Posted on 02/05/2018 10:38:46 PM PST by BenLurkin
The maiden flight of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy booster, slated to launch tomorrow (Feb. 6), comes factory-equipped with a Tesla Roadster as a part of the payload/ballast, and is meant to be hurled toward a solar orbit that could take it as far out as the orbit of Mars.
But what's the point of sending a car into space? Is it bound to become just more space junk? We asked spaceflight experts to weigh in.
...
"He is shipping it out of Earth orbit, so I do not think that there is any risk here," said orbital-debris expert Darren McKnight, technical director for Integrity Applications in Chantilly, Virginia. "The enthusiasm and interest that he generates more than offsets the infinitesimally small 'littering' of the cosmos."
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Musk mentioned several specific reasons why the Falcon Heavy's maiden flight may not go perfectly. One is the need for all 27 orbit-class first-stage engines to light at the right time. Another is the stress that the first stage's central "core" will experience during liftoff; the loads on the rocket, from aerodynamic forces to vibration and acoustic issues, will be quite high, he said.
The Falcon Heavy will be a great vehicle, Musk said, but he added that there may be some kinks to work out, especially given how challenging the rocket's development has been.
"It just ended up being really way, way more difficult than we originally thought,"
... SpaceX's Falcon Heavy successfully gunned up its 27 main engines during a test fire on Jan. 24, though it was held down tightly on the launchpad. Does that 12-second test firing signal a potential successful flight?
"Not really," said Jim Cantrell, CEO of Vector, a rocket developer in Tucson, Arizona, told Space.com. " A lot can still go wrong as this is a massive undertaking."
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
The problem with space junk is in Earth orbit. The Tesla will be in orbit around the Sun if successful.
BTW, people are already showing up at the viewing locations.
Two hundred years from now, there will be a great disaster in space involving the loss of a craft with dozens or more aboard and (against all conceivable odds) it’ll be that dang roadster’s fault!
Just what the solar system needs, enviro-cultists determined to make sure we don’t litter. Thankfully the EPA’s tentacles don’t extend to the heliocentric orbit Musk plans to put his Tesla in.
Will be very impressive if it works.
Maybe a thousand years from now we can worry about space junk in solar orbit. For now, it applies to junk in low earth orbit.
Space cop:"license, registration, and proof of current insurance please. . . "
Star Trek - Keep America Beautiful PSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy5M5Xo4wcQ
27 engines? There’s a lot that can go wrong. Interesting design decision. Wouldn’t five Saturn V class engines be inherently more reliable?
A thousand years from now some archeologist will attempt to find the legendary “Space Oddity”.
I learned from our local news broadcast that the Tesla Roadster is destined to fly to Mars and go into orbit around that planet. I can imagine an effort in the distant future for bringing it down to the Martian surface and going for a flying run on its recharged battery.
No because all three boosters are designed to fly back and land for reuse.
Well, perhaps more cost effective, but I don’t know about reliable...could be new technology has made things more reliable, but hard to compare...we don’t have a huge Saturn 5 pool of launches to compare to.
27 engines...I know.
If you look at the Delta IV (the current ACTIVE heavy-lift champion), it has just one engine per booster. With 27...you’re getting into the problems that killed the Soviet N-1 booster. Thrust balance and control being just a couple of the problems.
I’m going to be the pessimist here and give it a 35% chance of working right. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.
Addendums: Hopefully, we won’t have to pull out the “It blowed up real good!” guys.
I foresee a good sci-fi comedy based on this.
“But what’s the point of sending a car into space? Is it bound to become just more space junk? “
It’s already earth junk.Send Gore with it.
The article points out the challenges of getting them all ignited at the same instant. I wonder how much latitude there is in the timing.
Reliability is going to be mainly rooted in metallurgy, combustion, turbo machinery, bearings, fluid handling...the mundane stuff that hasn’t changed much in 50 years. The application of tech will affect control systems, data collection and telemetry, but those things shouldn’t affect reliability much.
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