Space and Science BS Thread

It's only 5 years late - what's a couple more...

 

Actually, the biggest problem NASA has had over the years is politicians.

 

And Boeing being terrible at their job.

 

SSOY: Single Stage to Over Yonder

 

Depends what you think their job description is.

Building the core stage? Yes, they suck.

Extracting the maximum number of tax dollars from the gov't (NASA) for the minimum (or less) amount of work?

 

THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, well, they’re really more like guidelines. Just as things we think of as “solid” are actually just relatively more dense, things like space and time also described relative to their surroundings and aren’t nearly as rigid or immutable as they seem. Some pretty exciting stuff here. I like the surfing analogy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MtXOLkVrdmE

 

I guess from a capitalist view point they are doing quite well - getting paid large sums of money while not doing the work properly in the agreed upon timeline. They do the same thing in my line of work and yet we continue to pay them knowing it is a ripoff.

 

Is Bechtel an wholly owned subsidiary?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/06/nasas-second-mobile-launcher-is-too-heavy-years-late-and-pushing-1-billion/

These old school conglomerates and their in pocket politicians really know how to rip the country off.

 

That project is a real CF - they charged almost $400 million (more than the original contract was for) and hadn't welded 2 pieces of metal together.

It seems they didn't bother to do much research and design before bidding on the contract. After all, it was a cost plus contract, so "what difference does it make"?

Back in day, everyone working the Apollo program was there because they wanted to be there - wanted to go to the moon. Today, most people think it's just a job - a government job at that - and have the associated attitude to go with it.

So sad......

 

How many billions have we spent on it so far?

 

Don't think I can count that high.

The total (more or less) of the Apollo program costs over the 13 years is approximately $257 billion in 2020 dollars. Not that much spent on SLS (yet) but it's not flying either...

 

They must feel the urgency to fly soon so Elon doesn't shame them by getting to the moon first and for a small fraction of the cost.

 

While I do appreciate what Elon is doing, don't forget, his engine technology came from NASA, as has most of his funding (through NASA).

He isn't the startup many believe he is. He is, however, motivated, and not shanghaied by politicians.

And, I doubt NASA feels much urgency - SLS was supposed to fly in 2017...

 

I hear this a lot. Are you saying he has rocket engines and NASA used rocket engines so they must be the same, or are they based on an actual engine?

Funding, again is ambiguous. He started SpaceX with his own money and almost went bankrupt. After that he completed contracts for NASA. That's called doing a job. I can't recall once where he told them he needed more money to complete one of the jobs he had bid on for NASA. They're a customer and they get what they pay for with SpaceX. And SpaceX, like most companies, gets their funding from customers. NASA just happens to be one of the largest customers of space and orbit, for now. It's all about perspective.

 

I am saying his original engine designs came from NASA. In other words, he did not start from zero. I don't know how many, if any, engines he received from NASA.

And you're right - as far as funding goes, it's all about perspective. Call it what you want - funded, customer.

 

The original designs for the Merlin Mk1 may have been based on a NASA engine, but they aren't the same now. I'm pretty sure the Raptor 1 is a completely in house design.

How much innovation hase Areojet-Rocketdyne done since the shuttle missions? None, because they are reusing previously used engines.

 

Oh, and it's not just Areojet-Rocketdyne that stopped innovating. ULA and Vulcan were left scrambling for, as yet undelivered, BE-4s after Roscomos stopped shipping them the RD-180.

 

In order to put men on the moon, the NASA space program developed a large number of technological advances that were used in many industries. SpaceX is far from the first company to benefit from NASA research.

 

Those space pens that write underwater were Fire!

 

https://space.nss.org/pintle-injector-rocket-engines/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastrac_(rocket_engine)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Merlin#Merlin_1A

'kinda'. The turbopump was a contracted clean sheet design, and that's half the engine.. the other half being the metallurgy. And the third half being the injector... so 'engines received from NASA'? Zero. Based on a previous concept abandoned by NASA? Yup.