SpaceX Updates

[Boris_Badenov]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>well, they are three crew prep flights. I think that means no crew. I am pretty sure. After that then guys and gals can ride, I would think . <br />Posted by job1207</DIV><br /><br /><font size="2">There are three Dragons flying on Demo flights already. I'm not sure how many Apollos flew unmanned but I am pretty sure it wasn't 6. If both of the DragonLab missions fly then the number&nbsp;goes up to 5 before the first Crew Demo. I remember hearing somewhere that Dragon is ready for crew configuration&nbsp;& only needs an LAS in order to carry crew, & the only thing holding up the LAS is money. I'm also willing to bet that Elon will get the money to make the Dragon crew capable even if NASA doesn't fund Capability D.</font></p><p><font size="2">If Falcon 9 works & the 3&nbsp;Demo flights go okay I'd be first in line to&nbsp;take an orbital joy ride as a test dummy. I'm willing to bet there are thousands of others that'd fight me for the chance too.</font>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[docm]

<p>New updates and images -</p><p><strong class="blue smallText">Monday, December 29th, 2008</strong></p><p>The integration of Falcon 9 continued steadily through the long Christmas holiday, and the images below show just how close Falcon 9 is to being completely integrated. Whether measured by weight or by cost, <strong>the majority of the Falcon 9 being assembled is actual flight hardware</strong>. If there are no unexpected delays, its possible Falcon 9 will be integrated before December 31st &mdash; certainly a great way to start off the New Year.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[windnwar]

<p>I like they way they made that one line in bold, I think that was for a certain critic from another forum who happens to be a competitor as well. </p><p>The pics look great, its cool seeing it all come together. </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font size="2" color="#0000ff">""Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." --Albert Einstein"</font></p> </div>

 

[job1207]

<p><br />http://www.spacex.com/updates.php</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I just checked in at the spacex web site. The rocket is pretty much put together.&nbsp; They seem to work quite a bit faster than reports I've heard on other rockets and what not. </p><p>At any rate, the pics are great.&nbsp; </p><p>As far as the agreement noted above, that is how it reads. If you have another agreement for me to read, I will gladly read it and tell you what is says.&nbsp; </p>

 

[kevin_space_001]

I think that NASA should have SpaceX build the Shuttle replacement and the rocket to the moon and Mars..

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I think that NASA should have SpaceX build the Shuttle replacement and the rocket to the moon and Mars.. <br />Posted by kevin_space_001</DIV></p><p><font size="2">I don't think they have enough experience right now. </font></p><p><font size="2">I do think they are going to get that experience in the next 25 years.<img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif" border="0" alt="Cool" title="Cool" /></font> </p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[docm]

<div style="margin-top:5px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:5px"><div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">2 new pics of the integrated F9 too...</div><div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">Link...&nbsp;</div><div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom:2px">Quote:</div><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px"><strong>Tuesday, December 30th, 2008</strong><br /><br />Falcon 9 is now fully integrated at the Cape! Today we mated the 5.2 m payload fairing to the Falcon 9 first stage (see below). This was the final step in the integration process&mdash;one day ahead of schedule.<br /><br />With Falcon 9 integrated, our focus shifts to the big launch mount and erector. All the pieces have been delivered, and the coming days will see a tremendous amount of welding to join them all together.<br /><br />The long hours put in by the SpaceX team over the last several weeks, particularly the folks on the ground at the Cape, are certainly paying off. Once the launch mount and erector are complete, we'll transfer Falcon 9 on to the erector and raise it to vertical early in 2009. Happy New Year!

 

[mr_mark]

Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>2 new pics of the integrated F9 too...Link...&nbsp;Quote:Tuesday, December 30th, 2008Falcon 9 is now fully integrated at the Cape! Today we mated the 5.2 m payload fairing to the Falcon 9 first stage (see below). This was the final step in the integration process&mdash;one day ahead of schedule.With Falcon 9 integrated, our focus shifts to the big launch mount and erector. All the pieces have been delivered, and the coming days will see a tremendous amount of welding to join them all together.The long hours put in by the SpaceX team over the last several weeks, particularly the folks on the ground at the Cape, are certainly paying off. Once the launch mount and erector are complete, we'll transfer Falcon 9 on to the erector and raise it to vertical early in 2009. Happy New Year! <br /> Posted by docm</DIV><br />I think they meant the fairing was mounted to the second stage.. oops. I'd like to see the second stage sitting on top of the fairing now that would be something to behold.

 

[docm]

I saw that. As late as that was posted I'd bet their PR folks were a bit punchy. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[job1207]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>I don't think they have enough experience right now. I do think they are going to get that experience in the next 25 years. <br /> Posted by boris1961</DIV></p><p>Musk already offered the US an $80 million per flight supply flight, to support missions to the moon. The Falcon 9 heavy is going to the moon, SOON.&nbsp; Say five years or so. </p>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<font size="2"><font size="2">Here's</font> an interview with Elon about his plans for the future.</font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[docm]

<p>A supersonic electric jet airplane? </p><p>Didn't see that one coming.</p><p>Before any laughs, such a concept was reported in Scientific American a couple years ago.&nbsp; Basically the turbine would be spun by superconducting ceramic YBCO (yttrium barium copper oxide) magnets instead of combustion.&nbsp;Power by H2 fuel cells. Liquid H2 would&nbsp;do the cooling.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nimbus]

Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>A supersonic electric jet airplane? Didn't see that one coming.Before any laughs, such a concept was reported in Scientific American a couple years ago.&nbsp; Basically the turbine would be spun by superconducting ceramic YBCO (yttrium barium copper oxide) magnets instead of combustion.&nbsp;Power by H2 fuel cells. Liquid H2 would&nbsp;do the cooling. <br /> Posted by docm</DIV><br />Sometimes I worry that he's going to burn himself out, and not for his ventures' benefit.. I'll be glad to be proven wrong though. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Sometimes I worry that he's going to burn himself out, and not for his ventures' benefit.. I'll be glad to be proven wrong though. <br />Posted by nimbus</DIV></p><p><font size="2">I've been wondering how much, if any of his ventures has applications for his dream of a Martian Colony? Electric cars, airplanes, solar power? I wonder what else he's got going that's not in the public eye?</font><br /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[mr_mark]

Well, I don't think that going to the moon or mars will be a problem as far as transport. It's been heading that way for a while now with mars probes and human lunar landings. What's hard is building structures for outpost or colonization. I see the moon as a way to mine for helium 3. But, Elon doesn't see it that way and that's so so sad. India already has sent a probe to look for regions containing it. Maybe he should stick to transportation instead and let others work on ways to work and colonize. Providing the systems to allow this to happen is the most important thing, then fill whatever need arrises. It's not up to space business transport to create what goes on, It's up to them to provide the access so that other companies can provide the living conditions so that work can happen. We need companies&nbsp; to start working on lunar and eventually martian living structures.

 

[docm]

<p>Structures may not be as big a problem if they used&nbsp;several of the landable lunar modules Bigelow was working on.</p><p><br /><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/7/15/576946cc-e628-4209-af47-62e9973abf19.Medium.jpg" alt="" /></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[mr_mark]

Hey, not a bad idea. Is this from Bigelow?, if so my hopes have been raised. One question as far as a long duration presence how do you protect workers from dangerous radiation buildup. I think the best long term solution is either from magnetic projection fields or from underground structures such as burying a habitat. That will have to be addressed bafore any long term presense is possible.

 

[mr_mark]

You could create one long struction by linking the modules together at their airlock ports. A much better solution I think. If this is from you could you show me one like that?

 

[docm]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>Hey, not a bad idea. Is this from Bigelow</p><p>Posted by mr_mark</DIV></p><p>Yes, those are from Bigelow circa 2001-ish and he discussed&nbsp;the lunar base concept&nbsp;at some length on MSNBC's Cosmic Log blog&nbsp;in 2007&nbsp;(link....)</p><p>Image 1....</p><p>Image 2....</p><p>Image 3....</p><p>Some of the details, though in this&nbsp;interview he discusses a newer concept&nbsp;that doesn't have tractors;</p><p><strong>Quote:</strong></p><p><strong>Q: Well, I guess we&rsquo;ll just have to stay tuned for more on that. So in terms of the lunar habitat, would it be another version of the habitat that you&rsquo;re using for orbital operations?</strong></p><p><strong>A:</strong> Yes, our concept of lunar base construction would be to assemble various modules and propulsion/power buses in L1, and that would constitute the base. Those propulsion systems are full of fuel, and they are integrated into the overall structure in such a way that the entire structure lands as a unified base &ndash; which essentially was once a spaceship in L1, but is landed on the surface of the moon.</p><p>This way, you avoid the significant issues that surround having to gang modules together on the lunar surface on topographical surfaces that are not perfectly even. You avoid having to connect the air locks of modules that maybe weren&rsquo;t able to be brought close enough together. You avoid having to transport modules across the lunar surface, even if they were only a matter of a few hundred yards apart, and assembling them so that you have an airlock-to-airlock connection.</p><p>One module really isn&rsquo;t the issue. It&rsquo;s a matter of how you get three or five or seven down as one overall complex. Our architecture addresses that as a potential solution, using a combination of our propulsion buses and these expandable systems. The propulsion buses would have stanchions on them that act as the rigid points, to be able to deal with uneven topographical surfaces. The expandable systems themselves don&rsquo;t mind at all being set upon a solid surface because of the shields that they have and the durability of the overall system. The rigidity of the system is such that they don&rsquo;t mind at all. Even under a 1-g influence on Earth, there&rsquo;s no problem &ndash; so under one-sixth it would be much less.</p><p>They come equipped with their own insulation, by the way, for space debris in low Earth orbit, and to a certain extent for micrometeoroids. So they&rsquo;re already better insulated than the international space station is currently. Of course, the regolith is a significant additive that would be a great enhancement of the protection.</p><p>So anyway, the base is assembled in L1 and proceeds to the lunar surface. Because it&rsquo;s not having to fly direct, it has wider opportunities: Bases can be sent to multiple alternate landing sites. It can be occupied or unoccupied at the time it is deployed to the lunar surface. So you save a lot of time, a lot of money, and lots of lives potentially during assembly, because it&rsquo;s going to be a very risky situation to assemble modules and try to gang them together on the surface.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[docm]

<p>A new update covering erector construction;</p><p>Link....</p><p><strong class="blue smallText">Monday, January 5th, 2009</strong></p><p>The New Year got off to a great start for SpaceX with integration of Falcon 9 being completed a day ahead of schedule. Focus then shifted to the launch mount and erector and over the weekend, our team has made incredible progress.</p><p>Over the last few days, we flipped the launch mount base and installed it to the launch mount. We also installed the forward cradle and assembled the strongback in preparation for mating to the launch table base. Machining on the forward rail car assemblies was completed, with work on the aft rail car assembly quickly nearing completion, and a significant portion of the hydraulic systems were also installed.</p><p>Our next major milestone is rotation of the Launch Deck to vertical in order to initiate mating to the strongback, scheduled for Thursday, January 8th.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<p><font size="2"><font size="2">Wednesday, January 7th, 2009</font></font></p><p><font size="2">Over the last few days, we kept just ahead of our schedule, rotating the launch deck vertical and mating the strongback. We also installed the main lift cylinders, and raised and lowered the launch mount. Today we took the erector to vertical using the hydraulics system (see below). Getting the erector operational is the final step before taking Falcon 9 vertical.</font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[annodomini2]

Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>A supersonic electric jet airplane? Didn't see that one coming.Before any laughs, such a concept was reported in Scientific American a couple years ago.&nbsp; Basically the turbine would be spun by superconducting ceramic YBCO (yttrium barium copper oxide) magnets instead of combustion.&nbsp;Power by H2 fuel cells. Liquid H2 would&nbsp;do the cooling. <br />Posted by docm</DIV><br /><br />I assume you also burn the waste H2? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[docm]

<p>It&nbsp;goes towards cooling and running the fuel cells, whose only waste product is water. I imagine some could be used for other things, but with huge fuel cells, why?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Boris_Badenov]

<p><font size="2"><font size="2">SpaceX Aims For 2009 Re-usability Demo</font></font></p><p><font size="2">Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) hopes to recover the spent first stage of its Falcon 1 launcher as early as the upcoming fifth test flight, says CEO and chief technical officer Elon Musk.</font></p><p><font size="2">The successful recovery of the used first stage is an important milestone for SpaceX, which is determined to reduce the cost of access to space in part by increasing the re-usability of rocket sections. The second stage also is designed to be recovered, though this is a more serious technical challenge, Musk says.</font></p><p><font size="2">Speaking at the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) aerospace sciences meeting here, Musk says "we are entering a new era of space exploration in which the private sector is going to play a larger role, particularly if we can get re-usability to work. The great goal we should have in space is to establish life on another planet -- that would be one of the greatest achievements in the history of life itself. The key to that is a truly re-usable spacecraft industry and we are at the dawn of a new era."</font></p><p><font size="2">Musk adds that "Space-X is about one goal -- lowering the cost of access to space. Transportation is fundamental to everything, and imagine if ships hadn't been re-usable? Christopher Columbus would have needed six ships."</font></p><p><font size="2">Musk adds that data from the first successful launch to orbit, Flight 4 (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 30), indicated modifications are needed to improve the robustness of the first stage. "We got good data on Flight 4, which basically said the stage got cooked on the way in, so we're going to beef up the thermal protection and communications systems," he says. The latter design modification will guarantee that the first stage parachute activation system can be triggered by on-board systems rather than relying on off-board relay.</font></p><p><font size="2">For first recovery, Musk says "Flight 5 is a better shot, but I think on Flight 6 it's highly likely we'll recover the first stage." Further plans for second stage recovery will take longer, he cautions. "Its going to be a reiterative process and it's even harder for stage two. It has got to have its own parachute recovery system as well as a de-orbit propulsion system and any pound you use for reusability is a pound subtracted from payload. It's probably going to be several missions before we've got that developed and it's a super hard problem," he adds.</font></p><p><font size="2">Musk spoke not far from Cape Canaveral, where SpaceX's first Falcon 9 launch vehicle is being assembled. "We have completed most of the development on Falcon 9," says Musk, who adds "we're hoping for a summer launch." Falcon 9 is set to conduct three demonstration flights under the existing Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA. The first flight, C1, is targeted for mid-2009 and will be a short-duration mission involving four and a half orbits of the Dragon cargo vehicle, while C2, scheduled for the following November, will be a more complex mission requiring a 6-mile flyby of the International Space Station.</font></p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>

 

[mr_mark]

Recovery is a tricky situation at best.I'm surprised they are even trying it. My concentration would be to develope a fully functional flight operating system first. Then work on recovery as a secondary function. Spacex is already beating the competion price wise so why worry about recovery now?