Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
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Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
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Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#2My only issue with carbon fiber is that it is not very easily recycled. Aluminum, on the other hand, is quite trivially recycled. So while spaceships made from CFRP are great in the short-to-medium term (a single spaceship can get a lot more use), I hope that we figured out how to recycle CFRP sooner rather than later.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#3Between the recent news of SpaceX shipping a test article of its Mars rocket to McGregor (the Raptor engine) and this large contract for material for its Mars Colonial Transporter, SpaceX's Mars plans are shaping nicely.
Hopefully Congress takes notice within the next few years, and funnels the money currently spent on the SLS rocket to Musk's Mars project.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#4My only issue with carbon fiber is that it is not very easily recycled. Aluminum, on the other hand, is quite trivially recycled. So while spaceships made from CFRP are great in the short-to-medium term (a single spaceship can get a lot more use), I hope that we figured out how to recycle CFRP sooner rather than later.
What are the back of envelope energy calculations? The fuel for 1 trip is a lot of energy, what's the energy required for the ship?
"Dilution is the solution" was an unfortunate attitude on Earth. It will work for millions of years in space, and hydrocarbons are pretty abundant.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#5Ah, the benefits of not having to listen to shareholders. SpaceX can take long term bets, for example moving capital into exploratory programs including the proposed Mars missions, without having to justify it by profit.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#6My only issue with carbon fiber is that it is not very easily recycled. Aluminum, on the other hand, is quite trivially recycled. So while spaceships made from CFRP are great in the short-to-medium term (a single spaceship can get a lot more use), I hope that we figured out how to recycle CFRP sooner rather than later.
Maybe, we need to think about recycling carbon fiber as..
In recycling the fibers get shorter..
Could not that be re-applied to a different industry as far as re-using the carbon fiber? Body Armour for soldiers as the shorter fibers would be of use there?
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#7In some ways, not a good sign. Space-X can't make and launch Falcon boosters fast enough now. They're not a big enough company to do many things in parallel. Their unfinished, and late, projects include the Falcon Heavy, the Brownsville TX launch facility, and the crewed Dragon, all of which were supposed to be working by now.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#8In some ways, not a good sign. Space-X can't make and launch Falcon boosters fast enough now. They're not a big enough company to do many things in parallel. Their unfinished, and late, projects include the Falcon Heavy, the Brownsville TX launch facility, and the crewed Dragon, all of which were supposed to be working by now.
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Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#9In some ways, not a good sign. Space-X can't make and launch Falcon boosters fast enough now. They're not a big enough company to do many things in parallel. Their unfinished, and late, projects include the Falcon Heavy, the Brownsville TX launch facility, and the crewed Dragon, all of which were supposed to be working by now.
>Space-X can't make and launch Falcon boosters fast enough now.
The bottleneck is not Falcon 9 production, at this point it's largely on the payload side. A faster turnaround would certainly help, but there's only so much optimization that can be done.
The Falcon Heavy is not a priority because (1) much less demand from customers and (2) it's a transitional system between Falcon 9 and built-for-reuse BFR/MCT, so it will have limited use.
Re: Toray carbon fiber to carry SpaceX's Mars ambitions
#10My only issue with carbon fiber is that it is not very easily recycled. Aluminum, on the other hand, is quite trivially recycled. So while spaceships made from CFRP are great in the short-to-medium term (a single spaceship can get a lot more use), I hope that we figured out how to recycle CFRP sooner rather than later.
What are the back of envelope energy calculations? The fuel for 1 trip is a lot of energy, what's the energy required for the ship? "Dilution is the solution" was an unfortunate attitude on Earth. It will work for millions of years in space, and hydrocarbons are pretty abundant.
Not sure if "millions of years" is actually truthful considering exponential growth and highly localized effects