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Musk's SpaceX testing breakthrough tech in risky spacewalk
Reuters ^ | 23 Aug 2024 | Joey Roulette

Posted on 08/25/2024 7:50:58 PM PDT by blueplum

WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) - SpaceX's attempt at the first ever private spacewalk next week will be a test of trailblazing equipment, including slim spacesuits and a cabin with no airlock, in one of the riskiest missions yet for Elon Musk's space company. A billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees are poised to launch on Tuesday aboard a modified Crew Dragon craft, before embarking on a 20-minute spacewalk 434 miles (700 km) into space two days later....

Far outside the protective bubble of Earth's atmosphere, the electronics and shielding on Crew Dragon and spacesuits will be tested as they pass through parts of the Van Allen belt...

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: annamenon; crewdragon; elonmusk; jaredisaacman; kiddpoteet; polaris; polarisdawn; sarahgillis; scottkiddpoteet; scottpoteet; shift4; space; spaceprogram; spacewalk; spacex; vanallenbelt
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To: blueplum

I hope they bring along plenty of duct tape. And a high quality duct tape not bought from China. Stuff comes in handy against leaks.


21 posted on 08/25/2024 9:29:11 PM PDT by roadcat ( )
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To: GenXPolymath

Can you do us a favor and post the same comment with a bit more explanation? I couldn’t follow everything.


22 posted on 08/25/2024 9:29:40 PM PDT by edwinland
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To: blueplum

The Gemini and Apollo capsules had no airlock.


23 posted on 08/25/2024 9:38:45 PM PDT by Richard from IL
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To: roadcat
FlexSeal

Seriously though, making a 100% oxygen environment? Doesn't anyone remember the Mercury disaster cooking three men to death because of a micro-spark?

24 posted on 08/25/2024 10:00:52 PM PDT by MikelTackNailer (Let the children use. Let the children lose it. Let all the children boogie.)
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To: 11th_VA
Having worked for a competitor of Boeing, do you realize how different the culture are ?

That's why I said what I did.

25 posted on 08/25/2024 10:35:54 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: GenXPolymath

I get what you’re saying, but would the fighter pilot be the only one able to cope with 8 g? what about blood pooling in the remaining 3? survivable?


26 posted on 08/25/2024 10:54:04 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
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LIVE! Polaris Dawn Countdown to Launch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VK50GZ-Jak

other vids, interviews:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=polaris+dawn


27 posted on 08/26/2024 12:41:00 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: MikelTackNailer

That was Apollo 1.


28 posted on 08/26/2024 12:51:58 AM PDT by DigitalVideoDude (It's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit. -Ronald Reagan)
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To: Jonty30

How many spaces engineers came over from Boeing to get away from the DEI culture?


29 posted on 08/26/2024 1:23:36 AM PDT by jmcenanly (You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.” ― Winston)
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To: MikelTackNailer
In passing, it wasn't Mercury, it was Apollo 1. Nasa had overpressured the craft innumerable times with 100% oxygen, at 7 psi, and the astronauts had put highly flammable velcro strips in any bare spot, because it was handy to stick pens, folders, cards, tools, whatever, wherever.

Ironically, after the Liberty Bell accident, with Grissom, where they lost the craft because the hatch blew off, the Apollo 1 hatch had a double cover that made explosive bolts and instant hatch opening impossible.

30 posted on 08/26/2024 1:36:01 AM PDT by jonascord (First rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is that you do not know you are in the Dunning-Kruger club.)
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To: blueplum

Everything about going to Space is Risky.


31 posted on 08/26/2024 4:44:52 AM PDT by tennmountainman ( (“Less propaganda would be appreciated.” JimRob 12-2-2023 DITTO)
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To: blueplum

Risky is lighting the damned rocket at the outset!


32 posted on 08/26/2024 7:47:54 AM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: jonascord; DigitalVideoDude

Thanks, guys. Unlike some here I appreciate the shoring up of the olde sieve. Death by Velcro...god Tang it.


33 posted on 08/26/2024 10:48:00 AM PDT by MikelTackNailer (freak out in a moon-age daydream oh yeah...)
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To: MikelTackNailer
Problem with flex seal are the chemical fumes. Not good to use inside the space capsule. Can't use it outside in the vacuum of space, as the atmospheric pressure inside would blow out the seal; besides that the spraying would act to accelerate the capsule away from the astronauts who are outside the capsule.

I've been using duct tape to seal leaks on my old truck roof, leaks because of body rot. Regular duct tape breaks down within a month due to sunlight UV, so I use a foil type duct tape for furnaces that resists UV and holds up for many months. I know, I should just fix the body damage but it would cost too much. Up in outer space, not so easy to get a service person up there for repairs, so good duct tape would help. As for 100% oxygen, I'd recommend not scraping around a leak with metal tools unless the capsule is void of oxygen.

34 posted on 08/26/2024 11:33:21 AM PDT by roadcat ( )
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