Space and Science BS Thread

You have that backwards. It's how many Starships would be required to transport one boring machine. Tunnel boring machines are on average over 1/4 mile long and can weigh more than 4,500 tons. The Boring Company's boring machines are supposedly smaller and lighter, but it is highly unlikely that they were able to shrink one down to 100 tons. The plus side is the cost to launch. Starship is estimated to cost about 5 million per launch to orbit compared to the 350 million that we were paying Russia to send astronauts up. Even if it costs 15-20 to get to a destination such as the moon, you could still send 15-20 rockets to the moon for the cost we were sending 1 rocket full of astronauts to orbit for.

 

Or put a lox plant and a methane plant on the ship.

 

Huh, I don’t know about that. You’re thinking old school.

Scroll though the gallery and the website:
https://www.boringcompany.com/gallery

Looks like this TBM could be < 100 metric tons and bores a tunnel 12 feet wide (3.65 meters):


https://www.boringcompany.com/faq

Edit: read up on the Prufrock and it’s iterative improvements.

They’re striving for (or have achieved):
- all electric boring
- can launch from the surface then porpoise down
- in situ rock processing..

With all the water found at the Moon’s poles, I wonder how conducive pulverized moon rock is for making concrete?

 

I've been looking. The piece shown is essentially the drill bit of a boring machine. There is usually a ton of equipment behind that handling hydraulic power, cooling, fill extraction, ring segment handling, etc. Based on the size of it I'd actually estimate it at 3-500 tons. I have not been able to find pictures of it being loaded or unloaded from trailers though. If you can find that you can get a better estimate based upon number and class of trailers required. They do lift it in at least 3 segments though.

 

Mars might already be concrete. NASAs boring probe couldn't get down more than 2 feet into a surface that NASA assumed was loosely packed gravel. Turns out it's basically concrete. Not all of Mars will be like that but it shows that we've done almost no work on actually penetrating the surface of these landing sites beyond the first 2'. It may be too difficult to bore into the moon. Another approach, like small scale blast and recover, might end up being the best option.

 

I’m drinking the Kool-Aid mixed with mescaline...

Just hypothesizing on what I’m reading.

Hopefully I’ll live for another 20-30 years to see how things turn out.

 

To be fair, it was also a self hammering impact probe.

I'm wondering if mars is closer to tundra, with a layer of ice underneath the topsoil/dust.

 

It was. There's a lot we don't know below the surface of both the moon and mars. From what I've read, that probe showed NASA may want to find out what's under the moons ground before sending people there again.

 

The plus side is that is Earth weight. Luckily on the moon 300 tons will be closer to 40 and a loaded rocket might weigh less than an empty rocket here. Which is good, because then you have to get that 40 tons off the top of a 170 foot tall rocket. Unless they go crazy with the moon version and move the tanks to the top.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZkuQUCUYgM

 

Mike’s awesome. Brings up alot of things one might not consider.

‘Alignment’ will never be the same for me..

 

My favorite line in that was "can I say poop?"

 

Astronauts are put through a PR school so they don't accidentally say the wrong thing and cost the industry money it desperately needs. They have to put a lot of thought into their words at times. I bet they find that frustrating.

 

The Transporter 1 F9 is hooked up to the crane for disembarking from OCISLY.

Scroll to the 3:08:30 pm mark..

https://youtu.be/gnt2wZBg89g


That’s one toasty booster..

 

That makes me think of Futurama lol.

 

Check your favorite YT channel, lotsa buzz SN9 is flying today

 

FAA reports SN9 scrubbed for today. There seems to be some discussion of whether SpX called it or not.

Keep a tuned to it, who knows

 

Based upon the elon tweet, spacex did not call it. The FAA screwed him. Still a chance, rocket is fueled. I have a feeling elon is going to raise a ruckus at the FAA after this though, and I say good!

 

From the Rocket Report yesterday:

Crew named for first fully private orbital crew launch. The crew of the first entirely-private orbital space mission will include the second oldest person to launch into space, the second Israeli in space, the 11th Canadian to fly into space and the first former NASA astronaut to return to the International Space Station, CollectSpace reports. Houston-based Axiom Space is organizing the mission.

Launch within a year ... Slated to launch on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft are: Larry Connor, an American real estate and technology entrepreneur; Eytan Stibbe, a businessman and former Israeli fighter pilot; Mark Pathy, a Canadian investor and philanthropist; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a retired NASA astronaut. This Ax-1 mission could launch as soon as January 2022. (submitted by Ken the Bin and Tfarog04)

____________

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Axiom_Space-1

 

https://youtu.be/-M3L_Kykl6w