Space and Science BS Thread

Can’t wait for them to start expanding the ISS! In the meantime:
https://twitter.com/axiom_space/status/1460971641425604616?s=21

 

If it isn't knocked down by Russian debris.

 

According to the Kremlin, there’s nothing to worry about….

 

Seems a bit complicated…
https://twitter.com/nasa_sls/status/1460981939771523072?s=21

 

They do have nice toys.

 

They must have said the same thing about the roof on the Kremlin...

 

Tonight. A lot riding on this one. The previous flight’s second stage failed…
https://twitter.com/rocketlab/status/1461049683254525952?s=21

They do a nice job with their broadcasts and their launch site is pretty spectacular.

 

Make it a double header. In an hour:

https://twitter.com/spacedotcom/status/1461089385487687687?s=21

 

Awesome pic of the day:
https://twitter.com/airandspace/status/1461101985139236873?s=20

 

Quick notes from EM tonight (some really interesting nuggets):

• With 33 Raptor 2s - 2 to 2.5 times the thrust of Saturn V
• Launch tower assembly to be completed this month
• First orbital flight for Starship hopefully in January 2022
• Really tied to the multiplanetary species concept
• Working on engine factory
• Many more space based experiments once Starship gets going
• First time this window of opportunity has opened in human history - might not be open indefinitely
• Neat project - take a ground based telescope lens and put it in space
• Looking forward to landing astronauts on the moon
• Permanent base on the moon similar to what we have on Antarctica
• Nothing like it has been proposed

Q&A from Board Members National Academies of Science -

• What type of International cooperation do you see? Not seeing any need for it. Using internal funds supplemented by some NASA funds. Looking to get to orbit early next year so I don't see any need for international involvement.
• Stainless steel for vehicle - why? Steel is comparatively light. Need to have efficient ratio of mass to propellent. Started with advanced composite primary structure - too expensive for mass production. Carbon fiber also not conducive to hot, burning gasses... CF would need 60-120 plies to wrap a Starship, gigantic autoclave needed (autoclave from hell) - progress was minimal. Compared alumninium (his pronunciation) to stainless that won hands down. Gets stronger in cryo situations. Tangent into cryo fuel and oxidizer vs only cryo LOX and ambient temp RP1 for F9 (I hadn't heard that before). Price of stainless a fraction of CF - No need to paint (huge wgt savings). It's also very resilient. SS handles much higher temps in re-entry situations resulting in much lighter TPS - none needed on the leeward side of vehicle. $4-5 per kilo, easy to weld and modify
• Radiation protection for crews? Evaluation of the spaceweather environment? Definitely evaluate for solar storms, moon has more supports for protection, Mars not so much. Vague.
• Missions to the outer planet? Honored to fly the Clipper mission. Excited for Europa too. Starship should enable bigger and faster probes. Establish base on moon to support high Delta-V missions. Use Mars, the Ceres as stepping stone to open up the outer planets and their moons.
• What are your plans for humans to Mars? Short- Long-term? Confirm we can land at least 2-3 before people. Put lower costs stuff on first mission. Make sure it's safe and dependable. Could work with NASA and other countries when talking about Mars. What sort of risk mitigation for the human race. Comets taking out a continent kind of stuff. Large rockets could mitigate.
• History of human exploration has been accompanied by scientific discovery - any hopes or thoughts? Larger, more permanent bases on the Moon and Mars would allow for accelerated discoveries. Douglas Adams - HGTG philosophy disguised as humor - the questions are harder than the answers. Hopefully we could progress to send probes to nearby stars.... Are their aliens out there?
• SpaceX embrace of failure - how will this impact f9 pricing? Could be as soon as two years. Starship development is rapidly evolving. Engine development is current bottleneck. Building production capacity under development. Could have a dozen launches next year (!!!!). Hopefully complete test flight program next year. Payloads in 2023.
• Cryo propellants when landing on Mars? Initial landings using highly insulated header tanks.
• Satellite constellations impacting land based science - how will you work with regulatory agencies? Work with programs directly - for example Bear Rubin Telescope (sp) could be most impacted and they're working to mitigate.
• Long term storage of cryo propellent and transfer - what are plans to mature tech? Hard problems indeed - launch highly insulated depot vehicles - no TPS - extra insulation - fill with other Starships. Pretty good at docking (Dragon to ISS) which is a tough one- Starships docking will be much easier. Aerial refueling concepts in orbit.
• Planetary protection for Mars (no biological contamination)? Mars is few years off. Hard to avoid no biology if humans are there. Could contain it initially. Some other stuff.
• You said window of opportunity to get off planet is limited - what are the biggest threats to the human race? Sustainable energy sources - started Tesla and SpaceX to address this. Fermi paradox is interesting question - are we going to get past the gate. Potential nonlinear evolution with the levels of CO2. Nuclear Armageddon - risk is not zero. Birth rate trends are negative in many countries is an unappreciated risk. Inverted population issues. Civilization dying with a bang or whimper. More virulent pandemic. AI running amok. L-T goal of Neuralink is better symbiosis with AI - phones and computers have already started us down the road to cyborgs. Current tech has very slow output. Religious extremism is a threat to science. If not multi system - the Sun will kill us.
• Where ever Starship goes - it'll need energy. How will SpaceX meet the demand? The entire solar system is powered by the Sun - spoke about Tesla solar and equations for determining KW per kilometer. A square 150 km to a side could power the US. Wind power can be powerful too. Need batteries. What we use is a fraction of what we get from the Sun every day. Unnecessary to make fusion work - we have the Sun - just need to capture it. Raw materials for box batteries are readily available on Earth.

I had hoped someone ask about Prufrock but no.

 

Yup, less temp differential means common bulkheads are easier. RP1/LOX and H2/LOX both have lots of temp diffs.

...

Heh 'sun will kill us if not interstellar civilization' .. HEAT DEATH IS COMING

 

You pretty much nailed it. Not too much paraphrasing on my part

 

Given how many missions were flown it did amazingly well. Not sure if any other such high risk endeavor does any better.

 

Mission success- both satellites deployed as planned. The parachute assisted splashdown was not televised but reports were that recovery was underway.

 

Pic of the morning:

https://twitter.com/canberradsn/status/1461224026429276160?s=21

(It’s cropped so you got to click on it to see the full frame)

 

I wish my portfolio had this growth curve..

https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1461350774798110720?s=21

 

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1461358172514385925/photo/2

LOL

 

BURN!

 

Glad Kathy Leuders came out on top with this one

Nelson’s on the record this has set the program back 7 months.

I think SpaceX couldn’t have gone faster with what they accomplished in building out the GSE during this time so from their perspective, it was irrelevant. Thoughts?

 

It depends on whether it prevented them from making new hires or allocating resources to do the work. I would think there were things that could have been done that weren’t.