Posted on 05/04/2020 11:18:01 AM PDT by amorphous
In this Episode, we will take a look at the ongiong work by SpaceX in Boca Chica. We will look at Starship SN4 & SN5. Progress is continuing at an incredible rate. We will also take a look at the newly contracted Lunar Landers by Blue Origin, Dynetics and SpaceX. NASA has chosen to give the private sector an opportunity for their own Moon shots. SpaceX is contributing the Lunar Starship, which has quite a few differences compared to the Earth based variant!
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
The goal is to land Americans on the Moon in 2024.
The first stage, which is the same diameter, will have 31 Raptors stuffed in there.
NASA and Boeing have awarded Aerojet Rocketdyne widely-anticipated contracts to restart the production of simplified shuttle-era rocket engines for the heavy-lift Space Launch System and supply the propulsion system for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew capsule, officials announced this week.
The deals are welcome news for Aerojet Rocketdyne, which in the last year has lost an engine contract for Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket and is running second in a race with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to supply engines for United Launch Alliance’s next-generation Vulcan rocket.
The Space Launch System contract announced Monday, valued at $1.16 billion, begins the process to resume production of RS-25 engines after the assembly line was shut down nearly a decade ago in the final years of the space shuttle program.
Snip
ASA’s current inventory includes 16 RS-25 engines left over from the space shuttle program, enough for four SLS missions. The construction of six new engines enables a fifth SLS flight in the 2020s.
RS-25 - The Ferrari of Rocket Engines
Musk says he’ll demonstrate a moon landing by 2022, iirc.
Amazing!
*ping*
More like Americans since 1972 will return to the moon in 2024.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOp9AUFJPws
The mission to Mars is without a doubt the "mission of the decade". This is what many groups, including NASA and other international agencies are attempting to create. One of those groups though is a privately funded one called SpaceX. And it's a team that is truly trying to go and get to Mars within the next few years. But to understand if that's even possible, you really need to know more about SpaceX itself.
"SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets."
While that may sound very basic, it's actually quite a complex thing. You see, for all the advances that humanity has made in regards to going into space, the fact of the matter is that it costs a LOT to do that. So much so that the United States main space agency, NASA, was hit with major budget cuts because the attempts they were making to revolutionize space travel just wasn't working. Enter Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, and a man who truly believes in trying to make space travel not just the future, but the present. He founded SpaceX in 2002 to try and make space travel better, cheaper, more accessible, and beyond, and as the Space X website loves to boast, since 2002, they've had quite a few successes:
"SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company capable of returning a spacecraft from low Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in 2010. The company made history again in 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station.
SpaceX successfully achieved the historic first reflight of an orbital class rocket in 2017, and the company now regularly launches flight-proven rockets. In 2018, SpaceX began launching Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket by a factor of two." So as you can see, this is more than just a company, it's a place with a mission, and that mission is to get humanity into space, onto Mars, and more. And it's been working REALLY hard to try and get a manned flight into space, and it's getting closer than you might expect!
Why is that? Because Elon Musk over the last several months and years has been building various spaceships like we noted before, and in recent months, he's been testing the ones that he believes will send us to the planet Mars, including the line of ships he simply calls the Starship.
The Starship architecture consists of a big spaceship called Starship, which Musk has said will be capable of carrying up to 100 people, and a giant rocket named Super Heavy. Both of these vehicles will be reusable; indeed, rapid and frequent reuse is key to Musk's overall vision, which involves cutting the cost of spaceflight enough to make Mars colonization and other bold exploration feats economically feasible.
You see, that's the big problem with going to Mars and trying to set up a home there. It's easy in concept, we just have to get there, set up a home, make sure it can withstand certain things and self-sustain eventually. But with how things actually work? We're talking hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of hours trying to figure out all the potential problems that could happen on Mars before we even set foot on it! And of course, since things NEVER go the way we think they will, it's going to inevitably turn into a thing where we're trying to make things work on the fly, or have to counter some big issues that no one saw coming. But if you think that this is stopping Elon Musk from dreaming big and trying to get us to Mars and beyond? You don't know Elon Musk.
Before we dive more into the big dreams of Elon Musk, be sure to like or Dislike the video , that way we have a feedback to improve our work, and subscribe to the channel! That way you don't miss ANY of our weekly videos! Musk wrote that the eventual goal is to launch each Starship vehicle three times per day on average. Each Starship will be able to carry about 100 tons of payload to orbit, so, at that flight rate, every vehicle would loft about 100,000 tons annually, he explained.
Now, Musk may sound like he's just spouting out a number here (and if we're being honest...he kind of is) but in truth, he is trying to abide by the laws of space and reality. What do we mean by that? Simple, when it comes to the facts of space travel, having the right windows to travel in are essential. Not the least of which is trying to minimize travel time by making sure you are in the correct windows.
Musk Tweet:
We’re going to try landing Starship on the moon with enough propellant to return to Earth
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256354387720417280?s=21
1,315 watching now •Started streaming on May 1, 2020
He does a good update twice a week. One of my bookmarks.
I don’t believe they are going to be able to enter the earth’s atmosphere with a Starship designed to land on the moon. Crews and return samples will need to be transferred to another craft capable of reentry?
I think so too. I look forward to his updates.
I wouldn’t doubt those 4 main SLS single use engines costing $500 million for the first stage alone, that’s not including the rest of the first stage costs. SLS sounds like a pretty expensive way to get to orbit. IIRC, the launch site itself cost over 3 billion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSrFUgKCxOw
Good analysis...
Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or SpaceX, has been breaking down barriers in satellite launches, broadband LOE communications, and orbital freighters, defying skeptics. And now SpaceX is about to break the very last barrier—manned spaceflight. NASA has certified the Demo-2 Dragon 2 crew capsule for manned flight to the International Space Station. The tentative first launch has been scheduled for May 27th, 2020. Boeing’s Starliner is at least another year away from certification. How did Boeing, with all its advantages in political patronage, corporate size, experience in space, and money fall behind Musk’s scrappy startup? We take a look at why NASA has to reinvent manned space travel, the structural difference between SpaceX and Boeing, and the funding in the Commercial Crew Development contract itself.
I read where SpaceX will not be static testing this engine for a month.
It was supposed to be tested over the weekend. No reason was given.
I can only speculate that an issue was discovered.
Or SpaceX did not want to take the risk of it blowing up so close
to its first launch of American astronauts to the Space Station (May 27).
Nightbot
Wet dress rehearsal successful, 2nd test took place 3:58a. New CH4 tanker load delivered. Next WDR Party begins at 9p. !tweets !tcd !wdr !when !diagram !sasha
I may be wrong, but I think they'll static fire Starship very soon now. They've also gotten FAA approval for a hop for this month. Starship uses different engines (the raptor - a methane/LOX), than does the Falcon rocket with its Dragon capsule.
I'm looking forward to May 27, as well...
First manned SpaceX Crew Dragon flight set for May 27 liftoff https://newatlas.com/space/first-manned-crew-dragon-flight-date/
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