have been doing all along) with their Soyuz capsules, and our people can not.

So, the Russians get the prize of being able to charge just what the "market" will bear, and we do not!

Simple, correct?

...which is actually incredibly cheaper than each shuttle launch! Oh no... Very simple indeed.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Once again folks, This Thread is for SpaceX updates ONLY!!!
Other comments should be placed in the appropriate discussions. I will start moving off topic posts soon.

 

[Valcan]

Anyone heard anything about the possible SpaceX super heavy. I remmeber some rumors but havent heard anything else.

 

[vulture4]

Yes job1207, but for some years after we take the shuttle out of going to the ISS, the Russians can still make it up to the ISS (as they have been doing all along) with their Soyuz capsules, and our people can not.
So, the Russians get the prize of being able to charge just what the "market" will bear, and we do not!
Simple, correct?

...which is actually incredibly cheaper than each shuttle launch! Oh no... Very simple indeed.

It would require 2.3 Soyuz plus ten Progress to carry the crew and payload mass of the Shuttle, and many of the modules and large external payloads an only be carried by Shuttle.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Elon Musk on Colbert. Elon's segment is the third one, about 15:30 into the vid.

 

[mj1]

Anyone heard anything about the possible SpaceX super heavy. I remmeber some rumors but havent heard anything else.

They do have specs for a F9 Heavy on their website. I don't know if that qualifies as a "super" heavy lift-wise though. There are also whispers of a project for SpaceX to work with NASA on the development of a super heavy down the road.

 

[Valcan]

Elon Musk on Colbert. Elon's segment is the third one, about 15:30 into the vid.

Haha that was pretty good
"wana see my rocket" Now there is a good pickup line.

 

[MeteorWayne]

FINAL WARNING
This thread is to discuss SpaceX updates ONLY.

There is another discussion of Elon's letter, off topic posts will be moved there.

Moderator Meteor Wayne

 

[mr_mark]

Spacex has released this information at a conference this week. It includes the Falcon 10 and the Falcon 20 rocket. I suggest you look at this. Good stuff! http://commercialspace.pbworks.com/f/Sp ... small.pptx

 

[mr_mark]

Above powerpoint also included Nuclear Reactive propulsion system....interesting. Available at Nasaspaceflight.com Guys this is the pot of gold we have been looking for Please take a look.

 

[SteveCNC]

That was pretty sweet , I like the Falcon XX but with the sequence I saw in the other models is there a Falcon XX Heavy coming also and what could it's lift be .

BTW on this computer I only have the free viewer from microsoft powerpointviewer2007 and I had to use a converter available here at Cnet in order to see the file but great stuff like you said .

 

[docm]

Presuming this is real and not another fan generated timeline like 2 years ago...

Certainly looks like they're serious about competing for the NASA heavy lifter contract as both Falcon 10 Heavy and Falcon 20 would exceed the performance of the venerated Saturn V.

They're gonna hear those babies fire all the way to Virginia

And it sure sounds like the Merlin 2 is a scaled up Merlin 1 rather than based in that Rocketdyne RS-84 engine tech they licensed 2-3 years ago. Then there are the references in other materials to the need for a NERVA style nuclear Mars stage, electric rockets for tugs and a methane version of the Merlin 1. Explains why they're doubling the size of their test area in Texas.

Also interesting is 2 F9 families - one with cores made up of 9 Merlin 1's and one with cores consisting of singe Merlin 2's. Wonder it there'll be a price difference.

 

[EarthlingX]

Falcon XX, with Merlin 2 would be rumoured BFR ?

SDC thread : SpaceX - Merlin 2 & BFR


Here's an interesting find about Merlin 2 :

ambivalentengineer.blogspot.com : Why Merlin 2?

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

SpaceX does not need to design and qualify a third, much bigger, engine in order to become a profitable launch company, or to take over payloads intended for the Shuttle, or to fly people to either ISS or a Bigelow hotel. SpaceX should concentrate on execution, development of parallel staging (Falcon 9S9), and on a regeneratively cooled Merlin. Execution includes things like recovery of first stages and getting to one launch per month, with at least one or two Falcon 9 launches each year.

..

The only organization with any credibility talking about using such heavy launches is NASA, for use in sending people to the Moon and maybe Mars. The BFR is Elon Musk's statement that he wants to take over the U.S. manned space program's launches. The business case for Merlin 2 and BFR must fundamentally rely on the U.S. government privatizing a critical, and the most public, portion of the manned space program. A program which from its outset has been about national pride.

A more likely scenario is that NASA will spend billions developing its own HLLV in competition with SpaceX, in the process abandoning the Space Station and strangling SpaceX, and will end up being able to afford just two or three launches to the Moon before abandoning VSE for the next thing. The history of heavy launchers is not reassuring. The Saturn V (118,000 kg to LEO, $2.2B per launch in 2004 dollars) was launched 13 times. Energia (85,000 kg to LEO, $1.4B per launch) was launched twice.

..


Article on Wiki about RS-84 is hidden under :
Wiki : Space Launch Initiative
..

As part of the Space Launch Initiative, Rocketdyne developed a plan for the RS-84 rocket engine. It would have been the first reusable, Staged combustion cycle, liquid rocket engine produced by the US to use a hydrocarbon fuel.[2]

[2] "RS-84 Rocket Engine Overview" (PDF). Rocketdyne. April 2003.

 

[job1207]

It is not at all clear just how much a Falcon X would cost. If NASA puts the rocket up for bids, then Spacex would bid on it. I cannot imagine that they would go for TWO heavy launchers however. For SpaceX to get that contract, it would take a leap, which it does not appear Congress is ready to do.

Spacex does have a lot of its plate, and so, they DO need to execute at a quickening pace in order to get all of the flights on their manifest into space.

I imagine that someone has a plan to go to the moon privately, but that would have to present a valid business plan before I would believe it is possible.